Astra Sharma Moves into the Main Draw of the Volvo Car Open

Published 04/01/2019, 12:43 PM EDT

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Astra Sharma is the new face of Australian tennis. The Aussie showstopper moved into the main draw of the Volvo Car Open in Charleston. She defeated Shuko Aoyama in three sets to enter the main draw of the event.

The Volvo Car Open is a Premier-level tournament starting from April 1. It is the only clay court tournament played on green clay. Astra will face American player Taylor Townsend in the first round at the Althea Gibson club court.

Astra Sharma made headlines at this year’s Australian Open when she entered the main draw in singles, doubles and mixed -doubles event. She made it to the finals in the mixed-doubles event after getting a wild-card entry into the tournament pairing with compatriot John-Patrick Smith.

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In the ending ceremony, Astra Sharma mentioned, “It’s been a fantastic experience for my first Slam and I can’t wait to be back next year.”

The 23-year-old was ranked 974 in the WTA rankings at the end of the 2016 season. Within two years of time, she made it to the Top-250 on the WTA circuit. She achieved a career-high ranking at No. 160 after the Australian Open. Astra Sharma has conquered six ITF singles titles and four ITF doubles titles in her career so far.

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via Imago

Astra Sharma also played the doubles event at Australian Open 2018. She won the Australian Open Women’s doubles playoff pairing with Belinda Woolcock. With this victory, she was awarded the main draw wild-card entry in the doubles event of the tournament.

She certainly has the potential to be in the Top-100 of the WTA rankings. Astra Sharma is one of the rising stars on the tour. Only time will tell if she can make an impact in the tournaments with her performance with the competition rising high.

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She turned heads during the Australian Open qualifiers when she stunned former World No. 2 and 2010 Wimbledon and U.S. Open Finalist, Vera Zvonareva in straight sets.

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Written by:

Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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