Shirley Fry Irvin
Shirley June Fry Irvin (June 30, 1927) is a former a World No. 1 American female tennis player who was born in Akron, Ohio, United States.
Irvin is one of seventeen persons to have won each Grand Slam singles tournament at least once during the person's career. The others are Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Doris Hart, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Serena Williams, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova.
Irwin also is one of only seven persons to have won each Grand Slam tournament in same-sex doubles. The others are Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Doris Hart, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, and Roy Emerson.
Irvin won the last three Grand Slam singles tournaments she played. Her victories in those tournaments included wins over Althea Gibson in a quarterfinal of Wimbledon in 1956 and in the finals of the 1956 U.S. Championships and 1957 Australian Championships.
At the U.S. Championships in 1942, Irvin reached the singles quarterfinals at the age of 15. At Wimbledon in 1953, Irvin and her partner Doris Hart lost a total of four games during the women's doubles tournament and won three matches without losing a game, including the semifinals and final, the latter of which was a win over Maureen Connolly Brinker and Julie Sampson Haywood.
According to John Olliff and Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Irvin was ranked in the world top ten in 1946 and 1948 and from 1950 through 1956 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 1 in those rankings in 1956. Irvin was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association from 1944 through 1956. She was the top ranked U.S. player in 1956.
Irvin was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970.
Read more about Shirley Fry Irvin: Grand Slam Record
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