Virginia Wade

Sarah Virginia Wade Template:Post-nominals (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional tennis player. She won three major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all four majors. She was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world in singles, and No. 1 in the world in doubles.

Wade was the most recent British tennis player to win a major singles tournament until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open, and was the most recent British woman to have won a major singles title until Emma Raducanu won the 2021 US Open. After retiring from competitive tennis, she coached for four years,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and has also worked as a tennis commentator and game analyst for the BBC and Eurosport, and (in the US) for CBS.

Early life

Wade was born in Bournemouth, England, UK, on 10 July 1945. Her father was the archdeacon of Durban.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At one year old, Wade moved to South Africa with her parents. There, she learned how to play tennis. When she was aged 15, the family moved back to England, and she went to Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1961, she was on the tennis team of Wimbledon County Girls' Grammar School. She studied mathematics and physics at the University of Sussex, graduating in 1966.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tennis career

Template:BLP sources section Wade's tennis career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of the Open Era. In 1968, as an amateur, she won the inaugural open tennis competition – the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth. She turned down the £300 first prize, choosing to play for expenses only.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Five months later, after turning professional, she won the women's singles championship at the first US Open (and prize-money of $6,000 - $Template:Inflation today), defeating Billie Jean King in the final. Her second Major tennis singles championship came in 1972 at the Australian Open when she defeated Australian Evonne Goolagong in the final 6–4, 6–4. She was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1973 Birthday Honours for services to lawn tennis.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. It was the 16th year in which she had played at Wimbledon, and she secured her first appearance in the final by beating the defending champion Chris Evert in the semifinal 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. In the final, she beat Betty Stöve in three sets to claim the championship, nine days before her 32nd birthday. 1977 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships as well as the Silver Jubilee year of Elizabeth II, who attended the final for the first time since 1962.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>"Queen returns to Wimbledon after 33 years". BBC News. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2017</ref>

Wade also won four Major women's doubles championships with Margaret Smith Court – two of them at the US Open tennis tournament, one at the Australian Open, and one at the French Open. In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the Italian Open women's doubles championship with Virginia Ruzici of Romania.

Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles championships and amassed $1,542,278 in career prize money. She was ranked in the world's top 10 continuously from 1967 to 1979. Her career spanned a total of 26 years. She retired from singles competition at the end of the 1985 tennis season, and then from doubles at the end of 1986. She played at Wimbledon on 26 occasions, an all-time record;<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> 24 of those times were in the women's singles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After tennis

Since 1981, while she was still playing, Wade has been a reporter on tennis events for the BBC.<ref name="BBC bio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1982, she became the first woman to be elected to the Wimbledon Committee.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Wade was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1986 Birthday Honours for services to lawn tennis.<ref name="BBC bio" /><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

In 1989, Wade was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (3 titles)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1968	US Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Billie Jean King	6–4, 6–2
Win	1972	Australian Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Evonne Goolagong	6–4, 6–4
Win	1977	Wimbledon	Grass	Template:Flagicon Betty Stöve	4–6, 6–3, 6–1

Women's doubles: 10 (4 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1969	US Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Françoise Dürr Template:Flagicon Darlene Hard	6–0, 3–6, 4–6
Loss	1970	Wimbledon	Grass	Template:Flagicon Françoise Dürr	Template:Flagicon Rosie Casals Template:Flagicon Billie Jean King	2–6, 3–6
Loss	1970	US Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Rosie Casals	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court Template:Flagicon Judy Tegart Dalton	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1972	US Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Françoise Dürr Template:Flagicon Betty Stöve	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
Win	1973	Australian Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Kerry Harris Template:Flagicon Kerry Melville	6–4, 6–4
Win	1973	French Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Françoise Dürr Template:Flagicon Betty Stöve	6–2, 6–3
Win	1973	US Open	Grass	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Rosie Casals Template:Flagicon Billie Jean King	2–6, 6–3, 7–5
Win	1975	US Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Rosie Casals Template:Flagicon Billie Jean King	7–5, 2–6, 7–6(7–5)
Loss	1976	US Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Olga Morozova	Template:Flagicon Linky Boshoff Template:Flagicon Ilana Kloss	1–6, 4–6
Loss	1979	French Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Françoise Dürr	Template:Flagicon Betty Stöve Template:Flagicon Wendy Turnbull	6–3, 5–7, 4–6

Year-end championships finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner–up)

Result	Year	Location	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1975	Los Angeles	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Margaret Court	Template:Flagicon Rosie Casals Template:Flagicon Billie Jean King	6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–2), 6–2
Loss	1977	New York	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Françoise Dürr	Template:Flagicon Martina Navratilova Template:Flagicon Betty Stöve	5–7, 3–6

Singles titles (78)

Bold type indicates a Major championship

• 1967 – Connaught Hard Courts
• 1968 – US Open, Bloemfontein, Bournemouth, East London, Dewar Cup London
• 1969 – Cape Town, Hoylake, Dewar Cup Perth, Dewar Cup Stalybridge, Dewar Cup Aberavon, Dewar-Crystal Palace, East London
• 1970 – German Indoors, West Berlin Open, Irish Open, Stalybridge, Aberavon
• 1971 – Cape Town, Catania International Open, Rome, Newport-Wales, Cincinnati, Dewar Cup Billingham, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar Cup Final-London, Clean Air Classic
• 1972 – Australian Open, VS Indoors-Mass., Merion, Buenos Aires
• 1973 – Dallas, Bournemouth, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar Cup Edinburgh, Dewar-Billingham, Dewar Cup Final-Albert Hall
• 1974 – VS Chicago, Bournemouth, VS Phoenix, Dewar-Edinburgh, Dewar Cup-London
• 1975 – VS Dallas, VS Philadelphia, Paris Indoors, Eastbourne, Dewar Cup, Stockholm
• 1976 – US Indoor Championships, Dewar Cup
• 1977 – Wimbledon, World Invitational Hilton Head, Tokyo Sillook
• 1978 – Mahwah, Tokyo Sillook, Florida Open

(Source: WTA<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977		1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	Career SR
Australia	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	W	QF	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	2R	1 / 5
France	A	A	A	A	A	4R	A	2R	QF	1R	QF	3R	2R	A	A	A		A	2R	3R	4R	3R	1R	1R	2R	0 / 14
Wimbledon	2R	2R	2R	4R	2R	QF	1R	3R	4R	4R	QF	QF	SF	QF	SF	W		SF	QF	4R	2R	2R	QF	3R	3R	1 / 24
United States	A	A	4R	2R	QF	4R	W	SF	SF	A	QF	QF	2R	SF	2R	QF		3R	QF	3R	3R	1R	2R	2R	A	1 / 20
SR	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 3	1 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 2	1 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 2	1 / 2		0 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	3 / 63
Career statistics
Year-end ranking														2	3	4		4	8	15	30	59	42	61	89

Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.

Personal life

Template:Multiple image Wade has no children and has never married. She has said "If I'd done better earlier, and my career had been at its peak earlier and I'd faded, I would probably have had a totally different life." She lives mostly in New York and in Chelsea, London.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

She posed for sculptor David Wynne for the 17-foot-high fountain Girl with a Dolphin, installed at Tower Bridge in 1973.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final

External links

• Template:Tennis Hall of Fame
• Template:WTA
• Template:ITF profile
• Template:Billie Jean King Cup player