After starting 2019 unranked, Mayar Sherif is now the 114th ranked tennis player in the world, according to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranking. She has proven that she could compete with the best tennis players in the world.

Sherif has always been a top tennis player in Egypt and has played for various tennis clubs. She has represented Egypt on multiple occasions, including in all the African Junior Championships (AJC) age groups, Fed Cup (at the age of 13), and the African Games. She has reached a top 50 junior world ranking, according to the ITF (International Tennis Federation).

The highest-ranked woman in Egyptian tennis history became the 2020 Egyptian female tennis player of many firsts. She was the first to win a Grand Slam match at the professional level, the first to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam event (French Open), and the first to win a main draw match at a Grand Slam event (Australian Open). She is also one of the first tennis players, along with Mohamed Safwat, in Egyptian history to qualify for the Olympics.

“Of course, it’s a privilege to have played in a Grand Slam main draw. It will always be a great experience playing amongst the best tennis players in the world. I am very happy with what I have achieved so far,” she said. “It makes me very proud of myself.” 

Growing up in Egypt, Mayar started playing tennis with her younger sister.

“Both of us have always been really good. At the time, we were both ranked number one in our age groups,” she said.

Sherif played her first junior international tournament at the age of 12 in France. She won the tournament. At the time, she was training in Smash Sporting Club Tennis Academy in Egypt with a French coach. He coached Sherif for several years.

She started playing ITF junior tournaments at the age of 13, and at the age of 14, started playing on the WTA tour. She won her first WTA tournament, a $10k in Egypt, when she was 16 years old.

“Winning that tournament was a big accomplishment considering how old I was at the time,” she said.

She lived in Spain for a year and a half in 2012 training at Juan Carlos Ferrero-Equelite Sports Academy in Villena, Spain. That is where she met her current coach. 

“I have always wanted to play with this coach, but I had to come back to Egypt because of high school exams,” she said. “I was also feeling a bit lost at the time as well.”

She decided to play division one tennis in the US where she started at Fresno State University, where her older sister Rana played, and transferred during her junior year to Pepperdine University. She finished her senior year ranked number 11 in the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) rankings.

“Of course, I never pictured that I would reach the level that I am playing at today,” she said. “At the same time, I have always known that it wasn’t impossible. I have always known that I could do it and that I had special skills in certain things, but I never knew where those skills were going to take me.”

During her first two years of college, Sherif did not foresee herself playing professionally upon graduation. She had every intention of wanting to pursue a master’s degree in physiotherapy since she was studying sports science during her bachelor’s degree and the profession requires a master’s degree.

“During my first two years of college, I decided that I would retire from tennis upon graduation. However, I got motivated again because I was playing at a high level,” she said. “I wanted to give myself another chance and to give it my all because I didn’t want to have any regrets in the future.”

Another reason why she played college tennis was because of finances. During college, she worked at the university so she would be able to support herself financially to be able to start her professional career.

“I am grateful to God for what I have accomplished so far. Of course, I wasn’t expecting everything to happen this fast,” she said.

After she graduated in 2018, she contacted the coach she enjoyed working with at the academy in Spain, and they have been working together ever since.

Sherif is currently preparing for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. 

To prepare, Sherif is working on trying to normalize the feeling of playing at this high level.

“When I first played in a Grand Slam, I was thinking, ‘wow this is too good,’” she said. “I felt like everything was very accelerated. I was seeing a new level, and so, I want to get accustomed to playing at that high level to be able to improve. I want to compete and win matches at this level. If I do so, the medal will come.”

Sherif has an unmatched marketing portfolio among individual athletes in Egypt and one of the best in the Arab world as well, in terms of sponsor size and the reputation of the brands that she represents. Her agent and the CEO of Connection Marketing Ventures and Connection Sports, Sherif Monsef, is one of the serious game changers in the sports marketing field in Egypt. He secures and manages her aforementioned robust contracts and orchestrates her media presence. 

She currently serves as a brand ambassador to the top brands in their fields, including the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Peugeot, Allianz, ZED, and Vodafone.