Astra Sharma

Astra Sharma (born 11 September 1995) is an Australian professional tennis player.

She has career-high WTA rankings of 84 in singles and world No. 91 in doubles.

Sharma has won two singles titles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

She has also won one singles title on the WTA Challenger Circuit as well as eight titles in singles and seven in doubles on the ITF Circuit.

Astra was born and raised in Singapore, before her parents emigrated to Perth, Western Australia in 2005, when she was ten years old.

She attended Applecross Senior High School.

As a junior, she did some training at Bullcreek Tennis Club, near Willeton.

Sharma made her ITF Circuit debut in October 2011, after qualifying in Kargoorlie.

In 2012, Sharma played just four tournaments, without a win.

In March 2013, she reached the quarterfinals in doubles at an ITF event in Sydney.

In 2014, she competed in qualifying in three tournaments across the U.S., making the main draw in just one, where she lost in the first round.

In 2015, Sharma played just three tournaments on the ITF Circuit, reaching the quarterfinal or better in all three.

She won her first title in July 2015 at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Sharma ended the season with a singles rank of 787.

In 2016, Sharma competed on the European ITF Circuit.

She experienced little singles success but partnering Frances Altick, won two doubles titles in July.

She commenced the next season in June, qualifying and making the main draw in Sumter, USA.

In December 2017, she won the Australian Open Wildcard Playoff alongside Belinda Woolcock, their main-draw entry into the 2018 Australian Open.

Across July and August 2017, Sharma won her second and third ITF titles in Târgu Jiu and Graz.

She ended the year with a singles rank of 440.

She also received a scholarship to Vanderbilt University, graduating in 2018, majoring in medicine, Health and Society, along the way helping the Commodores win their first NCAA team tournament in 2015, with various honors such as a selection to the 2014 SEC All Freshman team and being the 2017 SEC Player of the Year.

Originally intent on becoming an orthopedic surgeon, she decided not to continue in medical school as her professional tennis career took off.

Still in 2022, she used a partnership between the WTA and the University of Florida to earn a master's degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology.

In 2018, Sharma competed mostly on ITF events across North America.

In March, she reached the final of the ITF Orlando.

In June and July, she won her fourth and fifth singles titles in Baton Rouge and Gatineau, Canada.

In October, she returned to Australia and reached the quarterfinals in three consecrative tournaments.

Sharma ended 2018 with a singles rank of 225.

The highlight of her career came in the 2019 Australian Open, when she and fellow Australian John-Patrick Smith reached the final of the mixed-doubles competition, after receiving a wildcard to enter the main draw.

Sharma's father, Devdutt Sharma, is a Singaporean Indian with roots from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Northern India.

He was a high jumper.

He attended Raffles Institution and National University of Singapore.

He worked as an acoustic engineer.

Astra's mother, Susan Tan, is a Singaporean Chinese.

She was a sprinter from CHIJ Saint Theresa's Convent.

Astra, named after the Astras wielded by the Hindu gods, has a younger brother Ashwin who also went into a tennis career.

In January 2019, Sharma qualified for the Australian Open and won her first-round match over fellow Australian Priscilla Hon, before losing in the second round.

In mixed doubles, she and John-Patrick Smith made it through to the final after they defeated the second seed team of Bruno Soares and Nicole Melichar in the semifinals, but lost to the third seeds, Barbora Krejčíková and Rajeev Ram.

In March, Sharma won the $25k singles and doubles at Irapuato, Mexico.

In April, Sharma reached her first WTA Tour final, losing to Amanda Anisimova at the Copa Colsanitas.