Chris Evert

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. (For years, this was the record for the furthest a player had reached in her first senior-level tournament. That record was broken when another Floridian, Jennifer Capriati, reached the final of the tournament in Boca Raton, Florida, in 1990 at the age of 13.) 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.[6]

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 (40–0) 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.[7] This defeat ended a 46-match winning streak built up through a variety of professional and junior tour events.[8] 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 (King the US Open and Goolagong the Australian Open).

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[lower-alpha 1] 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.[9] 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.[10] 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 (the first woman to solely be chosen) and one of only four occasions (King, Arthur Ashe and Williams) the award was given to a tennis player.[11]

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 (1977) and the inaugural one on hard courts at Flushing Meadow (1978 - giving her the distinction as the only female player to win the US Open on two different surfaces). 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 (as well as 1976) 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 (10–4 in finals).

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.[12] 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 (including titles at the 1979 and 1980 French Open) before ending with a semifinal loss to eventual winner Hana Mandlíková at the 1981 French Open (a record of 189 victories in 191 matches on clay from 1973 to 1981). Hilde Krahwinkel had a similar run of clay-court dominance from 1935 through 1939, winning the French Championships in three consecutive years (not playing there the other two 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 (10 with seven French Opens and all three US Opens played on clay in 1975–77) before Nadal passed her with his 11th title at the 2018 French Open.[13] 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.[14] 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 (she was ranked No.1 in the world five of the six years she was absent from the event between 1975 and 1980) 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 (1975–80), she skipped ten Grand Slam tournaments.

In fact, between September 1971 (her Grand Slam debut at the US Open) and June 1983 (her twelfth visit to the Wimbledon Championships), 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 (1983 Wimbledon 3rd round; 1987 US Open quarterfinal; 1988 French Open 3rd round; 1989 US Open quarterfinal).

In total, of the record 34 Grand Slam finals reached, Evert won 18 Grand Slam singles titles: seven at the French Open (record for female), six at the US Open (an open era record, male or female, tied with Serena Williams), three at Wimbledon, and two at the Australian Open (both on grass). 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 (88.7%): 72–6 at the French Open, 94–15 at Wimbledon, 101–13 at the US Open (the record for most singles match wins in history, male or female), and 30–4 at the Australian Open (never failing to reach the final and she is the only female player to have played the final on grass and hard courts).

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 (1981, 1985), the French Open (1984), Wimbledon (1978, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985) and the US Open (1983, 1984) whereas three of Evert's four wins were at the French Open (1975, 1985, 1986) and the fourth was the Australian Open (1982). In their eight semifinal clashes, their record stands at four wins apiece. Evert defeated Navratilova in the semifinals of the US Open (1975), Wimbledon (1976 and 1980), and the Australian Open (1988) but lost to Navratilova in the semifinals of the US Open (1981), Wimbledon (1987 and 1988), and the French Open (1987). 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.[15][16] Upon her retirement, she had amassed 18 Grand Slam singles titles (at the time, an Open Era record, male or female), won 157 singles titles (at the time, the record for male or female) and 32 doubles titles. In her 303 tournaments played, Evert reached 229 finals with a win/loss record of 157–72 (68.6%) and 273 semifinals with a win/loss record of (90.1%). Her losses before the semifinal: first round (7); second round – two of which were defaults (6); third round – two of which were defaults (6); and quarterfinal losses (11).[17] 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.

Evert was born in 1954 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Colette (née Thompson) and Jimmy Evert,[22] and raised in a devout Catholic family.[23] 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.[24] 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 [Connors] used the book to misrepresent a private matter".[25][26][27]

During the 1978 US Open, her diamond line bracelet fell off onto the court.[28][29] She said about this, "I dropped my tennis bracelet", and since then diamond line bracelets have been called tennis bracelets.[28][29] Oddly, the majority of the articles on the Internet about the incident incorrectly claim that it occurred in 1987.[30]

John Lloyd and Evert in Fort Lauderdale, 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,[31][32][33] but reconciled and chronicled their marriage in a biography Lloyd On Lloyd co-authored by Carol Thatcher.[34] The couple divorced in April 1987.[35]

In 1988, Evert married two-time Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill. They have three sons: Alexander (b. 1991), Nicholas (b. 1994) and Colton (b. 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.[36]

Evert left Mill to marry her third husband, Australian golfer Greg Norman, on June 28, 2008, in the Bahamas.[37] On October 2, 2009, they announced they were separating after only 15 months. Their divorce became final on December 8, 2009.[38][39]

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.[40] She was also a member of the Athlete Advisory Committee for the 2019 Aurora Games.[41]

• Amdur, Neil; Evert, Chris (1982). Chrissie, My Own Story. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-44376-3.
• Howard, Johnette (2006). The Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship. New York: Broadway. ISBN 0-7679-1885-1.
• Wind, Herbert Warren (October 13, 1986). "The Sporting Scene: Mainly about Chris Evert Lloyd". The New Yorker. 62 (34): 117–145.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Evert.

• Chris Evert at the Women's Tennis Association
• Chris Evert at the International Tennis Federation
• Chris Evert at the Fed Cup
• Chris Evert at the International Tennis Hall of Fame