Mayar Sherif

Sherif was born in Cairo in May 1996 and reached the tour the long way: a clay-raised junior who took a Fresno State scholarship — two seasons alongside older sister Rana — then transferred to Pepperdine, earned All-American honors, and turned pro with designs on doors no Egyptian woman had opened. Her pro grounding since has been Spanish clay, and it shows.

The game runs through the baseline: a heavy forehand, two-handed backhand and a 1.80m frame that trusts long rallies. She has never been a free-points server — a 2.5% career ace rate and a 63% hold rate on The Drop Shot's stat record — so the winning formula is rally tolerance and return pressure. The surface split is stark: her clay skill rating (1601) sits more than 200 points above her hard-court number (1388).

The career reads as a ledger of Egyptian firsts: first woman from her country in a major main draw (2020 French Open, as a qualifier), first to win a Slam main-draw match (Paris, 2022), first to qualify for Olympic tennis, and — after beating then-WTA No. 7 Maria Sakkari for the 2022 Parma title — first to win a WTA Tour trophy, with eight more at WTA 125 level. A 2023 Madrid run past Elise Mertens made her the first Egyptian into a WTA 1000 quarterfinal and lifted her to a career-high WTA No. 31 that June; her best win by rank on record came against WTA No. 12 Jasmine Paolini at the 2024 Italian Open.

As of July 2026, the 30-year-old sits at WTA No. 97 after opening the year at 107. Her record shows a 1-2 season: a first-round win over Dalma Galfi at the French Open before falling to Coco Gauff — she is 0-2 against Gauff without taking a set — and a July 14 Iași Open opener that hands her Galfi again.