Chris Evert - Very Feminine But Tough Tennis Player

Tennis career

Chris Evert began taking tennis lessons when she was five years old from her father, Jimmy Evert (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 14-under girl in the United States. In 1970, she won the national sixteen-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 Durr 6-1, 6-0 in the first round before defeating Margaret Smith Court 7-6, 7-6 in a semifinal. Court was the World No. 1 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.

Chris Evert made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the 1971 U.S. Open, aged 16, receiving an invitation after winning the national sixteen-and-under championship. After an easy straight-sets win over Edda Buding in the first round, she faced the U.S. No. 4 Mary Ann Eisel in the second round. Chris Evert saved six match points with Eisel serving at 6-4, 6-5 (40-0) in the second set before Evert went on to win 4-6, 7-6, 6-1. She made two further comebacks against Durr (2-6, 6-2, 6-3) and Lesley Hunt (4-6, 6-2, 6-3), both seasoned professionals, before losing to Billie Jean King in a semifinal. This defeat ended a 46-match winning streak built up through carefully selected participation in senior tour events over the year - an astonishing debut.

Chris Evert was the runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon in 1973. A year later, she won both those events to claim her first Grand Slam singles titles and won 55 consecutive matches. Her fiancee at the time, Jimmy Connors, won the Wimbledon men's singles title that year and media attention surrounded the "Love Match" of tennis that summer (although the relationship proved to be short-lived).

Connors and Evert were also finalists in mixed doubles at the 1974 U.S. Open, although Evert rarely played that event. As time went by, Evert played women's doubles less frequently, preferring to devote her energies to singles tournaments.

For the next five years, Chris Evert was the World No. 1. In 1975, she won the French Open again and the first of four straight U.S. Open titles by defeating Evonne Goolagong Cawley in a three-set final. She also won Wimbledon again in 1976, again beating Goolagong in a thrilling three-set final. The rivalry between Evert and Goolagong was compelling during the mid-1970s. In all, Evert won 21 of their 33 matches. 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.



A new rival to Evert's dominance emerged on the scene in the later part of the 1970s in the form of Navratilova. Though good friends off the court, their fierce on-court rivalry is remembered as one of the greatest in tennis history. Evert had the best of their earlier encounters, with Navratilova eventually gaining the upper hand during the 1980s.

Though successful on all surfaces, it was on clay courts where Chris Evert was most dominant. Beginning in August 1973, she won 125 consecutive matches on the surface, with a loss of only 7 sets, a run which continues to stand as the record among both men and women players.[2] The streak was broken on May 12, 1979, in a semifinal of the Italian Open, when Evert lost to Tracy Austin 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4) after Evert lost a game point to go up 5-2 in the third 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." Chris Evert then won 72 consecutive matches on clay before losing in a semifinal of the 1981 French Open to Hana Mandlikova. Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling had a similar run of clay court dominance from 1935 through 1939, winning the French Championships three consecutive years (not playing there the other two years) and incurring only one loss on clay during that five year period.

Chris Evert won the French Open singles title a record seven times. Two of her best victories came in three-set finals against Navratilova in the mid-1980s. In 1985, Evert prevailed 6-3, 6-7, 7-5, a win that saw her capture the World No. 1 ranking for the fifth and final time. And, in 1986, the 31 year-old Evert won her last Grand Slam title by beating Navratilova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Evert retired from the professional tour in 1989. During her career, she won 157 singles titles and 8 doubles titles. Her record in finals was 157-72 (.686). She reached the semifinals in 273 of the 303 tournaments she entered. Evert won the WTA Tour Championships 4 times and helped the United States win the Fed Cup 8 times. Evert's last match was a 6-3, 6-2 win over Conchita Martinez in the finals of the 1989 Fed Cup.

Chris Evert won at least one Grand Slam singles title each year for 13 consecutive years from 1974 through 1986. She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles during her career: 7 at the French Open, 6 at the U.S. Open (3 on clay and 3 on hard courts), 3 at Wimbledon, and 2 at the Australian Open (both on grass). She reached the finals in 34 and the semifinals in 52 of the 56 Grand Slams events she entered. Between September 1971 (her Grand Slam debut at the US Open) and June 1983 (her twelfth visit to Wimbledon), Evert never failed to reach at least the semi-finals of every one of the 34 Grand Slam singles events she participated in. This is an unparalleled record of consistency in the world's biggest tournaments. Moreover, it is a proud record that was ended prematurely, in the third round at Wimbledon 1983, owing to the intransigence of the All England club (which refused Evert's request of a delay in her match with Kathy Jordan to recover from a severe bout of food poisoning), a defeat which ended her Grand Slam aspirations on the final leg (Evert was then holder of the Australian, US and French titles). Evert's overall record in Grand Slam events was 297-38 .887 (72-6 at the French Open, 94-15 at Wimbledon, 101-13 at the US Open (most singles match wins in history), and 30-4 at the Australian Open). She reached the finals all 6 times she entered the Australian Open. Evert faced Navratilova in the final of 14 Grand Slam events, with Evert losing 10 of those encounters. (Navratilova defeated Evert at least once in the final of each of the four Grand Slam events, whereas three of Evert's four wins were at the French Open and the fourth was at the Australian Open). However, Evert defeated Navratilova in a number of Grand Slam semi-finals - the US Open (1975), Wimbledon (1976, 1980), and the Australian Open (1988).

During her career versus selected rivals, Chris 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 Stove, 22-1 against Rosie Casals, 21-7 against Hana Mandlikova, 20-1 against Wendy Turnbull, 19-7 against Billie Jean King (winning the last 11 matches with a loss of only 2 sets), 19-3 against Pam Shriver, 18-2 against Kerry Melville Reid, 17-2 against Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 17-2 against Helena Sukova, 17-3 against Andrea Jaeger, 16-3 against Diane Fromholtz Balestrat, 15-0 against Olga Morozova, 13-0 against Francoise Durr, 9-4 against Margaret Smith Court, 8-9 against Tracy Austin, 7-0 against Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-3 against Gabriela Sabatini, 6-5 against Nancy Richey Gunter (winning the last 6 matches), 6-8 against Steffi Graf (losing the last 8 matches), and 2-1 against Monica Seles.

Playing Style

Evert's game was based on excellent stroke production technique, good balance and footwork, superb anticipation, steely concentration, unflappable temperament and mental fortitude, and an astute tactical sense. Her playing style, with precise groundstrokes delivered from the back of the court, was best suited to playing on clay. But she quickly proved that her game could excel on all surfaces. This was because Chris Evert was an offensive rather than defensive baseliner; her genius lay in her ability to combine consistency of shot-making with excellent command of line and length and angle from the backcourt. At the peak of her game, in the five consecutive years she was ranked as World No. 1 (between 1974 and 1978), Evert was undoubtedly the most relentlessly accurate baseline hitter since the days of Maureen Connolly in the 1950s. She was renowned for her ability to play long rallies at high pace and tempo, drilling her groundstrokes within centimetres of the lines, yet scarcely making an unforced error. When she first started playing as a youngster, she developed a two-handed backhand because she was too small and weak to hit backhand shots with one hand. This became a trademark of her game and inspired generations of future players to copy her. Evert's two-handed backhand revolutionized the women's game, because this allowed her to drive through with power on the backhand as well as forehand, and she was the first woman player of the Open era to be able to do this consistently. Without an Evert there could not have been a Monica Seles and the power baseline players which followed. Aside from consistency and accuracy off the ground, Chris Evert possessed the best return-of-service of her generation (taken early and on the rise to deter the net-rusher or take command of a rally). Other hallmarks of her game included outstanding touch on the lob and drop-shot and the best passing shots in the history of the women's game (honed to perfection by the need to counter the greatest serve-and-volley players of the Open era - Court, King, Goolagong, and Navratilova). Evert had a sufficient serve herself but never an overpowering one like her contemporaries Court, King, Virginia Wade, Steffi Graf, and Martina Navratilova.

Evert's graceful appearance, conventional good looks, quiet demeanor, outward appearance of gracious sportsmanship, and carefully manipulated sex appeal and public image made her a favorite with the media and fans, although she was also considered the women's tour leader in dirty jokes.

The Greatest Ever?

Opinions are naturally divided on the status of Chris Evert in the history of the women's game. Most commentators and sports writers rank her amongst the top six woman players of all time. Her record of consistency and volume of achievement in the game is undoubtedly sufficient for her to stake a legitimate claim to be considered as the greatest female player of the Open era. However, most experts place Chris Evert behind Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf (who won 22 Grand Slams) in the all-time list of champions. Yet, in terms of accomplishment, Evert was the equal of Navratilova (with 18 Grand Slams apiece).

Evert's own claim to be considered as the best of the best is based on at least three sets of considerations. First, her career win-loss record (at 90 percent success rate) is the best of the Open era. For both men and women, only Navratilova has won more career tournaments than Evert (167 to 157), but Chris Evert has won a greater proportion of the tournaments she has competed in than any other player (man or woman) of the Open period. Second, Evert's record of wins in Grand Slam tournaments (18) is a significant underestimation of the full extent of her dominance of the women's game in the 1970s and early 1980s. It should be recalled that the Australian Open underwent a serious decline in status from the mid 1970s to the start of the 1980s. Consequently, Chris Evert (along with the best international players) scarcely competed at the event during this period. Evert herself did not enter the tournament in 1975, 1976, 1977 (where it was held twice!), 1978, 1979 or 1980. Since Evert was the undisputed world No. 1 from 1975 through to 1978, and again in 1980, it seems highly probable that she would have lifted the title on several occasions if she had competed during these years, adding to her formidable Grand Slam tally. Of equal significance, it should also be recalled that Evert did not compete in the French Open in the years 1976, 1977 and 1978, owing both to a temporary decline in the fortunes of that event (so that the top Americans stayed away) and the lure of World Team Tennis. Again, since Chris Evert was during this period enjoying her maximal dominance of the women's game, and was unbeatable on clay courts, there seems no serious doubt that she would have won the tournament on each of these occasions had she competed. This means that, if these factors had not come into play, at the very least Evert would have won 21 Grand Slams, and it is highly likely that she would have won as many as 25. She could conceivably have done better than 25.

Second, with regard to the issue of whether Evert or Navratilova should be considered the greater player, the point could be made that Evert's 37-43 match deficit in their longstanding rivalry does not accurately reflect the real balance of power between the two players over the duration of their careers. Yet for many commentators this is singled out as demonstrating Navratilova's superiority. For a start, a far greater proportion of their matches were played on fast court surfaces (which favoured Navratilova's serve-and-volley game) than on slow or medium-paced surfaces (which favoured Evert's baseline style). They played each other rather more on grass and indoors (40 times) than on clay and shale (American Har-Tru clay) (13 times). Remarkably, they played more matches on grass (15) than on clay, despite the fact that for the greater duration of their rivalry far more major international tournaments and WTA tour events were played on the former than on the latter (including Italian Open, French Open, US Open, South African Open, WITA finals, Virginia Slims finals, US Clay Courts). (On grass courts, Navratilova held a 10-5 career record over Evert; on clay courts, Evert held a 10-3 career record over Navratillova). For a significant part of their rivalry, Navratilova preferred not to challenge Chris Evert at all on clay. After two demoralising defeats to Evert in the finals of the 1975 Italian Open (6-1, 6-0) and French Open (2-6, 6-2, 6-1), for example, Navratilova did not challenge her American rival on European clay until her return to Paris in 1982. During this period Navratilova also avoided the North American clay court season (with the exception of Forest Hills, then home of the US Open). She did not challenge Evert again on American clay until her 6-0, 6-0 rout at the final of the Murjani WITA at Amelia Island in the spring of 1981. Conversely, Evert was never afraid to play Navratilova on any surface - clay, grass, hard courts, or indoors. With a more even distribution of matches across fast and slower surfaces, Evert could easily have maintained her head-to-head edge over Navratilova in their personal rivalry.

But a second point is relevant here to the issue of Navratilova-Evert world comparisons. In the mid-1970s, there was a split of Grand Slam events between slow and fast surfaces (Roland Garros and Forest Hills on clay, Wimbledon and Kooyong on grass). Then, from the late 1970s, there was a shift, with the US Open being played on medium-paced hard courts for a few years at its new Flushing Meadows home. During this period, Chris Evert enjoyed her greatest success in Grand Slam tournaments, partly because more of these big events (50 percent) were played on surfaces especially compatible with her game. From the early 1980s, however, as Navratilova took over the mantle of world No. 1, the balance shifted inexorably in favour of fast court surfaces in Grand Slam events, with the Australian Open continuing alongside Wimbledon on grass for a few years, before switching over to fast hard courts, and with the court speed being steadily enhanced at the US Open. This shift towards faster courts (with only 25 percent of Grand Slams still being played on slower surfaces) undoubtedly assisted Navratilova in unseating Evert from the No. 1 ranking. If the old balance of court surfaces in Grand Slam events had been preserved, Navratilova would have found it a much harder job gaining the upper hand over her great American rival.

Leaving all this aside, what can be said with a measure of authority is that Chris Evert was probably the greatest clay court woman player of all time, whereas Navratilova was probably the greatest woman player on grass courts.

Chris Evert was voted the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year on four occasions and received Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportswoman of the Year" award in 1976.[3][4] 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 from 1975-76, and from 1983 to 1991.[5] 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 whilst 1999 saw Evert rated No. 50 among North American athletes of the 20th century.[6][7] In 2005, TENNIS Magazine named her fourth on its list of TENNIS Magazine's 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS Era.

Personal life

Chris Evert was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Colette Thompson and James A. Evert. Early in her career, before she won her first Grand Slam event, Chris Evert signed a contract with Puritan Fashions Corp. 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.

Evert's father, Jimmy Evert, was a professional tennis coach. Tennis was a way of life in his family: Chris and her sister Jeanne Evert became professional tennis players, and their brother Jack Evert attended Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama on a full athletic scholarship for intercollegiate tennis. Evert is a 1973 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Evert's romance with the top men's player Jimmy Connors captured the public's imagination in the 1970s, particularly after they both claimed the singles titles at Wimbledon in 1974. Evert and Connors also occasionally played mixed doubles together. In 1974, they were runner-up at the U.S. Open. They became engaged, but the romance did not last. A wedding planned for November 8, 1974 was called off.

In the years that followed, Chris Evert was romantically linked with several other high-profile men. She reportedly had affairs with, among others, actor Burt Reynolds, Geraldo Rivera, Adam Faith, Vitas Gerulaitis, Pat Boone, and John Gardner “Jack” Ford, son of U.S. President Gerald Ford).

In 1979, Evert married the British tennis player John Lloyd and changed her name to Chris Evert-Lloyd. This marriage ended in divorce in 1987.

In 1988, Chris Evert married two-time Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill. They have three sons – Alexander James (born 1991), Nicholas Joseph (born 1994), and Colton Jack (born 1996). 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. She is rumoured to be dating Australian golfer Greg Norman. In September 2007 Greg Norman announced his intention to marry Evert.

Chris Evert is operating a tennis academy with Robert Seguso and his wife, Carling Bassett-Seguso.

Trivia