The 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 13th season since the foundation of the
Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 3, 1983, and concluded on March 4, 1984, after 64 events.
The Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the elite tour for professional women's
tennis organised by the
Women's Tennis Association (WTA). It was held in place of the
WTA Tour from 1983 until 1987 and featured tournaments that had previously been part of the ''Toyota Series'' and the ''Avon Series''.
The circuit consisted of 48 tournaments in nine countries, including the four
Grand Slam tournaments, and culminated in the season-ending
Virginia Slims Championships
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
played in February 1984. ITF tournaments were not part of the tour, although they awarded points for the WTA World Ranking.
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
was the most successful player in both singles and doubles across the season. She won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in singles, with
Chris Evert-Lloyd
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 ...
winning the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
. In doubles, Navratilova again won all the Grand Slams apart from the French Open, which was collected by
Rosalyn Fairbank and
Candy Reynolds
Candy Reynolds (born March 24, 1955) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Career
During her career, Reynolds won the women's doubles title at the French Open in 1983 (partnering Rosalyn Fairbank). She was also a runner ...
;
Pam Shriver
Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...
was her partner in all the Grand Slam events. Navratilova won a total of 29 titles in the course of the year and only suffered one defeat in singles, against
Kathy Horvath
Erica Kathleen "Kathy" Horvath (born August 25, 1965) is an American former professional tennis player. She is best known for upsetting world No. 1 Martina Navratilova in the fourth round of the 1983 French Open, delivering her only defeat for ...
at the French Open. This led to her beginning and ending the year as the
WTA number 1.
Shriver was her closest challenger with 16 titles, including 14 in doubles events. Players from the United States won 74 of the 125 titles awarded in singles, doubles and mixed doubles; players from Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Netherlands and Switzerland each won a solitary title.
Tour changes
Avon
Avon may refer to:
* River Avon (disambiguation), several rivers
Organisations
*Avon Buses, a bus operating company in Wirral, England
*Avon Coachworks, a car body builder established in 1919 at Warwick, England, relaunched in 1922, following ...
, who had been the sponsors of the January to March U.S. winter circuit of the WTA Tour since 1978, announced in 1982 that they would be trimming back their sponsorship of the tour.
Toyota, who sponsored the international tour for the remaining nine months of the season, also withdrew their support. The 1983 season saw
Virginia Slims returning to sponsor a unified worldwide tour after an absence of four years. The company sponsored events between 1970 and 1978 but withdrew their support following disagreements with the organisers of the WTA Tour, the
Women's Tennis Association. However the company decided to associate themselves with the women's tennis circuit again in 1983.
The tour was therefore known as the ''Virginia Slims World Championship Series'', with 18 events including the
US Open held in the United States and a further 12 events in six other countries incorporated under the Virginia Slims brand in a merged season.
Season summary
Singles
World number-one singles player
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
, who had won 90 out of 93 matches the
previous year, began the 1983 season in great form, winning successive titles in Washington and Houston, defeating
Sylvia Hanika
Sylvia Hanika (born 30 November 1959) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. She is best remembered for finishing runner-up at the French Open in 1981, and for winning the Year End Championships in 1982. She was ranked as high as N ...
in the final on both occasions.
The third best player in the world,
Andrea Jaeger, won the tournament at Marco Island in Florida;
Chris Evert-Lloyd
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 ...
, the world number two, took the title at Palm Beach, also in Florida.
Schedule
The table below shows the 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series schedule.
;Key
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
''No events were held this month''
January 1984
February 1984
Rankings
Singles
Below are the 1983 WTA year-end rankings (December 5, 1983) in singles competition:
Points distribution
Virginia Slims ranking points distribution.
Statistical information
Titles won by player
These tables present the number of
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
(S),
doubles (D), and
mixed doubles
Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...
(X) titles won by each player and each nation during the season, within all the tournament categories of the 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series: the
Grand Slam tournaments, the Year-end championships and regular events. The players/nations are sorted by:
#total number of titles (a doubles title won by two players representing the same nation counts as only one win for the nation);
#highest amount of highest category tournaments (for example, having a single Grand Slam gives preference over any kind of combination without a Grand Slam title);
#a singles > doubles > mixed doubles hierarchy;
#alphabetical order (by family names for players).
Titles won by nation
''The following players won their first title in singles (S), doubles (D) or mixed doubles (X):''
*
Lori McNeil – Bakersfield (D)
*
Bonnie Gadusek
Bonnie Gadusek (born September 11, 1963) is a retired American professional tennis player.
Career
Gadusek started a career in gymnastics, training for the 1980 Olympics, but fell from uneven parallel bars and landed on her neck, dislocating two ...
– Deerfield Beach (D)
*
Sandy Collins – Kansas (D)
*
Kyle Copeland
Kyle Copeland-Muse (born May 19, 1961) is an American former professional tennis player.
Biography
Copeland, a native of Montclair, New Jersey, graduated from Montclair High School. She is credited as the first black tennis player to appear for ...
– Bakersfield (D)
*
Chris O'Neil – Kitzbühel (D)
*
Christiane Jolissaint
Christiane Jolissaint (born 12 September 1961) is a former professional tennis player from Switzerland. She won five doubles titles, most often partnering with Marcella Mesker
Marcella Mesker (born 23 May 1959) is a former professional tenn ...
– Lugano (D)
*
Catherine Tanvier – Filderstadt (S)
*
Pascale Paradis
Pascale Paradis-Mangon (born 24 April 1966) is a former professional tennis player from France.
Paradis was the World Junior Champion in women's singles in 1983. Although she failed to reach the heights predicted for her at that time, she did ...
– Kitzbühel (S)
*
Kim Shaefer
Kimberly Jones (born September 28, 1957) is a retired American professional tennis player. She is also known by her married name, Kimberly Shaefer.
Career
Jones was a two-time NCAA All-American at San Diego State in 1977 and 1978. She turned pro ...
– Hartford (S)
*
Ginny Purdy
Ginny Purdy-Paskoff (born November 15, 1966) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Biography
Purdy, who grew up in Indianapolis and attended North Central High School, began competing on the tour in 1983.
Aged 16, Purd ...
– Pittsburgh (S)
*
Etsuko Inoue
is a retired tennis player from Japan.
Inoue twice represented her native country at the Summer Olympics: in 1984 (Los Angeles, California) and 1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and ...
– Japan Open (S)
*
Jennifer Mundel-Reinbold – Bakersfield (S)
*
Rosalyn Fairbank – Richmond (S)
*
Jo Durie
Joanna Mary Durie (born 27 July 1960) is a former world No. 5 tennis player from the United Kingdom. During her career, she also reached No. 9 in doubles, and won two Grand Slam titles, both in the mixed doubles with Jeremy Bates.
Born in Bris ...
– Mahwah (S)
*
Anne Hobbs
Anne Hobbs (born 21 August 1959 in Nottingham) is a British former professional tennis player.
Tennis career
Hobbs represented Great Britain in the Wightman Cup and Federation Cup from 1978 to 1989. She was ranked as the top British player for ...
– Indianapolis (S)
*
Elizabeth Sayers – Ridgewood (D), US Open (X)
*
Yvonne Vermaak
Yvonne Vermaak (born 18 December 1956) is a former tour tennis player who represented her native South Africa.
Vermaak's best result was reaching the semi-finals of the 1983 Wimbledon Championships, defeating Virginia Wade in the quarter-fina ...
– Palm Springs (S)
*
Barbara Jordan – French Open (X)
*
Andrea Temesvári – Perugia (S)
*
Kathleen Horvath
Erica Kathleen "Kathy" Horvath (born August 25, 1965) is an American former professional tennis player. She is best known for upsetting world No. 1 Martina Navratilova in the fourth round of the 1983 French Open, delivering her only defeat for t ...
– Nashville (S)
*
Alycia Moulton – Ridgewood (S)
*
Bettina Bunge
Bettina Bunge (born 13 June 1963) is a retired German tennis player. Born in Adliswil, Switzerland, she was part of a large group of successful German players in the 1980s, which also included Steffi Graf, Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, Sylvia Hanika, a ...
– Hamburg (D)
*
Pam Whytcross
Pam Whytcross (born 25 November 1953) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. In a nine-year professional career beginning in 1977, Whytcross won 3 doubles titles and was a losing finalist with Naoko Satō at the 1978 Australian ...
– Kitzbühel (D)
*
Chris O'Neil – Borden Classic (D)
''The following players mounted a successful title defence in singles (S), doubles (D) or mixed doubles (X):''
*
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...
– Washington (S), Chicago (S,D), Dallas (S,D), New York Masters (D), Hilton Head (S,D), Orlando (S), Eastbourne (S,D), Wimbledon (S, D), Montreal (S), Stuttgart (S, D), Australian Open (D)
*
Chris Evert-Lloyd
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 ...
– Palm Beach (S), Amelia Island (S), Deerfield Beach (S)
*
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 ...
(S)
*
Lisa Bonder
Lisa Bonder (born October 16, 1965), also known as Lisa Bonder-Kreiss or Lisa Bonder-Kerkorian, is an American former professional tennis player. During her career, she won four singles titles on the WTA circuit and reached a highest ranking of N ...
– Borden Classic (S)
*
Pam Shriver
Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...
– Houston (D), Chicago (D), Dallas (D), New York Masters (D), Eastbourne (D), Wimbledon (D), Brighton (D), Australian Open (D)
*
Sharon Walsh
Sharon Walsh-Arnold (née Walsh; born February 24, 1952) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Walsh enjoyed a long career, playing her first Grand Slam singles event in 1969 and her last Grand Slam doubles match in 1990 ...
– New Jersey (D)
*
Candy Reynolds
Candy Reynolds (born March 24, 1955) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Career
During her career, Reynolds won the women's doubles title at the French Open in 1983 (partnering Rosalyn Fairbank). She was also a runner ...
– Richmond (D)
Retirements
The following are notable players who announced their retirement from women's tennis in 1983.
*
Anne Smith Anne or Ann Smith may refer to:
People In arts and media
*Anne Smith (silversmith) ( 1770s), English silversmith
*Ann Eliza Smith (1819–1905), American author and patriot
*Anne Mollegen Smith, American magazine editor and writer
*Anne Smith ( 195 ...
*
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 ...
*
Evonne Goolagong
*
Tanya Harford
Tanya Harford (born 28 November 1958) is a retired South African tennis player.
In 1981 she won the doubles title at the French Open together with compatriot Rosalyn Fairbank. In the final they defeated Candy Reynolds and Paula Smith in straig ...
See also
*
1983 Volvo Grand Prix
The 1983 Volvo Grand Prix was a professional tennis circuit held that year. It incorporated the four grand slam (tennis), grand slam tournaments, the Grand Prix tennis circuit, Grand Prix tournaments, and two team tournaments (the Davis Cup and th ...
– men's circuit
*
Women's Tennis Association
*
International Tennis Federation
Notes
* The tournament was halted by rain delays on 23 occasions over the first five days. The tournament was eventually cancelled after players rejected the officials attempts to move the tournament indoors.
*Martina Navratilova only lost one match during the whole year, against
Kathleen Horvath
Erica Kathleen "Kathy" Horvath (born August 25, 1965) is an American former professional tennis player. She is best known for upsetting world No. 1 Martina Navratilova in the fourth round of the 1983 French Open, delivering her only defeat for t ...
in the fourth round of the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
.
References
External links
Official WTA Tour website
{{1983 in tennis
WTA Tour
1983 WTA Tour
The 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 13th season since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 3, 1983, and concluded on March 4, 1984, after 64 events.
The Virginia Slims World Championship ...