Fiona Crawley

In 2020, Crawley began playing college tennis at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is majoring in English and comparative literature.[3] In her first year, she compiled a 30–1 singles record, helping North Carolina win the ACC Championships and earn the top seed at the 2021 NCAA Team Championships, where they reached the semi-finals.[3]

As a sophomore in 2021–22, Crawley led Division I in singles wins with a 47–7 record, mostly playing in the No. 4 spot for North Carolina, and finished the season at No. 32 in the D-1 rankings. In doubles, she and teammate Elizabeth Scotty were ranked No. 1 at one point in the season. At the 2022 NCAA Championships, where top-seeded North Carolina again got to the team semi-finals, an unseeded Crawley made a run to the semi-finals of the individual competition.[3][16][17]

Crawley (right) and Carson Tanguilig won the 2023 NCAA Doubles Championship.

In the fall of 2022, while going undefeated 17–0 in Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) tournament play,[16][18] Crawley attained D-1 tennis's No. 1 singles ranking for the first time on November 16, 2022.[19] North Carolina dominated in the spring of 2023, going undefeated in the regular season.[20] They avenged their only loss—to rival North Carolina State in the ACC Championship—at the 2023 NCAA Championships, where they won their first national team title.[21] Crawley beat NC State's Alana Smith 6–2, 7–6, in her singles match in the final.[22] Her overall singles record as a junior was 47–3, with her only losses coming to Georgia's Lea Ma and NC State's Diana Shnaider (in the ACC final) and Amelia Rajecki (in the NCAA singles event's round of 16).[23] Though she played most of the year in the team's No. 1 spot, she swapped with No. 2 Reese Brantmeier for NCAA play.[24]

In doubles, Crawley mostly partnered with sophomore Carson Tanguilig. In the fall, they won a regional tournament and reached a national final, bringing Crawley to the No. 1 doubles ranking with a second partner.[25][26] At the end of the season they won the NCAA Doubles Championship, beating teammates Scotty and Brantmeier in the final.[27][28] She was named the ITA National Player of the Year and won the Honda Sports Award for tennis.[29][30]

Crawley made her WTA Tour debut in April 2023 at the Charleston Open, where she received a wildcard into the main draw but lost in the first round to world No. 64 Alizé Cornet, 6–0, 6–2.[31][32] In June 2023, playing in her first ITF competition since July 2021, she reached the final of the W25 event in Wichita as a qualifier.[13] Though she lost there to two seed Stacey Fung, the result led to her debut in the WTA rankings at No. 786 in the week of July 3, 2023.[33][34] The next month, she split two back-to-back ITF W15 doubles finals in Lakewood, California, partnering college players Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M and North Carolina teammate Brantmeier.[13]

In August 2023, Crawley made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open. As a wildcard, she progressed through the singles qualifying tournament by saving two match points in the first round (against Réka Luca Jani) and prevailing in third-set tiebreaks in two of her three qualifying wins.[35][36][37] NCAA champions Crawley and Tanguilig were also awarded a wildcard into the doubles event.[38] Crawley did not collect her US$81,000 in prize money because of NCAA restrictions on college athletes.[39] She won her first ITF singles title in October 2023 at the W25 event in Florence, South Carolina, beating former Duke player Chloe Beck in the final.[40][41]