1973 Virginia Slims Of Houston
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1973 Virginia Slims Of Houston
The 1973 Virginia Slims of Houston was a women's tennis tournament played on indoor carpet courts at the Net-Set (West Side) Racquet Club in Houston, Texas in the United States that was part of the 1973 Virginia Slims World Championship Series. It was the third edition of the tournament and was held from September 17 through September 24, 1973. Unseeded Françoise Dürr won the singles title and earned $7,000 first-prize money. The final was delayed by one day due to rain. Just before the start of the tournament three of the four top-seeded players ( Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong and Chris Evert) pulled out and Billie Jean King became the new top-seeded player. King also played the "Battle of the Sexes" match against Bobby Riggs during the week of the tournament. Finals Singles Françoise Dürr defeated Rosemary Casals 6–4, 1–6, 6–4 Doubles Mona Schallau Anne Guerrant (born November 28, 1948), also known as Mona Anne Guerrant, is an American retired profe ...
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Carpet Courts
A carpet court is a type of tennis court. The International Tennis Federation describes the surface as a "textile or polymeric material supplied in rolls or sheets of finished product." It is one of the fastest court types, second only to grass courts. The use of carpet courts in ATP Tour competitions ended in 2009. In women's tennis, no WTA Tour tournaments have used carpet courts since the last edition of the Tournoi de Québec in 2018. ATP Challenger and ITF circuit level tournaments with carpet courts continue to exist up to the present (2022). Types There are two types of carpet court. The most common outdoor version consists of artificial turf with a sand in-fill. This type of carpet court became popular in the 1980s in British and Asian tennis clubs for recreational play as they were easier and cheaper to maintain than grass courts. The other type used predominantly for indoor tennis is a textile surface of nylon or rubber matting laid out on a concrete base. They came in ...
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Chris Evert
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. 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). She was ranked world No. 1 for 260 weeks, and was the year-end world No. 1 singles player seven times (1974–78, 1980, 1981). Alongside Martina Navratilova, her greatest rival, Evert dominated women's tennis in the 1970s and 1980s. Evert reached 34 major singles finals, the most in history. 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. She holds the record of most consecutive years (13) of winning at least one major title. Evert's career winning percentage in ...
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1973 In American Tennis
Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President (First inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1969, Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1973) and Vice President of the United States (First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, Second inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957). * January 22 ** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship. ** A ...
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1973 In Sports In Texas
Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President (First inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1969, Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1973) and Vice President of the United States (First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, Second inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957). * January 22 ** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship. ** A ...
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Virginia Slims Of Houston
The Virginia Slims of Houston is a defunct WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1970 to 1995. It was held in Houston, Texas in the United States and played on indoor carpet courts from 1970 to 1984 and on outdoor clay courts from 1985 to 1995. The event has the distinction of being the first-ever tournament on the professional women's circuit, which would eventually become the WTA Tour. In 1971, the event served as the series Championships of the inaugural Virginia Slims Tour. Martina Navratilova was the most successful player at the tournament, winning the singles and doubles competitions six times each, partnering Dutchwomen Betty Stöve and Manon Bollegraf and Americans Janet Newberry, Pam Shriver, Elise Burgin and Kathy Jordan Kathryn "Kathy" Jordan (born December 3, 1959) is a former American tennis player. During her career, she won seven Grand Slam titles, five of them in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. She also was the 1983 Australian Open wome ...
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Nancy Gunter
Nancy Richey (born August 23, 1942) is an American former tennis player. Richey won two major singles titles (the 1967 Australian Championships and 1968 French Open) and four major women's doubles titles (the 1965 US Championships, 1966 Australian Championships, 1966 Wimbledon Championships, and 1966 US Championships). She was ranked world No. 2 in singles at year-end in 1969. Richey won 69 singles titles during her career and helped the US win the Federation Cup in 1969. She won the singles title at the U.S. Women's Clay Court Championships The U.S. Open Clay Courts, known formally as the U.S. Clay Court Championships, was a national tennis championship for women that was sanctioned by the United States Tennis Association. The first edition was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1912 ... a record six consecutive years, from 1963 through 1968. Richey married Kenneth S. Gunter on December 15, 1970. They were divorced on December 28, 1976, and Richey reverted to her maiden name. ...
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Betty Stöve
Betty Flippina Stöve (born 24 June 1945) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best remembered for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 1977. She also won ten Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles. Career Stöve began playing tennis internationally in the mid-1960s. She made her Grand Slam debut at the 1964 Wimbledon. A virus, complicated by a malfunctioning thyroid gland, forced Stöve out of tennis for an 18-month period in the late 1960s. Despite being advised that she should never play tennis again, Stöve recovered to have her best years on the circuit. Stöve was an accomplished singles player reaching several finals on tour and attaining a singles ranking of number 5. Stöve's best grand slam singles performance was at the 1977 Wimbledon where she reached the final beating fellow doubles partner Martina Navratilova en route in the quarterfinals, a ...
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Rosemary Casals
Rosemary "Rosie" Casals (born September 16, 1948) is an American former professional tennis player. Casals earned her reputation as a rebel in the tennis world when she began competing in the early 1960s. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 titles and was crucial to many of the changes in women's tennis during the 1960s and 1970s. Early life Casals was born in 1948 in San Francisco, to poor parents who had immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. Less than a year after Casals was born, her parents decided they could not care for her and her older sister, Victoria. Casals's great-uncle and great-aunt, Manuel and Maria Casals, took the young girls in and raised them as their own. When the children grew older, Manuel Casals took them to the public tennis courts of San Francisco and taught them how to play the game. He became the only coach Casals would ever have. But Nick Carter, former touring pro, father to Denise Carter-Trio ...
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Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December 26, 1941. As a 21-year-old amateur in 1939, Riggs won the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. National Championships (now U.S. Open), and was runner-up at the French Championships. He was U.S. champion again in 1941, after a runner-up finish the year before. At the 1939 Wimbledon Championships he also won the Men's Doubles and the Mixed Doubles. After retirement from his pro career, Riggs became well known as a hustler and gambler. He organized numerous exhibition challenges, inviting active and retired tennis pros to participate. In 1973, at age 55, he held two such events, first against the #1-ranked woman player Margaret Smith Court, which he won easily, and then against the then current women's champion Billie Jean King, which h ...
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Battle Of The Sexes (tennis)
In tennis, "Battle of the Sexes" describes various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman, or a doubles match between two men and two women in one case. The term is most famously used for an internationally televised match in 1973 held at the Houston Astrodome between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs and 29-year-old Billie Jean King, which King won in three sets. The match was viewed by an estimated fifty million people in the United States and ninety million worldwide. King's win is considered a milestone in public acceptance of women's tennis. Two other matches commonly referred to as a "battle of the sexes" include one held four months earlier in 1973 between Riggs and Margaret Court over the best of three sets, and one in 1992 between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova over the best of three sets, with hybrid rules favoring the female player dubbed "The Battle of Champions". These matches were won by Riggs and Connors, respectively. At least eight other exhibition ...
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Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, she was the U.S. captain in the Federation Cup. King is an advocate of gender equality and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice. In 1973, at age 29, she won the " Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. King was also the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. She was instrumental in persuading cigarette brand Virginia Slims to sponsor women's tennis in the 1970s and went on to serve on the board of their parent company Philip Morris in the 2000s. Regarded by many as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987 ...
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Evonne Goolagong
Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Goolagong was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. At the age of 19, she won the French Open singles and the Australian Open doubles championships (the latter with Margaret Court). She won the women's singles tournament at Wimbledon in 1971. In 1980, she became the first mother to win Wimbledon for 66 years. Goolagong went on to win 14 Grand Slam tournament titles: seven in singles (four at the Australian Open, two at Wimbledon and one at the French Open), six in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles. She represented Australia in three Fed Cup competitions, winning the title in 1971, 1973 and 1974, and was Fed Cup captain for three consecutive years. After retiring from professional tennis in 1983, Goolagong played in senior invitational competitions, endorsed a variety of products, worked as a touring professional, and held sports- ...
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