VIRGINIA WADE

'Sarah Virginia Wade' (born July 10 1945, in Bournemouth, Dorset, England) is a former professional tennis player from the United Kingdom. She won three Grand Slam singles titles and four Grand Slam doubles titles. She is particularly remembered for winning the women's singles title at Wimbledon in the championship's Centenary year on July 1, 1977, currently the last Briton to do so. It was also the Queen's Silver Jubilee year.

Contents

Early life

Tennis career

Grand Slam singles finals (3)

Wins (3)

Grand Slam women's doubles finals (10)

Wins (4)

Runner-ups (6)

Singles titles (55)

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

See also

References

External links

Early life

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. When Wade was 15, the family moved back to England and she went to Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Talbot Heath School. She went on to study mathematics and physics at the University of Sussex, graduating in 1966.

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 U.S. $720 first prize. Five months later, she had become a professional and captured the women's singles title at the first U.S. Open (and prize-money of U.S. $6,000). She beat Billie Jean King in the final 6-4, 6-2.
Wade's second Grand Slam singles title came in 1972 at the Australian Open. She defeated Evonne Goolagong in the final 6-4, 6-4.
Wade's most notable victory came at Wimbledon in 1977. It was the 16th year in which Wade had played at Wimbledon, and she made her first appearance in the final by beating defending champion Chris Evert in a semifinal 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. In the final, she faced Betty Stöve. Not only was 1977 the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships, but it was also the 25th year of the reign (Silver Jubilee) of Queen Elizabeth II, and the Queen attended the championships for the first time in a quarter-century to watch the women's final. In the final, Wade beat Stove 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to claim the title, nine days short of her 32nd birthday. Wade received the trophy from her Queen, and the Centre Court crowd burst into a chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow!" to celebrate her triumph.
Wade also won four Grand Slam women's doubles titles partnering Margaret Smith Court – two at the U.S. Open, one at the Australian Open, and one at the French Open.
Wade was coached by Jerry Teeguarden, father of the professional player Pam Teeguarden.
Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles titles and amassed U.S. $1,542,278 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 at the end of 1985 and from doubles at the end of 1986.
In 1982, Wade became the first woman to be elected to the Wimbledon Committee.
In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the Italian Open women's doubles title partnered by Virginia Ruzici of Romania
The 24 times that Wade played in the women's singles tournament at Wimbledon is an all-time record.
Since retiring from tennis, Wade has commentated on tennis events for the BBC.
In 1989, Wade was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Grand Slam singles finals (3)

Wins (3)

'Year	'Championship	'Opponent in Final	'Score in Final
1968	U.S. Open	Billie Jean King	6-4, 6-2
1972	Australian Open	Evonne Goolagong Cawley	6-4, 6-4
1977	Wimbledon	Betty Stöve	4-6, 6-3, 6-1

Grand Slam women's doubles finals (10)

Wins (4)

'Year	'Championship	'Partnering	'Opponents in Final	'Score in Final
1973	Australian Open	Margaret Smith Court	Kerry Harris Kerry Melville Reid	6-4, 6-4
1973	French Open	Margaret Smith Court	Francoise Durr Betty Stöve	6-2, 6-3
1973	U.S. Open	Margaret Smith Court	Billie Jean King Rosemary Casals	3-6, 6-3, 7-5
1975	U.S. Open (2)	Margaret Smith Court	Billie Jean King Rosemary Casals	7-5, 2-6, 7-6

Runner-ups (6)

'Year	'Championship	'Partnering	'Opponents in Final	'Score in Final
1969	U.S. Open	Margaret Smith Court	Francoise Durr Darlene Hard	0-6, 6-3, 6-4
1970	Wimbledon	Francoise Durr	Billie Jean King Rosemary Casals	6-2, 6-3
1970	U.S. Open (2)	Rosemary Casals	Margaret Smith Court Judy Tegart Dalton	6-3, 6-4
1972	U.S. Open (3)	Margaret Smith Court	Francoise Durr Betty Stöve	6-3, 1-6, 6-3
1976	U.S. Open (4)	Olga Morozova	Delina Boshoff Ilana Kloss	6-1, 6-4
1979	French Open	Francoise Durr	Betty Stove Wendy Turnbull	3-6, 7-5, 6-4

Singles titles (55)

★ 1968 - 'US Open', Bloemfontein-RSA, Bournemouth, East London-RSA, Dewar Cup-Crystal Palace

★ 1969 - Cape Town-RSA, Hoylake, Dewar-Perth, Dewar-Stalybridge, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar-Crystal Palace, East London-RSA

★ 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-NY

★ 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 - US Indoors, 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

★ Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final

References

External links

★

★ International Tennis Hall of Fame profile