Chris Evert: A Legends’ Tale in Tennis
Chris Evert was born in December of 1954, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Jimmy Evert, her father, a professional tennis coach, helped Chris reach the professional tennis ranks.
With her father coaching her, she began to play tennis when she was only five years old. She became the number one player in United States, in the 14-under girls divisions. She at 15, topped Margaret Court, the then top player in the world with a match score of 7-6, 7-6. As the young player ever on the Wightman Cup team, she was selected to represent the United States.
She won the 16-under girls division tennis national championship and was invited to play the US Open, at an age of 16. In straight sets against the then number 4 player in the world in a comeback, she impressively won her first match. She also defeated long time professional players. She faced tennis legend Billie Jean King in the semi finals of the same tournament and her Cinderella story came to a close.
In 1974, she became the champion of French Open and Wimbledon, going from runner up in the same tournaments in the previous year. These grand slam titles were the first of the amazing 18 Grand Slam Singles titles over the course of her career. She is also a four times winner of the WTA Championships between 1972 and 1977. In her professional singles career over the years, she amassed an amazing 1309 wins and 157 career titles. She had a 90% win percentage with a final singles record of 1309-146. She amazingly attained a number one world-wide ranking in 1975, in just three years of her professional career and was online sportsbook star too.
Evert had several options of romance, including public relationships with fellow athletes Jimmy Connors (never married, but dated in 1970s), John Lloyd (married in 1979), Andy Mill (married in 1988), and Greg Norman (married in 2008), throughout her life. Divorce, ended each of their marriage.
In 1989, her professional career ultimately ended and in 1995 she was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.