Steffi Carruthers Explained

Steffi Faasusivaitele Hearthington Carruthers (born 24 May 1993) is a Samoan former tennis player. She is the first Samoan woman to play professional tennis and the first Pacific Oceanian player to win a professional tournament.^{[1] [2]}

Carruthers is from the village of Vailima, and was educated at Vaiala Beach School and Samoa College.^[3] and has played tennis since the age of 5, and competed in her first international tournament at the age of 10.^[4] She is named after German tennis player Steffi Graf.^{[3] [4]}

Carruthers has career-high WTA rankings of 662 in singles and 556 in doubles. In her career, she won two ITF titles in doubles.

Playing for Pacific Oceania in Fed Cup, Carruthers has a win-loss record of 11–11.

Carruthers began training to become a professional in 2012,^{[5] [6]} and played her first professional season in 2014.^[7] She later competed in the 2017 Pacific Mini Games in Port Vila, Vanuatu, winning gold in the doubles,^[8] gold in the singles,^[9] silver in the mixed doubles, and bronze in the women's team events. At the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia she won silver in the women's team event.

In 2016 she was nominated as Sports Woman of the Year in the annual SASNOC sports awards.^{[4] [10]}

ITF finals

Doubles (2–1)

Legend $100,000 tournaments $75,000 tournaments $50,000 tournaments $25,000 tournaments $15,000 tournaments $10,000 tournaments

Finals by surface Hard (1–1) Clay (1–0) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	6 June 2015	ITF Manzanillo, Mexico	Hard	Carolina Betancourt	Tornado Alicia Black Dasha Ivanova	6–3, 6–3
Win	2.	12 September 2015	ITF Bol, Croatia	Clay	Alina Silich	Barbara Kotelesova Natalija Sipek	7–6(3), 3–6, [10–5]
Loss	1.	6 November 2015	GB Pro-Series Loughborough, United Kingdom	Hard	Sabastiani Leon	Freya Christie Lisa Whybourn	1–6, 2–6

ITF Junior Circuit finals

Category G1
Category G2
Category G3
Category G4
Category G5

Doubles (5–3)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1.	27 June 2008	Nouméa, New Caledonia	Hard	Anaève Pain	Abigail Tere-Apisah Harriet Sheahan	6–7(6), 6–0, 1–6
Win	2.	5 July 2008	Lautoka, Fiji	Hard	Anaève Pain	Celina Goetti Athena Nathalia	6–2, 7–6(5)
Win	3.	31 January 2009	Christchurch, New Zealand	Hard	Anaève Pain	Leela Beattie Gabrielle Grady	5–7, 6–2, [10–4]
Loss	4.	19 July 2009	Darwin, Australia	Hard	Abigail Tere-Apisah	Miyu Kato Risa Ozaki	3–6, 6–3, [9–11]
Win	5.	26 June 2010	Nouméa, New Caledonia	Hard	Emily Burns	Kaede Amano Asuka Sakamoto	6–2, 6–3
Loss	6.	4 July 2010	Lautoka, Fiji	Hard	Anaève Pain	Emily Fanning Heidi Stewart	1–6, 0–6
Win	7.	25 September 2010	Hamilton, New Zealand	Hard	Anaève Pain		6–4, 6–1
Win	8.	2 October 2010	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Anaève Pain	Carli Davis Danielle Feneridis	6–2, 6–4

Fed Cup participation

Singles (4–5)

Edition	Round	Date	Location	Against	Surface	Opponent	W/L	Score
	R/R	14 April 2015	Hyderabad, India	Indonesia	Hard (i)	Deria Nur Haliza	L	2–6, 0–6
		15 April 2015		Sri Lanka		Thisuri Molligoda	W	6–2, 6–7(5), 6–1
	P/O	17 April 2015		Singapore		Wee Khee-yen	W	6–2, 6–0
	R/R	11 April 2016	Hua Hin, Thailand	Hong Kong	Hard	Zhang Ling	L	5–7, 3–6
		12 April 2016		Iran		Sara Amiri	W	6–0, 6–1
		13 April 2016		Philippines		Katharina Lehnert	L	0–6, 2–6
	P/O	16 April 2016		Indonesia		Deria Nur Haliza	L	3–6, 1–6
	R/R	19 July 2017	Dushanbe, Tajikistan	Iran	Hard	Yasmin Mansouri	W	6–4, 6–2
		20 July 2017		Hong Kong		Eudice Chong	L	5–7, 3–6

Doubles (1–2)

Edition	Round	Date	Location	Against	Surface	Partner	Opponents	W/L	Score
	R/R	15 April 2015	Hyderabad, India	Sri Lanka	Hard (i)	Brittany Teei	Amreetha Muttiah Medhira Samarasinghe	W	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
	R/R	11 April 2016	Hua Hin, Thailand	Hong Kong	Hard	Abigail Tere-Apisah	Sher Chun-wing Zhang Ling	L	3–6, 2–6
		13 April 2016		Philippines		Abigail Tere-Apisah	Khim Iglupas Katharina Lehnert	L	4–6, 3–6

Notes and References

1. Web site: Exclusive Interview with Samoan Tennis Player Steffi Carruthers . The What I Do . 29 October 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141111014332/http://www.thewhatitdo.com/2014/10/29/exclusive-interview-with-samoan-tennis-player-steffi-carruthers/ . 11 November 2014.
2. Web site: Sport: Samoa's Steffie Carruthers wins pro event . . 12 June 2015 . 3 May 2023.
3. News: Steffi keen to shine . Fiji Times . 8 July 2008 . 25 . EBSCOHost.
4. Web site: Samoa's very own tennis star . Vatapuia Maiava . Samoa Observer . 23 April 2016 . 3 May 2023.
5. Web site: Sport: Samoa's Carruthers ready for hard slog in professional ranks . . 4 October 2012 . 3 May 2023.
6. Web site: Moomia se fesoasoani mo Steffi Carruthers . Samoa Times . sm . 15 October 2012 . 3 May 2023.
7. Web site: Sport: Tennis a learning game for Samoa's Carruthers . . 11 February 2014 . 3 May 2023.
8. Web site: Tennis pair secures Samoa another gold . Samoa Observer . 13 December 2017 . 3 May 2023.
9. Web site: Carruthers wins one more gold for Samoa . Samoa Observer . Ulimasao Fata . 16 December 2017 . 3 May 2023.
10. Web site: Sports Awards: The finalists named . Samoa Observer . 12 April 2016 . 3 May 2023.