Early years Curran's tennis talent was spotted first in her native Belfast, capital of Northern Ireland. She was soon winning Ulster and all-Ireland titles and being singled out by the Irish tennis authorities for a promising amateur career on the
ITF Junior Circuit. At the age of 14, during the troubled times of Northern Ireland, beset with political and religious divisions, Curran moved to Dublin. The clubhouse where she learned to play tennis in Belfast had been destroyed by a terrorist bomb in the 1970s and she herself was frequently inconvenienced on her travels between Belfast and Dublin by bombs scares. In Dublin, she spent her teenage years under the Irish national coaching programme of Matt Doyle. Curran travelled on the Junior Circuit, playing at junior Wimbledon in 1996. She attained a singles ranking inside the top 100 and in 1993 became the youngest person to have represented Ireland in the Fed Cup, at the age of 15 years and 3 months.
1993–1996 Claire played her first adult match playing doubles for
Ireland in the
1993 Fed Cup where she won her two doubles rubbers against competitors from
Norway and
Israel. She played no other adult events this year. In 1994 she again competed in the
Fed Cup for Ireland in doubles when she and
Lesley O'Halloran were defeated by doubles teams from
Slovakia and
Zimbabwe. This was again the only adult event Claire played this year. She did not compete on the ITF or WTA Tour again this season.
2001–2002 Curran began 2001 with
Teryn Ashley as her regular partner and with her she reached the semifinals of a $10k in El Paso as qualifiers. They followed this success up with a tournament win in another $10k event in Lake Ozark, Texas, a run to the semifinals of
Mount Pleasant ($25k) and another run to the quarterfinals in Los Gatos, California ($50k). July saw Curran team with
Kristen van Elden from Australia to reach the semifinals of Frinton ($10k) before again joining with Ashley to reach the quarterfinals of a $10k event in
Bath before having to retire from the tournament. Curran and Swedish,
Helena Ejeson were runners-up in a $10k in London in August and after this Curran played no more matches in 2001. She had a year-end doubles world-ranking of 375. In January 2002, Claire reached the finals of a $10k in
Hull partnering fellow Irishwoman,
Elsa O'Riain. They lost to
Sun Tiantian and
Zheng Jie, 6–7, 5–7. Curran then partnered
Amanda Augustus to reach the final in the first week of a four-week $40k circuit in Australia. They lost to
Sarah Stone and
Samantha Stosur before heading to the second week of this circuit and reaching the semifinals. In April, she competed in doubles for Ireland in the
Fed Cup where she and O'Riain won their three doubles rubbers in the Europe/Africa Group II round robins against
Egypt,
Finland and
Botswana. They then went on to beat a doubles team from
Liechtenstein in the promotion play-offs. Curran did not compete much more this year due to problems with injuries, having to retire from a number of matches. At the end of 2002 her doubles world-ranking had fallen to 562.
2003 Curran teamed with O'Riain for her first four tournaments of the year (all $10k), resulting in one title and three losses in the semifinals. In the
Fed Cup, she and O'Riain were beaten by doubles teams from
Netherlands and
Great Britain but managed a victory against
Poland. Following this she teamed up with Brit,
Anna Hawkins, to reach the final of a $10k in Bournemouth and then the final of a $10k in Edinburgh where the result was a walkover. Curran then went on to reach the semifinals in Dublin ($10k) and win the event in London ($10k), both partnering O'Riain. Helena Ejeson was again her partner in early September when the duo took the title in a $10k in Sunderland. Claire teamed with
İpek Şenoğlu for her next five tournaments and took one title ($25k), reached two semifinals (both $25k) and two quarterfinals (one $25k and one $50k). Curran reached the quarterfinals of a $50k in Shenzhen with
Tzipi Obziler in her final tournament of the year. At the end of 2003, Curran's doubles world-ranking was up to 244.
2004 Curran won her first three ITF event of the year and went on to reach the semifinals in her fourth, giving her a winning streak of 14 matches at the start of the season. In June, she partnered
Jane O'Donoghue in the qualifying tournament for
Wimbledon where they lost in the first round but were given a spot in the main draw as
lucky losers where they were beaten in straight sets. In August she took the title in Lexington, Kentucky ($50k) with
Natalie Grandin and the two of them were also runners up in their next event in Louisville, Kentucky and semifinalists in their next in the Bronx (both $50k). Curran and Grandin then entered the
Tier III Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali where they were beaten in the first round by
Gisela Dulko and
Milagros Sequera, 6–0, 6–1. In her final tournament of 2004, Curran partnered Senoglu again to reach the final of a $25k in Glasgow. Her year-end doubles world-ranking was 163.
2005 In February 2005, Curran partnered
Kim Kilsdonk and the duo lost in the first round of the
Tier-II event in Paris, the
Open Gaz de France. They were beaten, 6–4, 6–3, by
Iveta Benešová and
Květa Peschke. Following this they headed to Antwerp to compete in the
Proximus Diamond Games, another Tier-II tournament. They won two matches to qualify and then went on to beat
Francesca Lubiani and
Marta Marrero in the first round, 6–3, 7–6. They lost to
Anabel Medina Garrigues and
Dinara Safina, 4–6, 2–6, in the quarterfinals. After this she reached a number of quarterfinals and semifinals of higher-level ITF events before winning in a $50k in Saint-Gaudens (with Grandin) in May. This was followed by a run to the semifinals at the
İstanbul Cup (Tier III) partnering Kim Kilsdonk where they lost, 3–6, 3–6, to
Sandra and
Daniela Klemenschits. June saw Curran and Grandin knocked out in the first round of the women's doubles at
Wimbledon by
Nadia Petrova and
Meghann Shaughnessy. Curran then partnered Kilsdonk to reach the final at the $50k in Pétange before reaching three successive WTA quarterfinals: the
Budapest Grand Prix (with
Rika Fujiwara), the
Nordic Light Open (partnering
María José Martínez Sánchez) and the
Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (with Grandin). Curran ended the year with a doubles world-ranking of 107.
2006 In Claire's first tournament of the year, she and Natalie Grandin teamed up to reach the quarterfinals in
Auckland. Then, partnering
Līga Dekmeijere, she reached the final of the
Canberra International, a
Tier-IV event. They were defeated by
Marta Domachowska and
Roberta Vinci, 7–6, 6–3. This was followed by a number of first-round losses in WTA tournaments before she competed with
Elena Baltacha in the
Fed Cup representing Great Britain. They won their three doubles rubbers and then also went on to win their doubles rubber in the promotion play-offs. In June she joined
Shenay Perry to reach the quarterfinals of the
Aegon International where they were beaten by
Liezel Huber and
Martina Navratilova, 6–4, 6–2. She then competed in
Wimbledon with
Jamea Jackson but was again beaten in the first round. She did however reach the second round of the
mixed doubles with
James Auckland. After Wimbledon, Claire did not compete again in 2006 and her doubles world-ranking at the end of the year was 201.
2007 In February 2007, Claire teamed with Anne Keothavong to win the title in London ($25k) and in March, she and
Melanie South were runners-up in another $25k, this one in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In April, Curran again teamed with Baltacha to represent Britain in the
Fed Cup. They won doubles rubbers against
Luxembourg and
Bulgaria but lost one against
Poland and also lost one in the promotion play-offs against
Sweden. In July, Curran and Keothavong took on the might of
Venus and
Serena Williams in the first round of
Wimbledon doubles and lost, 1–6, 3–6. For the second year in a row she reached the second round of the
mixed doubles with Auckland but after Wimbledon decided that her career as a professional tennis player had come to an end. ==WTA career finals==