Virginia Wade

Sarah Virginia Wade OBE (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,^[3] and has also worked as a tennis commentator and game analyst for the BBC and Eurosport, and (in the US) for CBS.

Virginia Wade
OBE

Full name	Sarah Virginia Wade
Country (sports)	United Kingdom
Born	(1945-07-10) 10 July 1945 (age 78) Bournemouth, England
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Turned pro	1962 (amateur circuit)
Retired	1986
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,542,278
Int. Tennis HoF	1989 (member page)
Singles
Career record	839–329^[1]
Career titles	55^[1]
Highest ranking	No. 2 (3 November 1975)^[2]
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	W (1972)
French Open	QF (1970, 1972)
Wimbledon	W (1977)
US Open	W (1968)
Doubles
Career record	42–48^[1]
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1973)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	W (1973)
French Open	W (1973)
Wimbledon	F (1970)
US Open	W (1973, 1975)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	W (1975)
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
French Open	SF (1969, 1972)
Wimbledon	QF (1981)
US Open	QF (1969, 1985)

Early life

Wade was born in Bournemouth, England, UK, on 10 July 1945. Her father was the archdeacon of Durban.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

Tennis career

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.^[7] Five months later, after turning professional, she won the women's singles championship at the first US Open (and prize-money of $6,000 - $52,570 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.^[8]

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.^[9][10]

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 dollars 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;^[11] 24 of those times were in the women's singles.^[12]

After tennis

Since 1981, while she was still playing, Wade has been a reporter on tennis events for the BBC.^[13] In 1982, she became the first woman to be elected to the Wimbledon Committee.^[14]

Wade was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1986 Birthday Honours for services to lawn tennis.^[13][15]

In 1989, Wade was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.^[16]

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (3 titles)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1968	US Open	Grass	Billie Jean King	6–4, 6–2
Win	1972	Australian Open	Grass	Evonne Goolagong	6–4, 6–4
Win	1977	Wimbledon	Grass	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	Margaret Court	Françoise Dürr   Darlene Hard	6–0, 3–6, 4–6
Loss	1970	Wimbledon	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals   Billie Jean King	2–6, 3–6
Loss	1970	US Open	Grass	Rosie Casals	Margaret Court   Judy Tegart Dalton	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1972	US Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Françoise Dürr   Betty Stöve	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
Win	1973	Australian Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Kerry Harris   Kerry Melville	6–4, 6–4
Win	1973	French Open	Clay	Margaret Court	Françoise Dürr   Betty Stöve	6–2, 6–3
Win	1973	US Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Rosie Casals   Billie Jean King	2–6, 6–3, 7–5
Win	1975	US Open	Clay	Margaret Court	Rosie Casals   Billie Jean King	7–5, 2–6, 7–6^(7–5)
Loss	1976	US Open	Clay	Olga Morozova	Linky Boshoff   Ilana Kloss	1–6, 4–6
Loss	1979	French Open	Clay	Françoise Dürr	Betty Stöve   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)	Margaret Court	Rosie Casals   Billie Jean King	6–7^(2–7), 7–6^(7–2), 6–2
Loss	1977	New York	Carpet (i)	Françoise Dürr	Martina Navratilova   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^[17])

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

DNQ

A

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

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	40	61	89

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

Personal life

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.^[18]

She posed for sculptor David Wynne for the 17-foot-high fountain Girl with a Dolphin, installed at Tower Bridge in 1973.^[19]

See also

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

References

1. . Archived from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2009.
2. Virginia Wade at the International Tennis Federation  
3. Lee, Veronica (27 June 2004). "Nice girls finish last". The Guardian. London.
4. Viner, Brian (29 June 2007). . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 3 July 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2009.
5. Grasso, John (2011). Historical Dictionary of Tennis. Scarecrow Press. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-8108-7237-0.
6. Cheese, Caroline (24 October 2008). "Q&A: Virginia Wade". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
7. "Rosewall hustles to £1,000 win". Daily Mirror. No. 20012. 29 April 1968. p. 23. Retrieved 2 October 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
8. "No. 45984". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1973. p. 6489.
9. "Wade hopes for Jubilee repeat". BBC Sport. 9 April 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
10. "Queen returns to Wimbledon after 33 years". BBC News. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2017
11. "Wimbledon 2014: Britain's Jamie Delgado smashes record with 23rd consecutive All England Club appearance". The Telegraph. 25 June 2014. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
12. Wade, Virginia (2017). . Official Wimbledon website. Archived from the original on 16 October 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
13. . BBC. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
14. . Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
15. "No. 50551". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 1986. p. 11.
16. . Archived from the original on 4 March 2007. Retrieved 17 September 2006.
17. "Player profile – Virginia Wade". Women's Tennis Association (WTA).
18. "Virginia Wade interview: 'I prefer to live in the present'". The Guardian. 18 June 2007.
19. Hodgkinson, Thomas W. (5 November 2023). "The naked girl with a dolphin at Tower Bridge? That's me, says Virginia Wade". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 6 November 2023.

External links

• Virginia Wade at the International Tennis Hall of Fame  
• Virginia Wade at the Women's Tennis Association  
• Virginia Wade at the International Tennis Federation  
• Virginia Wade at the Billie Jean King Cup  

Preceded by John Curry

BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1977

Succeeded by Steve Ovett