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Virginia Wade

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Virginia Wade
Country (sports) England,  United Kingdom
Height5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Turned pro1968
Retired1986
PlaysRight-handed
Prize moneyUS$1,542,278
Int. Tennis HoF1989 (member page)
Singles
Career record839–329[1]
Career titles55[1]
Highest rankingNo.2 (November 3, 1975) [citation needed]
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenW (1972)
French OpenQF (1970, 1972)
WimbledonW (1977)
US OpenW (1968)
Doubles
Career record42–48[1]
Career titles-
Highest ranking-
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenW (1973)
French OpenW (1973)
WimbledonF (1970)
US OpenW (1973, 1975)
Last updated on: 27 January 2007]].

Sarah Virginia Wade, OBE (born 10 July 1945) is a former English tennis player. She won three Grand Slam singles championships and four Grand Slam doubles championships. She won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon on 1 July 1977, in that tournament's centenary year, the last time any Briton has won a singles championship at that tournament. She was also the last Briton to win any Grand Slam singles championship. After retiring from competitive tennis, she coached for four years.[2]

Early life

Born in Bournemouth in England, Wade learned to play tennis in South Africa, where her parents moved when she was one year old. Her father was the Archdeacon of Durban.[3] When Wade was 15, the family moved back to England and she went to Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Talbot Heath School.[4][5] She went on to study mathematics and physics at the University of Sussex, graduating in 1966.[6]

Tennis career

Wade's tennis career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of the open era. In 1968, she scored two notable firsts. As an amateur, she won the inaugural open tennis competition — the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth. She turned down the US$720 first prize. Five months later, she had become a professional and captured the women's singles championship at the first U.S. Open (and the prize-money of $6,000)($52,570 in current dollar terms), defeating Billie Jean King in the final.

Wade's second Grand Slam singles championship came in 1972 at the Australian Open. There, she defeated the Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley in the finals 6–4, 6–4.

Wade's most notable victory came at Wimbledon, England, in 1977. It was the sixteenth year in which Wade had played at Wimbledon, and she made her first appearance in the final by beating the defending champion Chris Evert in a semifinal 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. In the finals, she faced Betty Stöve. Not only was 1977 the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships, but it was also the 25th year of the reign (the Silver Jubilee) of Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen attended the Wimbledon championships for the first time in a quarter-century to watch the LADIES final. In the final, Ms. Wade beat Ms. Stöve in three sets to claim the championship, nine days before her 32nd birthday. Ms. Wade received the trophy from Queen Elizabeth, and the audience at Centre Court burst out into a chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow!" to celebrate her triumph.

Ms. Wade also won four Grand Slam women's doubles championships in teaming Margaret Smith Court – two of them at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, one at the Australian Open, and one at the French Open.

Ms. Wade was usually coached by Jerry Teeguarden, the father of the future professional tennis player, Pam Teeguarden.

Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles championships and amassed $1,542,278 dollars in career prize money. She was ranked in the world's Top 10 continuously from 1967 through 1979. Her career spanned a total of 26 years. She retired from singles competition at the end of the 1985 tennis season, and then from doubles at the end of 1986.

Since 1981, Wade has been a reporter on tennis events for the British Broadcasting Company.[7]

In 1982, Wade became the first woman to be elected to the Wimbledon Committee.[citation needed]

In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the Italian Open women's doubles championship, along with her teammate Virginia Ruzici of Romania.

The 24 times that Ms. Wade has played in the women's singles tournament at Wimbledon is an all-time record.[citation needed]

In 1986, Ms. Wade was honored with the distinction of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[7]

In 1989, Ms. Wade was also inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Providence, Rhode Island.[8]

Grand Slam singles finals (3)

Wins (3)

Year Championship Opponent in final Score in final
1968 US Open United States Billie Jean King 6–4, 6–2
1972 Australian Open Australia Evonne Goolagong Cawley 6–4, 6–4
1977 Wimbledon Netherlands Betty Stöve 4–6, 6–3, 6–1

Grand Slam women's doubles finals (10)

Wins (4)

Year Championship Partner Opponents in final Score in final
1973 Australian Open Australia Margaret Court Australia Kerry Harris
Australia Kerry Melville Reid		 6–4, 6–4
1973 French Open Australia Margaret Court France Françoise Durr
Netherlands Betty Stöve		 6–2, 6–3
1973 US Open Australia Margaret Court United States Billie Jean King
United States Rosemary Casals		 3–6, 6–3, 7–5
1975 US Open (2) Australia Margaret Court United States Billie Jean King
United States Rosemary Casals		 7–5, 2–6, 7–6

Runner-ups (6)

Year Championship Partner Opponents in final Score in final
1969 US Open Australia Margaret Court France Françoise Durr
United States Darlene Hard		 0–6, 6–3, 6–4
1970 Wimbledon France Françoise Durr United States Billie Jean King
United States Rosemary Casals		 6–2, 6–3
1970 US Open (2) United States Rosemary Casals Australia Margaret Court
United States Judy Tegart Dalton		 6–3, 6–4
1972 US Open (3) Australia Margaret Court France Françoise Durr
Netherlands Betty Stöve		 6–3, 1–6, 6–3
1976 US Open (4) Soviet Union Olga Morozova South Africa Delina Boshoff
South Africa Ilana Kloss		 6–1, 6–4
1979 French Open France Françoise Durr Netherlands Betty Stove
Australia Wendy Turnbull		 3–6, 7–5, 6–4

Singles Championships (55)

Bold type indicates a Grand Slam championship
  • 1968 - US Open, Bloemfontein, Bournemouth, East London, Dewar Cup-Crystal Palace
  • 1969 - Cape Town, Hoylake, Dewar-Perth, Dewar-Stalybridge, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar-Crystal Palace, East London
  • 1970 - German Indoors, West Berlin Open, Irish Open, Stalybridge, Aberavon
  • 1971 - Cape Town, Catania Open, Rome, Newport-Wales, Cincinnati, Dewar-Billingham, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar Cup Final-London, Clean Air Classic
  • 1972 - Australian Open, VS Indoors-Mass., Merion, Buenos Aires
  • 1973 - Dallas, Bournemouth, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar-Edinburgh, Dewar-Billingham, Dewar Cup Final-Albert Hall
  • 1974 - VS Chicago, Bournemouth, VS Phoenix, Dewar-Edinburgh, Dewar Cup-London
  • 1975 - VS Dallas, VS Philadelphia, Paris Indoors, Eastbourne, Dewar Cup, Stockholm
  • 1976 - U.S. Indoor Championships, Dewar Cup
  • 1977 - Wimbledon, World Invitational Hilton Head, Tokyo Sillook
  • 1978 - Mahwah, Tokyo Sillook, Florida Open

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Tournament 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Career SR
Australia A A A A A A A A A A W QF A A A A / A A A A A A 2R 2R 2R 1 / 5
France A A A A A 4R A 2R QF 1R QF 3R 2R A A A A 2R 3R 4R 3R 1R 1R 2R 0 / 14
Wimbledon 2R 2R 2R 4R 2R QF 1R 3R 4R 4R QF QF SF QF SF W SF QF 4R 2R 2R QF 3R 3R 1 / 24
United States A A 4R 2R QF 4R W SF SF A QF QF 2R SF 2R QF 3R QF 3R 3R 1R 2R 2R A 1 / 20
SR 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 3 1 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 2 1 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 2 1 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 3 3 / 63

A = did not participate in the tournament.

SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c WTA website
  2. ^ "Nice girls finish last". www.guardian.co.uk/sport. 2004-06-27.
  3. ^ Viner, Brian (29 June 2007). "Virginia Wade: 'We used to think there was a British winner every eight years'". The Independent. Independent News & Media. Retrieved 10 January 2009.
  4. ^ Moss, Stephen (18 June 2007). "The long game". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  5. ^ "Talbot Heath: Factfile". Talbot Heath School. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  6. ^ Cheese, Caroline (24 October 2008). "Q&A: Virginia Wade". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  7. ^ a b "Biographies - Virginia Wade". BBC. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  8. ^ Sarah Virginia Wade "Ginny"
Preceded by BBC Sports Personality of the Year
1977 		Succeeded by
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