crème de la crème

ganesh · 2023-03-16 01:25:07

1240) Bill Tilden

Summary

William Tatem Tilden II (February 10, 1893 – June 5, 1953), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American tennis player. Tilden was the world No. 1 amateur for six consecutive years, from 1920 to 1925, and was ranked as the world No. 1 professional by Ray Bowers in 1931 and 1932 and Ellsworth Vines in 1933. He won 14 Major singles titles, including 10 Grand Slam events, one World Hard Court Championships and three professional majors. He was the first American man to win Wimbledon, taking the title in 1920. He also won a joint-record seven U.S. Championships titles (shared with Richard Sears and Bill Larned).Tilden dominated the world of international tennis in the first half of the 1920s, and during his 20-year amateur period from 1911 to 1930, won 138 of 192 tournaments he contested. He owns a number of all-time tennis achievements, including the career match-winning record and the career winning percentage at the U.S. Championships. At the 1929 U.S. National Championships, Tilden became the first player to reach ten finals at the same Grand Slam event. Tilden, who was frequently at odds with the rigid United States Lawn Tennis Association about his amateur status and income derived from newspaper articles, won his last Major title in 1930 at Wimbledon aged 37. He turned professional at the end of that year and toured with other professionals for the next 15 years.

Details

William Tatem Tilden II towered over tennis both literally and figuratively. Known as “Big Bill,” he thoroughly dominated the game from 1920-1926. During that stretch, the 6-foot-2 foot Tilden won six straight U.S. National Championship Men’s Singles titles (7 overall) and Wimbledon three times. He punctuated that by winning 13 straight Davis Cup matches and leading the United States to seven consecutive titles, a Davis Cup record, over the foremost players from Australia, France, and Japan. Tilden brought a thinking approach to tennis, rather than a booming serve and banging forehand. He studied and mastered the use of spin, favored drop shots and lobs and would rely on his athleticism and physical talents to defeat his opponents. Tilden’s place in tennis history extends his on-court prowess. He was handsome, smart, gregarious, and charming, but he was likewise opinionated, arrogant, and inconsiderate. As his stardom rose, so did his ego.

Despite personal shortcomings, tennis holds its heroes in the highest esteem and close to the heart. Tilden was no different. He was beloved and admired, as much for the brilliance he brought to the court as the Hollywood appeal he exuded off the court. That side of Tilden’s personality was fitting — he long desired to become an actor and was a writer of more than 20 tennis books. Allison Danzig, the legendary New York Times tennis writer from 1923-1968, called Tilden the “greatest player he had ever seen.” Tilden had style and flash, walking onto the court in the 1920 U.S. National Singles Championship finals match against William Johnston wearing a camel hair coat. Luckily, Tilden was able to back up such pretentious entrance, winning a five-set slugfest 6-1, 1-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 over an opponent he would dispatch in five of his seven title match victories. With the triumph, a star was born. Legendary status would soon follow.

Tilden played as an amateur from 1912-1930, and then in need of money played professionally from 1931 until his death in 1953. For years Tilden had resisted the lure of professional tennis, but it was estimated he earned $500,000 in his pro career. As either an amateur or pro, Tilden was almost unbeatable, his seven U.S. National victories were earned at a 91 percent clip — he had 73 wins in 80 matches and from 1920-1926 won 42 straight matches. Frenchman René Lacoste interrupted Tilden’s reign of mastery, winning the 1926 and 1927 titles, the later victory coming over Tilden in three sets. Though doubles wasn’t necessarily his forte, judging by his U.S. National record he was extremely proficient. He won five men’s doubles titles and added four mixed doubles championships.

Tilden became the first American male to win Wimbledon, capturing back-to-back championships in 1920 and 1921 over Australian Gerald Patterson and South African Brian Norton respectively. Curiously, he didn’t return to the All England Club until 1927, losing in the semifinals three straight years. In 1930, and at age 37, Tilden became the oldest man to win a Wimbledon's singles title, defeating American Wilmer Allison in straight sets. Tilden’s Davis Cup teams were invincible from 1920-1926, winning seven straight titles. Big Bill led the charge, compiling a 34-7 record, including a 25-5 mark in singles, third best in history behind Andre Agassi and John McEnroe.

Many of Tilden’s statistical records stand alone, most notably his ten U.S. National finals appearances, a 42 match win streak at Forest Hills (1920-1926), a 95 match win streak (1924-1925), and a best win-loss (78-1) single season (1925). Tilden was ranked in the world’s Top 10 twelve straight times from 1919-1930. He was ranked No. 1 a record six times (1920-1925), matched by Pete Sampras in 1998.

Additional Information

Bill Tilden, byname of William Tatem Tilden II, also called Big Bill, (born February 10, 1893, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died June 5, 1953, Hollywood, California), was an American tennis player who dominated the game for more than a decade, winning seven U.S. championships (now the U.S. Open), three Wimbledon Championships, and two professional titles. His overpowering play and temperamental personality made him one of the most colourful sports figures of the 1920s.

Tilden learned to play tennis at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia, where his wealthy parents were members. Although he won the 1913 U.S. mixed doubles with Mary Browne, he did not reach the finals of the U.S. singles championship until 1918. Considered a late bloomer, he won the U.S. title from 1920 to 1925 and again in 1929. He also won several doubles (1918, 1921–23, 1927) and mixed doubles (1913–14, 1922–23) for a record total of 16 U.S. titles.

Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia.

Tilden became the first American player to win the men’s championship at Wimbledon in 1920 and repeated this victory in 1921 and 1930. Among his other titles were many indoor U.S. championships and Italian singles, men’s doubles and French mixed doubles, all in 1930. His Davis Cup play was outstanding, and his 21 victories in 28 cup matches helped the United States hold the trophy from 1920 to 1926. In 1931 Tilden turned professional and spent the next 15 years traveling the world and playing exhibition tennis matches. He was named the greatest tennis player of the first half of the 20th century in a 1950 Associated Press poll and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1959.

Tilden’s stellar accomplishments were often overshadowed by his controversial personal life.

ganesh · 2023-03-18 02:44:21

1241) Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers

Summary

Dorothea Lambert Chambers (née Dorothea Katherine Douglass, 3 September 1878 – 7 January 1960) was a British tennis player. She won seven Wimbledon women's singles titles and a gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

Tennis

In 1900, Douglass made her singles debut at Wimbledon, and after a bye in the first round, lost her second-round match to Louisa Martin. Three years later, she won her first of seven ladies singles titles. On 6 April 1907, she married Robert Lambert Chambers and was became known by her married surname Lambert Chambers.

In 1908, she won the gold medal in the women's singles event at the 1908 Summer Olympics after a straight-sets victory in the final against compatriot Dora Boothby.

She wrote Tennis for Ladies, published in 1910. The book contained photographs of tennis techniques and contained advice on attire and equipment.

In 1911, Lambert Chambers won the women's final at Wimbledon against Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0, the first player to win a Grand Slam singles final without losing a game. The only other female player to achieve this was Steffi Graf when she defeated Natalia Zvereva in the 1988 French Open final.

In 1919, Lambert Chambers played the longest Wimbledon final up to that time: 44 games against Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. Lambert Chambers held two match points at 6–5 in the third set but eventually lost to Lenglen 8–10, 6–4, 7–9.

Lambert Chambers only played sporadic singles after 1921 but continued to compete in doubles until 1927. She made the singles quarterfinals of the U.S. Championships in 1925, and from 1924 to 1926, she captained Britain's Wightman Cup team. In the 1925 Wightman Cup, she played, at the age of 46, a singles (against Eleanor Goss) and doubles match and won both. In 1928 she turned to professional coaching.

Lambert Chambers posthumously was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981. She died in Kensington, London in January 1960.

Details

Dorothea Lambert Chambers was such as dominating force on the grass at Wimbledon that two of her seven championship victories rank among the 17 most lopsided women’s finals in history. The fact that they came seven years apart may just be a numerical coincidence, but there was no mistaking that Chambers was an opponent to be feared at the All England Club. She was a finalist 12 times, tied for second best in history with Martina Navratilova, behind Blanche Bingley Hillyard’s 13 trips. In her twenty years playing at Wimbledon, Chambers hardly lost, compiling a 32-8 record in singles, 29-11 mark in doubles and 24-11 in mixed play. Her seven singles championships ranks third best in history (currently, Serena Williams is tied with her) behind Navratilova (9) and Helen Wills Moody (8).

In 1903, Chambers won the first of her Wimbledon crowns, defeating Brit Ethel Thomson Larcombe in three rare sets, and needed a comeback effort to claim the championship. Chambers prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, and must have abhorred going the distance. Her next six championships were all completed in straight sets and she yielded just 29 games. In 1904, she bounced Charlotte Cooper Sterry from the winner’s circle 6-0, 6-3. In 1911, she demolished Dora Boothby, 6-0, 6-0. Both Thomson (1912) and Boothby (1909) would win Wimbledon Ladies Championships, but when they faced the athletic Chambers they were no match. When she shut out Boothby, she became the first player to win a major singles final without dropping a game.

Douglass won seven of her Wimbledon titles against five different opponents, knocking out American May Sutton Bundy in 1906 (6-3, 9-7), Boothby in 1910 (6-2, 6-2), Winifred Slocock McNair in 1913 (6-0, 6-4), and Ethel Thomson Larcombe in 1914 (7-5, 6-4).

Chambers was a Wimbledon finalist in 1905, 1907, 1912, 1919, and 1920. Sutton defeated her 6-3, 6-4 in 1905 and again in 1907, 6-1, 6-4. The incomparable Suzanne Lenglen earned the first of her five straight championships in dramatic fashion in 1919, holding off Chambers in three sets, 10-8, 4-6, 9-7. Chambers was trailing 4-1, and staged a remarkable comeback in a match historians say ranks among the all-time best on Centre Court. Chambers used her resourceful all-court game and reliable backcourt strokes to surge ahead 6-5, and was serving up 40-15. Lenglen miraculously recovered and eked out the match. When the pair met again in the 1920 final, Lenglen squashed any notion of a long, drawn out match, winning convincingly, 6-3, 6-0. The 41-year-old Chambers made history as the oldest female Wimbledon finalist.

Chambers played in three Wimbledon Ladies Doubles finals (1913, 1919, 1920) and one in mixed doubles (1919) final. She failed to secure a title, however: the closest she came was in 1919, teaming with Larcombe in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 loss against Lenglen and American Elizabeth Ryan. In a twist of fate, she lost the 1919 mixed doubles final partnered with Albertem Prebble to Ryan and Randolph Lycett, 6-0, 6-0.

At age 46, she was still actively slugging it out, playing on the 1925 Wightman Cup team. Chambers helped her team secure a 4-3 victory with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Eleanor Gross, who was 16 years younger than Chambers. At the 1908 Olympic Games in London, both indoor and outdoor tennis was played, and Chambers won the outdoor Gold Medal defeating fellow Brit Dora Booth.

Chambers authored Lawn Tennis for Ladies, first published in London in 1910. It was both a written and pictorial reference book on how to hit all the tennis shots with detailed explanations.

Additional Information

Dorothea Lambert Chambers, née Dorothea Katharine Douglass, (born September 13, 1878, Ealing, Middlesex, England—died January 7, 1960, London), was a British tennis player who was the leading female competitor in the period prior to World War I.

Chambers won the Wimbledon singles seven times (1903–04, 1906, 1910–11, 1913–14), a record surpassed only by Helen Wills Moody in the 1930s. In the 1919 Wimbledon singles championship, Chambers lost to Suzanne Lenglen of France in a memorable game. In 1925, at the age of 46, she reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. championships and played on the British doubles team for the Wightman Cup. An outstanding all-around athlete, Chambers was also a champion badminton and field hockey player.

ganesh · 2023-03-20 00:14:49

1242) Richard Sears (tennis)

Summary

Richard Dudley Sears, (born Oct. 26, 1861, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died April 8, 1943), was the first American men’s singles champion in lawn tennis (1881) and winner of that title for each of the six following years. His record has never been equaled by any other amateur player. Sears also won the U.S. men’s doubles championship for six straight years (1882–84 and 1886–87, with James Dwight, and 1885, with Joseph Sill Clark). He retired from lawn-tennis competition in 1888 because of an injury, but he won the first U.S. men’s singles championship in court tennis four years later.

Details

Richard Dudley Sears (October 26, 1861 – April 8, 1943) was an American tennis player, who won the US National Championships singles in its first seven years, from 1881 to 1887, and the doubles for six years from 1882 to 1887, after which he retired from tennis.

Early life

He was the son of Frederic Richard Sears and Albertina Homer Shelton. His brothers Philip and Herbert were also tennis players.

Tennis career

Sears learned to play tennis in 1879. Sears played his first tournament and won his first title at the Beacon Park Championships held at Beacon Park in Boston in October 1880. He was undefeated in the U.S. Championships, he won the first of his seven consecutive titles in 1881 while still a student at Harvard. In those days, the previous year's winner had an automatic place in the final. Starting in the 1881 first round, he went on an 18-match unbeaten streak that took him through the 1887 championships, after which he retired from the game. Not until 1921 was his 18-match unbeaten run overtaken (by Bill Tilden). During his first three championships, Sears did not lose a single set. Sears was the first 19-year-old to win in the U.S., slightly older than Oliver Campbell in 1890 and Pete Sampras in 1990.

Although primarily remembered for his grand slam titles he did compete in and win other titles. He won his first tournament at Beacon Park in Boston in 1880, defeating Edward Gray. In May 1883, he reached the semifinals of the Longwood Bowl in Boston, losing to James Dwight by a walkover. In 1884 he traveled to Europe to play tournaments in Great Britain and Ireland. At the second major tournament of the 19th century the Irish Championships, held in Dublin he reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Herbert Lawford in three sets. Sears had to withdraw from the West of England Championships held at Bath due to a foot injury but in June he reached the final of the East Gloucestershire Championships held at Cheltenham, losing in three sets to Donald Stewart.

He then traveled to Manchester to compete at the second most important English tournament at the time the Northern Championships where he also reached the quarterfinals, again losing to Stewart. Unable to compete at the Wimbledon Championships due to a wrist injury he returned to the United States in July after the U.S. Championships he entered the U.S. National Collegiate Championships in Hartford, Connecticut, where he reached the semi-finals. In June 1885 he won the Middle States Championships in Hoboken, New Jersey, defeating Howard Taylor.

Sears was the first U.S. No. 1 in the USLTA rankings, when they began in 1885 and retained the ranking in 1886 and 1887.

After giving up playing lawn tennis, Sears won the U.S. Court Tennis singles title in 1892 and also served as USTA president in 1887 and 1888.

Personal life

Sears married Eleanor M. Cochrane on November 24, 1891, and they had two children, Richard Dudley Sears Jr. and Miriam Sears. He died on April 8, 1943. His grandson was the Massachusetts politician John W. Sears.

Legacy

Sears was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1955.

Additional Information

Harvard-educated, Richard Dudley Sears looked more like a college professor than the dominant tennis player of his generation. He was bespectacled with a thick mustache and his playing ensemble was a black and white striped jacket and cap, adorned by a necktie. Sears dominated competitive tennis in America from its very beginning. He won the U.S. National Men’s Singles Championships at the Newport Casino for seven straight years (1881-87), defeating seven different opponents. Only three men in tennis history have won seven U.S. National/US Open Championships: Sears, William Larned (1901-02, 1907-11), and Bill Tilden (1920-25, 1929). One glaring statistic separates Sears from that illustrious group: Sears won his successively – a record as enduring as any in our sporting culture. At America’s tennis event Sears won 13 combined titles (1881-87), second most in history behind the immortal Tilden.

In his first three title matches, Sears didn’t lose a set and only three total sets in his seven victories. He enjoyed an 18-match win streak that stood from 1887 to 1922, when Tilden earned his 19th straight victory. Sears employed an attacking style, which he frequently utilized to dismantle his opponent. He moved into the forecourt to end points with crisp volleys before other players fully perceived the tactic and could react. It was a strategic windfall for Sears who became a terrific net player, leading to six straight U.S. Men’s Doubles Championships (1882-87), five of those alongside James Dwight. The five titles won by that dashing duo is tied for best in U.S. history with the Bryan brothers. In total, however, Sears won six straight doubles titles, and that mark stands alone. The team of Sears and Joseph Clark won their 1885 title playing just 23 total games in defeating Henry Slocum and Wallace Knapp, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2.

After giving up playing lawn tennis, Sears won the U.S. Court Tennis singles title in 1892 and served as USNLTA President in 1887 and 1888. Sears career was chronicled in Lawn Tennis in America (1889), authored by Valentine G. Hall, a 1888 and 1890 U.S. National Men’s Doubles Champion.

ganesh · 2023-03-26 22:12:05

1243) Giovannino Guareschi

Giovannino Oliviero Giuseppe Guareschi (1 May 1908 – 22 July 1968) was an Italian journalist, cartoonist and humorist whose best known creation is the priest Don Camillo.

Life and career

Giovannino Guareschi was born into a middle-class family in Fontanelle di Roccabianca, Province of Parma, in 1908. He always joked about the fact that he, a big man, was baptized Giovannino, a name meaning "little John" or "Johnny".

In 1926 his family went bankrupt and he could not continue his studies at the University of Parma. After working at various minor jobs, he started to write for a local newspaper, the Gazzetta di Parma. In 1929 he became editor of the satirical magazine Corriere Emiliano, and from 1936 to 1943 he was the chief editor of a similar magazine called Bertoldo.

In 1943 he was drafted into the army, which apparently helped him to avoid trouble with the Italian Fascist authorities. He ended up as an artillery officer.

When Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in 1943, he was arrested as an Italian military internee and imprisoned with other Italian soldiers in camps in German-occupied Poland for almost two years, including at Stalag X-B near Sandbostel. He later wrote about this period in Diario Clandestino (My Secret Diary).

After the war Guareschi returned to Italy and in 1945 founded a monarchist weekly satirical magazine, Candido. After Italy became a republic, he supported the Democrazia Cristiana party. He criticized and satirized the Communists in his magazine, famously drawing a Communist as a man with an extra nostril, and coining a slogan that became very popular: "Inside the voting booth God can see you, Stalin can't." When the Communists were defeated in the 1948 Italian general election, Guareschi did not put his pen down but also criticized the Democrazia Cristiana party.

In 1950, Candido published a satirical cartoon by Carlo Manzoni poking fun at Luigi Einaudi, President of the Republic. The President is at the Quirinal Palace, surrounded by, instead of the presidential guard of honour (the corazzieri), giant bottles of Nebbiolo wine, which Einaudi actually produced on his land in Dogliani. Each bottle was labeled with the institutional logo. The cartoon was judged 'in Contempt of the President' by a court at the time. Guareschi, as the director of the magazine, was held responsible and sentenced.

Fernandel as Don Camillo

In 1954 Guareschi was charged with libel after he published two facsimile wartime letters from resistance leader and former Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi requesting that the Allies bomb the outskirts of Rome in order to demoralize German collaborators. The legitimacy of the letters was never established by the court, but after a two-month trial it found in favour of De Gasperi. Guareschi declined to appeal the verdict and spent 409 days in Parma's San Francesco jail, and another six months on probation at his home.

His most famous comic creations are his short stories, begun in the late 1940s, about the rivalry between Don Camillo, a stalwart Italian priest, and the equally hot-headed Peppone, Communist mayor of a Po River Valley village in the "Little World." These stories were dramatized on radio, television and in films, most notably in the series of films featuring Fernandel as Don Camillo.

By 1956 Guareschi's health had deteriorated and he began spending time in Switzerland for treatment. In 1957 he retired as editor of Candido but remained a contributor.

He died in Cervia in 1968 of a heart attack, at age 60.

ganesh · Yesterday 00:09:31

1244) Pam Shriver

Details

Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster, pundit, and coach. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 WTA Tour-level titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title. This includes 22 major titles, 21 in women's doubles and one in mixed doubles. Shriver also won an Olympic gold medal in women's doubles at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, partnering Zina Garrison. Shriver and regular doubles partner Martina Navratilova are the only women's pair to complete the Grand Slam in a calendar year, winning all four majors in 1984. She was ranked as high was world No. 3 in singles, and world No. 1 in doubles.

Playing style

Shriver was well known for her variety, including sharp volleys and all-round solid technique at the net. She also possessed a strong slice forehand and underspin approach, which set her apart from the rest of the women's field, but she had a comparatively weak chip backhand. She was known for being a serve-and-volleyer.

Career

Shriver first came to prominence at the 1978 US Open where, as a 16-year-old amateur, she reached the women's singles final. She defeated the reigning Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova in a semifinal. Shriver then lost to Chris Evert in the final. This early singles achievement proved to be the pinnacle of her singles success. Shriver also won her first career singles title in 1978 in Columbus, Ohio and won a total of 21 singles titles between 1978 and 1997.

The 1978 US Open final was the only Grand Slam singles final of Shriver's career. She lost the next eight Grand Slam singles semifinals she played, four of them to Navratilova, two to Steffi Graf, and one each to Evert and Hana Mandlíková.

In 2022 Shriver disclosed that she had been in a multi-year inappropriate relationship with her coach, Australian Don Candy, that started when she was a teenager. She chose to reveal the story in part because of her concern that there are ongoing issues with young tennis players being placed in vulnerable situations.

Doubles

Shriver achieved numerous successes in doubles tournaments with Navratilova, winning 79 women's doubles titles. Shriver won 112 career doubles titles overall and is one of six female players in the Open era to have won more than 100 career titles.

Navratilova and Shriver formed one of the most successful women's doubles teams, capturing seven Australian Open, five Wimbledon, five US Open and four French Open titles. In 1984, the pair captured all four major women's doubles titles, i.e. the "Calendar Grand Slam." This was part of a record 109-match winning streak between 1983 and 1985. The pair were named the WTA Tour's "Doubles Team of the Year" eight consecutive times from 1981 through 1988 and won the WTA Tour Championships title ten times between 1981 and 1992.

Shriver won another women's doubles Grand Slam title at the US Open in 1991, partnering with Natasha Zvereva. She was also the 1987 French Open mixed doubles winner with Emilio Sánchez. She won all three gold medals (singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles) at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba.

Shriver reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking in 1985 and held it briefly before relinquishing it again to Navratilova, her playing partner.

Federation Cup

In the Federation Cup representing the United States, Shriver won five out of five singles matches and 14 of 15 doubles matches. From 1986 to 1992, she played in 17 Federation Cup ties. She reached three finals with her compatriots, winning twice; in 1986 the U.S. defeated Czechoslovakia (3–0); in 1987 the U.S. lost to Germany (1–2); and in 1989 the U.S. defeated Spain (3–0).[6]

Broadcaster

Shriver has provided television commentary for ABC, CBS, ESPN, and The Tennis Channel in the United States, the BBC in the United Kingdom, and the Seven Network in Australia. She has been providing coverage of various events since her 1996 retirement.

During Wimbledon 2010, James Blake admonished Shriver for criticizing him while his match was still in progress, as Shriver was in an outside commentary box and he could hear her. Shriver said she regretted responding to Blake while still on air.

Equipment

Shriver was one of the first players to use an oversized racquet, manufactured by Prince.

Distinctions and honors

* Throughout the 1980s, Shriver was ranked among the world's top 10 in women's singles, peaking at world No. 3.
* She was elected to serve as president of the WTA Tour Players Association from 1991 to 1994.
* She has served as president of the USA Tennis Foundation and on the board of directors of the United States Tennis Association.
* She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002.
* She was awarded the Ambassador Award of Excellence by the LA Sports & Entertainment Commission in 2002.

Additional Information

Pam Shriver made her indelible mark in tennis as one of the greatest doubles players in history. In a career that began when she was a fresh-faced 16-year-old from Baltimore in 1979, and lasted for nearly two decades, Shriver won 111 doubles championships. She is one of only six women’s players in the Open Era to surpass 100 career titles and perhaps more importantly won the women’s Grand Slam in doubles in 1984 with longtime partner Martina Navratilova.

Shriver teamed with Navratilova to form a combination that was virtually unbeatable. The two won 74 titles together – twenty of which came in major tournaments (seven Australian, five Wimbledon, four US Open, four French Open), and the two are tied with Louise Brough Clapp and Margaret Osborne duPont for the most majors as a team in history. The duo’s record-breaking career included a record 109 match winning streak that extended from April 1983 to July 1985. In an 11-year span from 1981 to 1992, they won the WTA Tour Championships ten times and were named the WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year eight straight times (1981-88). In all, Shriver amassed 21 doubles titles, which ranks second all-time in women’s history behind Navratilova’s 31 and puts her in a three-way tie with Americans Brough Clapp and Osborne duPont.

Shriver’s 6-foot frame, long angular arms and legs made her a tough opponent who, whether playing singles or doubles, was constantly charging the net. Her length and reach could be demoralizing because it took precise shots to slip a ball past her. Shriver’s sharp, punctuating volleys were difficult to combat; her strength, combined with a larger-sized racquet head, didn’t provide many openings. Her vertical extension ruled out lobbing as tactic. When adding the nimble, agile, and powerful Navratilova to the mix, the pair were the most athletic duo in the modern era. Their similar attacking styles left little room for opponents to exploit.

Shriver and Navratilova first teamed at the 1981 Australian Open, where they suffered the first of only three major final losses in 23 opportunities, falling to the American team of Kathy Jordan and Anne Smith, 6-2, 7-5. From 1982-85, Shriver and Navratilova won 11 straight major titles and were only taken to a third set three times. In a rare occurrence, the duo were defeated in the 1985 Wimbledon and US Open finals, but proceeded to win eight majors from the 1986 Wimbledon to the 1989 Australian.

The duo won seven straight Australian titles (1982-89), second all-time to the record 10 won by Aussies Thelma Coyne Long and Nancye Wynne Bolton. They earned five titles at Wimbledon (1981-84, 1986), putting them in a three-way tie for second all-time behind the six earned by Suzanne Lenglen and Elizabeth Ryan. Four championships were captured at the French (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988), a spot shared with just three other combinations. The pair won four US Open titles (1983, 1984, 1986, 1987) tied for second best and behind the incomparable 12 titles won by Brough Clapp and Osborne duPont. Shriver and Navratilova played the majors until the 1989 US Open where Shriver teamed with Mary Joe Fernandez to reach the finals against Navratilova and Hana Mandlikova. Her only major doubles title without Navratilova came at the 1991 US Open, where she partnered with Natasha Zvereva. In 1987 she earned a mixed doubles major title at the French Open with Spain’s Emilio Sanchez.

Shriver caught the world’s attention at the 1978 US Open where she played as an amateur in singles and earned the No. 16 seed. She was the youngest to reach a US Open final, five months younger than 1979 titlist Tracy Austin. Perhaps more surprising than the high school student advancing to the finals against No. 2 seed Chris Evert was how and who she defeated to reach the crowning moment of her singles career. In the semifinals, Shriver knocked off No. 1 Navratilova, 7-6, 7-6, displaying not the slightest tinge of awe. Shriver had a big, flat serve, a unique underspin forehand, and a sliced one-handed backhand. It was a style that was in stark contrast to the topspin games favored on the women’s tour. This distinctive style was in full splendor when she met Evert in the final.

Shriver constantly sliced her forehand deeply and moved like a gazelle to net, but Evert’s backcourt game was too polished and exact, and Shriver couldn’t match stroke-for-stroke with the legend. Shriver did force Evert to mix up her game with her own approaches to net and gave the ultimate champion a strong showing, losing 7-5, 6-4. Evert praised Shriver’s game afterwards, saying “she stayed cool.”

While doubles was her forte, Shriver advanced to 48 tour singles finals, winning 21 of them. Her first championship was earned on January 23, 1978, defeating American Kate Latham in Columbus, Ohio, 6-1, 6-3. To her credit, Shriver was a major singles semifinalist eight times on the fast courts at Australia (1981, 1982, 1983), Wimbledon (1981, 1987, 1988) and the US Open (1982, 1983). Those losses came against the game’s crème de la crème – four against Navratilova, two versus Steffi Graf, and one each against Evert and Mandlikova.

Shriver’s most meaningful non-major championship came in 1988 when she and partner Zina Garrison won the Olympic Gold Medal at the 1988 Games played in Seoul over Helena Suková and Jana Novotná, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8. Shriver was a Wightman Cup team member for five years, winning titles in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1987. She also was a member of the Fed Cup team for four years, winning titles in 1986 and 1989. In singles she was a world Top 10-ranked player nine times, reaching a high of No. 3 in 1984 and winning 625 matches. She earned a No. 1 doubles ranking in 1985, and won 622 of 744 doubles matches.

Following her playing days, Shriver embarked on a highly successful broadcasting career with several networks, including ABC, CBS, and most notably with ESPN.

Math Is Fun Forum

#1276 2023-03-16 01:25:07

Re: crème de la crème

#1277 2023-03-18 02:44:21

Re: crème de la crème

#1278 2023-03-20 00:14:49

Re: crème de la crème

#1279 2023-03-26 22:12:05

Re: crème de la crème

#1280 Yesterday 00:09:31

Re: crème de la crème

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