Shirley Fry

Shirley Fry
	Irvin in the Netherlands in 1953
Full name	Shirley June Fry Irvin
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Orlando, Florida, United States
Born	June 30, 1927; Akron, Ohio, United States
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Retired	1957
Plays	Right–handed
Int. Tennis HoF	1970 (member page)
Singles
Career record	0–0
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1956)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1957)
French Open	W (1951)
Wimbledon	W (1956)
US Open	W (1956)
Doubles
Career record	0–0
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1957)
French Open	W (1950, 1951, 1952, 1953)
Wimbledon	W (1951, 1952, 1953)
US Open	W (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
French Open	F (1952)
Wimbledon	W (1956)
US Open	F (1951, 1955)
Team competitions
Wightman Cup	W (1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956)

Shirley June Fry Irvin (née Fry; born June 30, 1927) is a former world No. 1 tennis player from the United States. During her career, which lasted from the early 1940s until the mid-1950s, she won the singles title at all four Grand Slam events as well as 13 doubles titles. As of 2021, Fry Irvin is the longest surviving female Grand Slam and Wimbledon singles champion.

Biography

Fry was raised in Akron, Ohio and started playing tennis competitively at age nine.[1][2] She was educated at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida where she graduated in 1949.[1][3]

Fry is one of 10 women[lower-alpha 1] to have won each Grand Slam singles tournament at least once during her career. She is also one of seven women (with Hart, Court, Navratilova, Pam Shriver, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams) to have won all four Grand Slam doubles tournaments. At the U.S. National Championship (precursor of the U.S. Open) in 1942, Irvin reached the singles quarterfinals at the age of 15. At Wimbledon in 1953, Fry and Hart lost only four games during the entire women's doubles tournament and won three matches without losing a game, including the semifinals and finals, the latter over Connolly and Julia Sampson. Fry won the last three Grand Slam singles tournaments she entered, including wins over Althea Gibson in the Wimbledon quarterfinal and U.S. Championship final in 1956 and the Australian Championships final in 1957.

Fry was ranked in the world top 10 in 1946 and 1948 and from 1950 through 1955 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), and No. 1 in 1956.[4] The United States Lawn Tennis Association ranked her in the U.S. top 10 from 1944 through 1955 and No. 1 in 1956.[5] She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970.

From 1951 through 1956 she participated in the Wightman Cup, the women's team competition between Great Britain and the United States, and contributed to the U.S. victory during each of these editions with the exception of 1954, when her final doubles rubber was not played. She compiled a 10–2 W/L record.[3]

Fry married Karl Irvin in Australia, in February 1957 after which she retired from top-level tennis. The couple had four children.[2][3]

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 8 (4 titles–4 runners-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1948	French Championships	Clay	Nelly Adamson Landry	2–6, 6–0, 0–6
Win	1951	French Championships	Clay	Doris Hart	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Loss	1951	Wimbledon	Grass	Doris Hart	1–6, 0–6
Loss	1951	U.S. Championships	Grass	Maureen Connolly	3–6, 6–1, 4–6
Loss	1952	French Championships	Clay	Doris Hart	4–6, 4–6
Win	1956	Wimbledon	Grass	Angela Buxton	6–3, 6–1
Win	1956	U.S. Championships	Grass	Althea Gibson	6–3, 6–4
Win	1957	Australian Championships	Grass	Althea Gibson	6–3, 6–4

Doubles: 19 (12 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1948	French Championships	Clay	Mary Arnold	Doris Hart Patricia Canning Todd	4–6, 2–6
Loss	1949	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	4–6, 8–10
Win	1950	French Championships	Clay	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	1–6, 7–5, 6–2
Loss	1950	Wimbledon	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	4–6, 7–5, 1–6
Loss	1950	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	2–6, 3–6
Win	1951	French Championships	Clay	Doris Hart	Beryl Bartlett Barbara Scofield	10–8, 6–3
Win	1951	Wimbledon	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	6–2, 13–11
Win	1951	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Nancy Chaffee Patricia Canning Todd	6–4, 6–2
Win	1952	French Championships	Clay	Doris Hart	Hazel Redick-Smith Julia Wipplinger	7–5, 6–1
Win	1952	Wimbledon	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Maureen Connolly	8–6, 6–3
Win	1952	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Maureen Connolly	10–8, 6–4
Win	1953	French Championships	Clay	Doris Hart	Maureen Connolly Julia Sampson	6–4, 6–3
Win	1953	Wimbledon	Grass	Doris Hart	Maureen Connolly Julia Sampson	6–0, 6–0
Win	1953	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	6–2, 7–9, 9–7
Loss	1954	Wimbledon	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	6–4, 7–9, 1–6
Win	1954	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	6–4, 6–4
Loss	1955	U.S. Championships	Grass	Doris Hart	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
Loss	1956	U.S. Championships	Grass	Betty Rosenquest	Louise Brough Margaret Osborne duPont	3–6, 0–6
Win	1957	Australian Championships	Grass	Althea Gibson	Mary Bevis Hawton Fay Muller	6–2, 6–1

Mixed doubles: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1951	U.S. Championships	Grass	Mervyn Rose	Doris Hart Frank Sedgman	3–6, 2–6
Loss	1952	French Championships	Clay	Eric Sturgess	Doris Hart Frank Sedgman	8–6, 3–6, 3–6
Loss	1953	Wimbledon	Grass	Enrique Morea	Doris Hart Vic Seixas	7–9, 5–7
Loss	1955	U.S. Championships	Grass	Gardnar Mulloy	Doris Hart Vic Seixas	5–7, 7–5, 2–6
Win	1956	Wimbledon	Grass	Vic Seixas	Gardnar Mulloy Althea Gibson	2–6, 6–2, 7–5

Grand Slam tournament timelines

**Key**
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	A	NH

(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)

Singles

Tournament	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946¹	1947¹	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	Career SR
Australian Championships	NH	NH	NH	NH	NH	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	W	1 / 1
French Championships	R	R	R	R	A	A	A	F	A	QF	W	F	SF	A	A	A	A	1 / 5
Wimbledon	NH	NH	NH	NH	NH	A	A	QF	4R	QF	F	SF	SF	QF	A	W	A	1 / 8
U.S. Championships	1R	QF	1R	QF	1R	1R	3R	3R	3R	QF	F	SF	SF	SF	QF	W	A	1 / 16
SR	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 3	1 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 1	2 / 2	1 / 1	4 / 30

Doubles

Tournament	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946¹	1947¹	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	Career SR
Australian Championships	A	NH	NH	NH	NH	NH	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	W	1 / 1
French Championships	R	R	R	R	A	A	A	F	A	W	W	W	W	A	A	A	A	4 / 5
Wimbledon	NH	NH	NH	NH	NH	A	A	3R	SF	F	W	W	W	F	A	SF	A	3 / 8
U.S. Championships	A	1R	1R	QF	SF	SF	SF	SF	F	F	W	W	W	W	F	F	A	4 / 15
SR	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 3	0 / 2	1 / 3	3 / 3	3 / 3	3 / 3	1 / 2	0 / 1	0 / 2	1 / 1	12 / 29

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
¹In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.

Notes

along with Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Doris Hart, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams.

References

David Whitley (September 8, 2000). "Orlando's Wimbledon Champion". Orlando Sentinel.
"Shirley Fry engaged; to wed in February". St. Petersburg Times. December 4, 1956. p. 22 – via Google News Archive.
"Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame". Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
Collins, Bud (2008). The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book. New York, N.Y: New Chapter Press. pp. 695, 702–3. ISBN 0-942257-41-3.
United States Tennis Association (1988). 1988 Official USTA Tennis Yearbook. Lynn, Massachusetts: H.O. Zimman, Inc. p. 261.

External links

Shirley Fry at the International Tennis Hall of Fame

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[grandslam-4] with Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Doris Hart, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams.

[sentinel2000-1] David Whitley (September 8, 2000). "Orlando's Wimbledon Champion". Orlando Sentinel.

[engaged-2] "Shirley Fry engaged; to wed in February". St. Petersburg Times. December 4, 1956. p. 22 – via Google News Archive.

[itahof-3] "Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame". Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

[5] Collins, Bud (2008). The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book. New York, N.Y: New Chapter Press. pp. 695, 702–3. ISBN 0-942257-41-3.

[6] United States Tennis Association (1988). 1988 Official USTA Tennis Yearbook. Lynn, Massachusetts: H.O. Zimman, Inc. p. 261.