Chris Evert

He was a professional tennis coach who had won the men's singles title at the Canadian Championships in 1947.

Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player.

Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record six US Open titles (tied with Serena Williams).

Evert was born in 1954 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Colette ( Thompson) and Jimmy Evert, and raised in a committed Catholic household.

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.

Alongside Martina Navratilova, her greatest rival, Evert dominated women's tennis for much of the 1970s and 1980s.

Evert contested 34 major singles finals, a record for women's tennis.

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 as the youngest player ever in the competition.

In singles, Evert reached the semifinals or better in 52 of the 56 majors she played, including at 34 consecutive majors entered from the 1971 US Open through the 1983 French Open.

She never lost in the first or second round of a major, and lost in the third round only twice.

Evert holds the record of most consecutive years (13) of winning at least one major title.

Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 89.97% (1309–146) is the second highest in the Open Era, for men or women.

On clay courts, Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 94.55% (382–22) remains a WTA Tour record.

She also won three major doubles titles, two partnering with Navratilova and one partnering with Olga Morozova.

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.

This defeat ended a 46-match winning streak built up through a variety of professional and junior tour events.

She is a 1973 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale.

Evert's father 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, Jeanne, and Clare, all won titles at the prestigious Junior Orange Bowl in Florida.

Evert began taking tennis lessons from her father Jimmy Evert when she was five years old.

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.

For the next five years, Evert was the world's No.1 player.

Evert was ranked world No. 1 for 260 weeks, and was the year-end world No. 1 singles player seven times (1974–78, 1980, 1981).

Evert served as president of the Women's Tennis Association for eleven 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.

That record was broken when another Floridian, Jennifer Capriati, reached the final at Boca Raton in 1990.