Shirley Fry


Shirley June Fry Irvin 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 2018, Fry Irvin is the longest surviving female Grand Slam singles champion.

Biography

Fry was raised in Akron, Ohio and started playing tennis competitively at age nine. She was educated at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida where she graduated in 1949.
Fry is one of 10 women to have won each Grand Slam singles tournament at least once during her career. She is also one of seven women to have won all four Grand Slam doubles tournaments. At the U.S. National Championship 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 Julie Sampson Haywood. 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, and No. 1 in 1956. The United States Lawn Tennis Association ranked her in the U.S. top 10 from 1944 through 1955 and No. 1 in 1956. 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.
Fry married Karl Irvin in Australia, in February 1957 after which she retired from top-level tennis. The couple had four children.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 8 (4 titles–4 runners-up)

OutcomeYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScore
Runner-up1948French ChampionshipsClay Nelly Adamson Landry2–6, 6–0, 0–6
Winner1951French ChampionshipsClay Doris Hart6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Runner-up1951WimbledonGrass Doris Hart1–6, 0–6
Runner-up1951U.S. ChampionshipsGrass Maureen Connolly3–6, 6–1, 4–6
Runner-up1952French ChampionshipsClay Doris Hart4–6, 4–6
Winner1956WimbledonGrass Angela Buxton6–3, 6–1
Winner1956U.S. ChampionshipsGrass Althea Gibson6–3, 6–4
Winner1957Australian ChampionshipsGrass Althea Gibson6–3, 6–4

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

Grand Slam tournament timelines

Singles

Doubles

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