Carrie Cunningham is a former professional tennis player who played on the Women's Tennis Association

Women's Tennis Association

The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...

 (WTA) Circuit from 1987-1994. She originally hails from the state of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, USA.

Career Singles Highlights

Cunningham's career highlights include a world ranking of 38 in February 1991, ending the year with a rank of 51 after reaching the 3rd rounds of both the Australian and French Opens.

Her best Grand Slam performance was attaining the 4th round (round of 16) at the 1992 US Open, losing to eventual semi-finalist Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere

Manuela Maleeva

Manuela Georgieva Maleeva-Fragniere is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the Women's Tennis Association tour between 1982 and 1994...

, 6-3, 7-5. She reached the second round in Wimbledon from 1989-1991. She also holds one Grand Slam Junior title - the US Junior Open Championshipin 1988.

Doubles Highlights

Cunningham was also on the doubles circuit, reaching one WTA final - the 1991 Tokyo International

Tokyo International

The Nichirei International Championships is a defunct WTA Tour affiliated professional tennis tournament played from 1990 to 1996. It was held in Tokyo in Japan and was played on indoor carpet courts in 1990 and on outdoor hard courts from 1991 to 1996....

, with doubles partner Laura Gildemeister

Laura Gildemeister

Laura Arraya is a former Peruvian tennis player who won four professional singles titles.-Career:...

, losing 6-3, 6-3 to the team of Pam Shriver

Pam Shriver

Pamela Howard Shriver Lazenby , is a former professional tennis player and is currently a sports broadcaster from the United States for ESPN2. During the 1980s and 1990s, she won 133 top-level titles, including 21 women's doubles titles and one mixed doubles title at Grand Slam tournaments...

 and Mary Joe Fernandez

Mary Joe Fernández

Mary Joe Fernández Godsick is an American former professional tennis player...

. She does hold a USTA Girls’ 18 National Championship doubles title, when she teamed with Andrea Farley to capture the 1988 crown on clay courts.

Court Habits and Influence

Cunningham had a habit of sometimes grunting

Grunting (tennis)

Grunting in tennis refers to the loud noise, sometimes described as "shrieking" or "screaming", made by some players during their strokes. It is prominent in women's tennis but also exists in men's tennis...

 during her play. In fact, former world #1 Monica Seles

Monica Seles

Monica Seles is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born in Novi Sad, Serbia, former Yugoslavia to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007...

cites Cunningham for starting her own grunting habit, after Seles lost a finals match to Cunningham in 1986. Said Seles, "it has been part of me since I was 12 when I played Carrie Cunningham in one of the finals and I started doing that. Since then, it has been always with me each year at Wimbledon."

Post Career

Carrie pursued a career in medicine and surgery. She is presently on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and an attending surgeon under the name Carrie C. Lubitz, M.D., at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts USA.

External links

• Link to physician profile at Massachusetts General Hospital website