Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert, known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is a retired American world No. 1 tennis player. She won 18 Grand Slam singles championships and three doubles titles. She was the year-ending world No. 1 singles player in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1981. Overall, Evert won 157 singles championships and 32 doubles titles.
Evert reached 34 Grand Slam singles finals, more than any other player in the history of professional tennis. She holds the record of most consecutive years to win at least one Grand Slam title. In singles, Evert reached the semifinals or better in 52 of the 56 Grand Slams she played, including the semifinals or better of 34 consecutive Grand Slams entered from the 1971 US Open through the 1983 French Open. Evert never lost in the first or second round of a Grand Slam singles tournament and lost in the third round only twice. In Grand Slam women's singles play, Evert won a record seven championships at the French Open and a co-record six championships at the US Open.
Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 89.97% is the highest in the history of Open Era tennis, for men or women. On clay courts, her career winning percentage in singles matches of 94.55% remains a WTA record.
Evert served as president of the Women's Tennis Association during eleven calendar years, 1975–76 and 1983–91. She was awarded the Philippe Chatrier award and inducted into the Hall of Fame. In later life, Evert was a coach and is now an analyst for ESPN and has a line of tennis and active apparel.
Tennis career
Evert began taking tennis lessons from her father Jimmy Evert when she was five years old. He was a professional tennis coach who had won the men's singles title at the Canadian Championships in 1947. By 1969, she had become the No. 1 ranked under-14 girl in the United States. Evert played her first senior tournament in that year also, reaching the semifinals in her hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, losing to Mary-Ann Eisel in three sets. In 1970, Evert won the national 16-and-under championship and was invited to play in an eight-player clay-court tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 15-year-old Evert defeated Françoise Dürr in the first round in straight sets before defeating Margaret Court 7–6, 7–6 in a semifinal. Court was the world No. 1 player and had just won the Grand Slam in singles. These results led to Evert's selection for the U.S. Wightman Cup team, the youngest player ever in the competition.Evert made her Grand Slam tournament debut at age 16 at the 1971 US Open; she received an invitation after winning the national 16-and-under championship. After an easy straight-sets win over Edda Buding in the first round, she faced the American No. 4, Mary-Ann Eisel in the second round. With Eisel serving at 6–4, 6–5 in the second set – Evert saved six match points before going on to win 4–6, 7–6, 6–1. She made two further comebacks from a set down, against fifth seed Dürr and Lesley Hunt, both seasoned professionals, before losing to top seed Billie Jean King in a semifinal in straight sets. This defeat ended a 46-match winning streak built up through a variety of professional and junior tour events. This winning streak included her first matches with and wins over King, Virginia Wade and Betty Stöve.
In 1973, Evert was the runner-up at the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships. A year later she won both those events during her then-record 55-consecutive-match winning streak, which included eight other tournament wins. She ended the year with a 100–7 match record, winning 16 tournaments including two Grand Slams, having been a finalist in her first Australian Open, and having for a fourth straight year reached the semifinals at the US Open. She was chosen as the year-end number one by the leading tennis experts and authorities of the day – except Bud Collins – over her closest rivals, King and Evonne Goolagong, each of whom had six titles including a Grand Slam.
At the time, she was engaged to Jimmy Connors, who won the Wimbledon men's singles title that year as media attention surrounded the summer "Love Match" of tennis. They partnered in the mixed-doubles event at the 1974 US Open, finishing as runners-up. Their engagement was short-lived as it was called off later that year. However, their on-again-off-again relationship continued over the next couple of years.
For the next five years, Evert was the world's No. 1 player. In 1975 she won her second French Open and the first of four straight US Open titles by defeating Cawley in a three-set final. Also in November of that year, the official WTA computer ranking system was instituted, with Evert being the first No. 1. In total, Evert logged 260 weeks at number one. Until February 2013, she held the record of the oldest woman to be ranked WTA number one, achieving that distinction after reclaiming the spot for the final time during the week of November 24, 1985, at the age of 30 years and 11 months. This was ten years and three weeks after she had first achieved the number-one spot. That record stood for 27 years and 3 months until Williams surpassed it in 2013.
Evert's domination of the women's game and her calm, steely demeanor on court earned her the nickname of the "Ice Maiden" of tennis. Throughout her career, Evert was ranked number one in the world at the end of seven different years by Tennis magazine, by World Tennis magazine and as well as a majority of other major tennis experts from 1974 through 1978, and in 1980 and 1981. In addition, Evert had by far the overall best match record in each of those seven years.
The following 1976 season holds a unique distinction for Evert, as this was the only time in her career where she won both Wimbledon and the US Open titles in the same year. She defeated Goolagong Cawley in a thrilling three-set final on grass and then dismantled her on clay at Forest Hills, losing just three games. However, Evert lost to Goolagong Cawley again in the final of the Virginia Slims Championships. In all, Evert won 26 of 39 matches with Cawley. Evert's 1976 performance earned her Sports Illustrated's title of Sportsman of the Year and one of only four occasions the award was given to a tennis player.
The years 1977 and 1978 saw Evert continue to dominate the women's game, winning two more US Opens, the final one played at Forest Hills on clay and the inaugural one on hard courts at Flushing Meadow. She won 18 of 25 tournaments, with a 126–7 match record, failing only once to reach at least the semifinals during that span. Of particular note is that Evert skipped the French Open during these years to play in King's World TeamTennis. The other noteworthy event was Evert's three-set loss to eventual champion Wade in the semifinals of the 1977 Wimbledon Championships. It was Wimbledon's centenary year, coinciding with Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee as monarch.
A new rival to Evert's domination of tennis emerged on the scene in the second half of the 1970s in the form of Martina Navratilova. Though frequent doubles partners, and good friends off the court, their fierce on-court rivalry is one of the greatest in tennis history. Evert had the best of their earlier encounters, at one point holding a 30–18 edge. However, in the run-up to the 1982 season, Navratilova overhauled her game and fitness, and upgraded her racquet technology, which allowed her to build a 13-match winning streak that culminated at the 1984 US Open, on what came to be known as Super Saturday. They entered the final with 30 wins apiece. Navratilova overcame a first set deficit and a decidedly pro-Evert crowd to win 4–6, 6–4, 6–4. Eventually, the rivalry saw a final match record of 43–37 in favor of Navratilova, who led overall 14–8 in Grand Slam matches.
Though successful on all surfaces, it was on clay courts where Evert was most dominant. Beginning in August 1973, she won 125 consecutive matches on clay, losing only eight sets throughout; a run which continues to stand as the benchmark among both men and women players. The streak was broken on May 12, 1979, in a semifinal of the Italian Open, when Evert lost to Tracy Austin in a third-set tiebreak after Evert lost a game point to go up 5–2 in the final set. Evert said after the match, "Not having the record will take some pressure off me, but I am not glad to have lost it." Evert rebounded with another clay court streak that reached 64 matches before ending with a semifinal loss to eventual winner Hana Mandlíková at the 1981 French Open. Hilde Krahwinkel had a similar run of clay-court dominance from 1935 through 1939, winning the French Championships in three consecutive years and incurring only one loss on clay during that five-year period.
Evert's record of seven French Open singles titles stood for 27 years until being broken in June 2013 by Rafael Nadal. She still holds the record for female players. She also held the record for most clay court Grand Slam titles before Nadal passed her with his 11th title at the 2018 French Open.
Three of her victories came in three-set finals against Navratilova. In 1975, Evert defeated Navratilova 2–6, 6–2, 6–1 to defend her title from the previous year. In 1985, Evert prevailed 6–3, 6–7, 7–5, a win that saw her capture the world No. 1 computer ranking for the fifth and final time.
For Evert, beating Navratilova in any Grand Slam represented beating the best player, which provided her with two of her most satisfying "final time" wins: The 1986 French Open, where at the age of 31 years, she won her last Grand Slam title defeating Navratilova in three sets and the 1988 Australian Open where she handily dispatched Navratilova in the semifinals in two sets to reach her 34th and last Grand Slam final at age 33.
Evert won at least one Grand Slam singles title a year for 13 consecutive years, from 1974 through 1986. During this period, Evert did not participate in the Australian Opens held from 1975 to 1980 and in 1983, or the French Opens from 1976 to 1978. The reasons for Evert's non-participation in the Australian Open during the years of her greatest dominance was the relative decline in the status of this Grand Slam tournament during that period, so that the top American and European players tended to stay away. Evert's absence from the French Open in 1976, 1977 and 1978 reflected the allure of World Team Tennis and the generally lesser significance that the top players attached to the traditional Slam events in the early years of the professional era. During this period of dominance, she skipped ten Grand Slam tournaments.
In fact, between September 1971 and June 1983, Evert never failed to reach at least the semi-finals of the 34 Grand Slam singles events she entered. This string, however, was broken in the third round at Wimbledon in 1983 when the All England Club refused Evert's request to delay her match with Kathy Jordan to recover from food poisoning. This defeat also ended her attempt to be the holder of all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously, as Evert was then holder of the '82 Australian, U.S., and the '83 French titles. In 56 Grand Slam singles events entered from 1971 to 1989, Evert fell short of the semifinals a mere four times.
In total, of the record 34 Grand Slam finals reached, Evert won 18 Grand Slam singles titles: seven at the French Open, six at the US Open, three at Wimbledon, and two at the Australian Open. In addition, Evert won three Grand Slam doubles titles, at the French in 1974 with Olga Morozova, there in 1975 with Navratilova, and again with Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1976.
Evert's overall record in Grand Slam events was 297–38 : 72–6 at the French Open, 94–15 at Wimbledon, 101–13 at the US Open, and 30–4 at the Australian Open.
Regarding their Slam rivalry, Evert faced Navratilova in the final of 14 Grand Slam events, with a 4–10 record. Navratilova defeated Evert at least once in the final of each of the four Grand Slam events: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open whereas three of Evert's four wins were at the French Open and the fourth was the Australian Open. In their eight semifinal clashes, their record stands at four wins apiece. Evert defeated Navratilova in the semifinals of the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open but lost to Navratilova in the semifinals of the US Open, Wimbledon, and the French Open. Interestingly, in those semifinal rounds, each player won twice on grass, once on hard, and once on clay.
Evert played a reduced schedule in 1989 and retired from the professional tour after the US Open. Upon her retirement, she had amassed 18 Grand Slam singles titles, won 157 singles titles and 32 doubles titles. In her 303 tournaments played, Evert reached 229 finals with a win/loss record of 157–72 and 273 semifinals with a win/loss record of. Her losses before the semifinal: first round ; second round – two of which were defaults ; third round – two of which were defaults ; and quarterfinal losses. Evert won the WTA Tour Championships four times and helped the United States win the Fed Cup eight times. Evert's last match was a 6–3, 6–2 win over Conchita Martínez in the final of the 1989 Fed Cup.
Rivalries
During her career versus selected rivals, Evert was: 40–6 against Virginia Wade, 37–43 against Martina Navratilova, 26–13 against Evonne Goolagong Cawley, 24–0 against Virginia Ruzici, 23–1 against Sue Barker, 22–0 against Betty Stöve, 22–1 against Rosemary Casals, 21–7 against Hana Mandlíková, 20–1 against Wendy Turnbull, 19–7 against Billie Jean King, 19–3 against Pam Shriver, 18–2 against Kerry Melville Reid, 17–2 against Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 17–2 against Helena Suková, 17–3 against Andrea Jaeger, 16–3 against Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat, 15–0 against Olga Morozova, 13–0 against Françoise Dürr, 9–4 against Margaret Court, 8–9 against Tracy Austin, 7–0 against Mary Joe Fernandez, 6–3 against Gabriela Sabatini, 6–5 against Nancy Richey Gunter, 6–8 against Steffi Graf and 2–1 against Monica Seles.Awards and recognitions
Evert was voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year on four occasions and was the first female athlete to be Sports Illustrated magazine's sole recipient of "Sportswoman of the Year" award in 1976. In April 1985, she was voted the "Greatest Woman Athlete of the Last 25 Years" by the Women's Sports Foundation. Evert served as president of the Women's Tennis Association during 1975–76, and from 1983 to 1991.In 1995, she was the fourth player ever to be unanimously elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame following a worldwide ballot of 185 sports journalists. In 1997, the International Tennis Federation presented her with its highest accolade - the Philippe Chatrier Award - for her contributions to tennis, whilst 1999 saw Evert rated No. 50 among ESPN's Greatest North American athletes of the 20th century. Evert was awarded the ’s prestigious Jean Borotra Sportsmanship Award in 2001. In 2005, Tennis named her fourth on its list of 40 Greatest Players of the Tennis era.
In 2012, Tennis Channel conducted a poll of players and experts to determine the 100 Greatest Players of all-time, in which Evert ranked ninth overall, and fourth highest among women In June 2013, Evert was awarded a special merit from the International Tennis Hall of Fame. They presented her their gold ring in recognition of her outstanding achievements both on and off the tennis court.
Personal life
Evert was born in 1954 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Colette and Jimmy Evert, and raised in a devout Catholic family. She is a 1973 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale.Jimmy was a professional tennis coach, and tennis was a way of life in his family. Chris and her sister Jeanne became professional tennis players; their brother John played tennis on scholarship at the University of Alabama and later at Vanderbilt University, and brother Drew had a tennis scholarship to Auburn University. Youngest sister Clare played scholarship tennis at Southern Methodist University. Chris, John and sisters Jeanne and Clare all won titles at the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl in Florida.
Before she won her first Grand Slam event, Evert signed a contract with Puritan Fashions to endorse a line of sportswear. Company president Carl Rosen thought so highly of her that he named a yearling racehorse in her honor. The horse Chris Evert went on to win the 1974 U.S. Filly Triple Crown, be voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Filly, and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In the 1970s, Evert's romance with the top men's player Jimmy Connors captured the public's imagination, particularly after they both won the 1974 singles titles at Wimbledon. Evert and Connors also occasionally played mixed doubles together. They became engaged when she was 19 and a wedding was planned for November 8, 1974. The romance did not last and the wedding was called off. In May 2013, Connors wrote in his autobiography that Evert was pregnant with their child and she unilaterally decided to terminate the pregnancy. Evert replied that she was "extremely disappointed that he used the book to misrepresent a private matter".
During the 1978 US Open, her diamond line bracelet fell off onto the court. She said about this, "I dropped my tennis bracelet", and since then diamond line bracelets have been called tennis bracelets. Oddly, the majority of the articles on the Internet about the incident incorrectly claim that it occurred in 1987.
, circa 1978
In 1979, Evert married the British tennis player John Lloyd and changed her name to Chris Evert Lloyd. After her affair with British singer and actor Adam Faith, the couple separated, but reconciled and chronicled their marriage in a biography Lloyd On Lloyd co-authored by Carol Thatcher. The couple divorced in April 1987.
In 1988, Evert married two-time Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill. They have three sons: Alexander, Nicholas and Colton. On November 13, 2006, Evert filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized on December 4, 2006, with Evert paying Mill a settlement of U.S. $7 million in cash and securities.
Evert left Mill to marry her third husband, Australian golfer Greg Norman, on June 28, 2008, in the Bahamas. On October 2, 2009, they announced they were separating after only 15 months. Their divorce became final on December 8, 2009.
Current work
Evert owns the Evert Tennis Academy with her brother John in Boca Raton, Florida and helps coach the Saint Andrew's School's high school tennis team. She contributes to Tennis magazine, of which she is also publisher. In June 2011, she joined ESPN as a tennis commentator for Grand Slam tournaments. In 2015, she launched a line of tennis and active apparel in collaboration with Tail Activewear called Chrissie by Tail. She was also a member of the Athlete Advisory Committee for the 2019 Aurora Games.Career statistics
Grand Slam singles performance timeline
- Evert's last major appearance was at the 1989 US Open, at which time she was ranked world No. 4. She followed this with a 4-0 record at the 1989 Federation Cup in October.
Records
- These records were attained in Open Era of tennis.
- Records in bold indicate peerless achievements.
- As Evert elected not to participate in a number of Grand Slam tournaments, the term "consecutive" is inexact. In 19 seasons of professional tennis, Evert competed in all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year only six times.
| Time span | Selected Grand Slam tournament records | Players matched |
| 1973 French Open — 1988 Australian Open | 34 finals overall | Stands alone |
| 1971 US Open — 1983 French Open | 34 consecutive semifinals in tournaments played* | Stands alone |
| 1974 French Open — 1986 French Open | 13 consecutive years of winning 1+ title | Stands alone |
| 1974 French Open — 1981 Wimbledon | 3 different Grand Slam titles won without losing a set | Steffi Graf Lindsay Davenport Serena Williams |
| 1984 French Open — 1984 Australian Open | Reached all four finals in a calendar year | Margaret Court Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf Monica Seles Martina Hingis Justine Henin |
| 1971 US Open — 1989 US Open | Reached 52 semifinals and 54 quarterfinals out of 56 Grand Slams entered | Stands alone |
| 1971 US Open — 1989 US Open | Only player to reach singles semi-final or better in each of first six majors entered | Stands alone |
| 1974 Australian Open — 1985 US Open | Only player to reach singles semifinals of all four majors in the same calendar year five times | Stands alone |
| 1973 French Open — 1988 Australian Open | Only player to reach five consecutive finals of each major | Stands alone |
| 1976 Wimbledon — 1976 US Open | 100% match winning percentage in 1 season | Margaret Court Billie Jean King Steffi Graf Monica Seles Serena Williams |
| Grand Slam tournaments | Time Span | Records at each Grand Slam tournament | Players matched |
| French Open | 1974–1986 | 7 titles overall | Stands alone |
| French Open | 1973–1986 | 9 finals overall | Steffi Graf |
| French Open | 1983–1986 | four consecutive finals | Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf |
| Wimbledon | 1973, 1978–1980, 1982, 1984, 1985 | 7 runner-up finishes | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1975–1982 | 6 titles overall | Serena Williams |
| US Open | 1975–1978 | Four consecutive titles | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1975–1979 | 31 consecutive match wins | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1975–1979 | 46 consecutive sets won | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1975–1977 | Won US Open on clay | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1975–1978 | Only female player to win titles on two different surfaces | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1975–1980 | 6 consecutive finals | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1971–1986 | 16 consecutive semifinals | Stands alone |
| US Open | 1971–1989 | 101 match wins | Serena Williams |
| US Open | 1976–1978 | 3 titles won without losing a set | Serena Williams |
| US Open | 1971–1989 | 89.38% match winning percentage | Stands alone |
| Australian Open | 1984, 1988 | Won title on grass and reached final on hard | Stands alone |
| Australian Open | 1974–1988 | 14 year gap between first and last finals | Serena Williams Venus Williams |
| Time span | Other selected records | Players matched |
| 1971–1988 | 122 titles outdoor | Stands alone |
| 1971–1988 | 70 clay-court titles | Stands alone |
| 1974–1979 | 125 consecutive clay-court match victories | Stands alone |
| 1972–1988 | 17 consecutive years ranked inside the top 3 | Stands alone |
| 1976–1986 | 8 Fed Cup titles | Stands alone |
| 1972–1989 | 94.28% clay-court match percentage | Stands alone |
| 1971–1984 | First player to reach 1000 career match wins | Stands alone |
| 1971–1989 | First player to reach 150 career tournament wins | Stands alone |
| 1971–1976 | First female to reach one million dollars in career prize money | Stands alone |