Mayar Sherif’s rise began with history. In 2020, she became the first Egyptian woman to compete in the main draw of Roland Garros and later the first female from her nation to qualify for the Olympic tennis draw at the Tokyo Games. It was a remarkable start to her career. Yet, despite those milestones, Sherif would later find herself battling one of the toughest opponents of all: anxiety.

The Egyptian star reflected on one of the toughest periods of her career in an interview with The National. She revealed how a prolonged slump led to performance anxiety and even hand tremors during matches. But after months of struggle, Sherif turned things around and battled her way back into the world’s top 55.

“One of the worst moments, not only in my career, but I would say in life in general,” she said, describing how the losing streak eroded her confidence to the point where anxiety began showing up physically during matches.

In late May, Sherif was at 9-11 on the season with a sub-.500 record, just the kind of season that triggered her emotions. However, the turning point came after her defeat in Madrid, when she chose to step away from tennis for a while instead of immediately heading to her next tournament.

She then packed her bags and travelled to Warsaw to visit her sister. “It was very important. It was like a reset. I was very happy there. I saw many Egyptians. My sister has many friends there. There’s a large Egyptian community, it really surprised me,” she said. “We went to see a very funny Egyptian film, I’d never laughed so much in my life. I did many things that made me feel like a normal person.”

Since the trip to Warsaw, she has gone 21-4, with a dominant 13-match unbeaten streak that has been the longest in her professional career. That surge has carried her through titles in Contrexeville and Iasi and now deep into Hamburg. The Egyptian rose from No. 127 in the world rankings to No. 55 in just six weeks, putting her in the direct entry in the US Open main draw.

Now that the tour pressure was gone, she yearned for the sport she had set aside. Since that trip, she had been driven by the longing to experience the reward of her efforts after numerous failures. 

The actual shift arrived not on the main tour but in the qualifying rounds of Roland Garros, during a tense final set against Lucia Bronzetti. Sherif gave a vivid description of the exact moment the anxiety was gone. “I no longer felt anxious about closing out the match. I felt like myself again. I took it and finished it. This was the first step towards getting back on track,” she said, adding that it was the first time in a long while she had felt fully like herself on court again.

That belief translated directly into results. Sherif claimed three titles in barely a month, in Brescia, Contrexeville and Iasi, where she beat former world No. 2 Paula Badosa in the final. Even though Badosa retired in the second set trailing 4-6, 0-4, this takes nothing away from Sherif’s achievement.

Sherif extends her streak to 13 with another win over Badosa in Hamburg

Mayar Sherif reached the semi-finals with a grueling 7-6(4), 6-7(2), 6-4 win over Badosa in their second meeting in just five days. The match lasted for nearly three and a half hours, with all the possible momentum variations, before Sherif finally ended it. 

This victory extended her streak of 18 consecutive wins on clay since her reset in Warsaw, proving her love for the surface. She will be facing fifth seed Tamara Korpatsch for a place in the Hamburg final, and nothing looks likely to stop her. Including qualifiers and the Challenger tour, the pair has played three matches against each other, with Korpatsch leading the head-to-head 2-1.

All the previous meetings took place on clay, and this will be their fourth. The former world No. 31 has the opportunity to settle the score and give her a real chance to get another title in her bag.

The 30-year-old has been clear that the mental rehab which went into this run is as important as the actual run itself. She described herself as feeling stronger than ever before in her career, and she credits anxiety and the recovery for everything that has followed.