Shirley Fry obit

Hall of Famer Shirley Fry Irvin dies at 94

 

She was not on the list.

Tennis Hall of Famer Shirley Fry Irvin, who won three consecutive major titles in the 1950s to complete a career Grand Slam, has died at 94.

Her death Tuesday was confirmed by the International Tennis Hall of Fame, where she was a 1970 inductee. She lived in Naples.

Competing as Shirley Fry, she won her first Grand Slam singles title at the French Open in 1951, when she beat her friend and doubles partner Doris Hart.

She came out of retirement at age 28 in 1956 when she was invited to represent the United States in the Wightman Cup. She then won three consecutive major titles — Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships that year, and the Australian Championships in 1957, before retiring for good.

Fry also won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles. From 1946 to 1956, she finished the year ranked in the top 10 nine times.

Fry grew up in Akron, Ohio, and in 1941, at age 14, she made the first of 16 consecutive appearances at the U.S. National Championships. She’s one of 10 women to win singles titles at all four major championships, along with Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Doris Hart, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams.

She was 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 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.

In doubles competition, Fry and Hart found common ground. The combo shared an impressive 11 women’s doubles titles, four U.S. (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954), four French (1950, 1951, 1952, 1953) and three Wimbledon (1951, 1952, 1953) championships. In those 11 major doubles victories, the tandem dropped just two sets (1950 French, 1953 U.S.). In 1956 she teamed with Vic Seixas to win the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles title over Gibson and Gardnar Mulloy, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Following retirement from tennis, she married and had four children.