Beth Herr (born 28 May 1964) is an American tennis player from

Centerville, Ohio Centerville is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. A core suburb of Metro Dayton, its population was 24,240 as of the 2020 census. Geography Centerville is located at (39.638709, -84.148087). Although the city is located primar ...

, who won four Junior Grand Slam titles, the NCAA singles and team titles and one professional tennis tournament. In her home state of Ohio, she was a two-time high school singles state champion (1980-1981). Her NCAA singles title came in 1983.

College

Herr became the number-one junior tennis player in the world at the age of 16. Upon graduation from Centerville High School, she was the No. 1 college recruit in 1982 and played for the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, where she won the NCAA singles title and team title in her first year. She beat

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

Gigi Fernández Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22, 1964) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in do ...

in the third-set tiebreak, having faced a match point, to win the NCAA singles final.

Junior Grand Slam titles

In 1982, Herr won the 1982 French Open girls' doubles championship with

Janet Lagasse Janet Lagasse is a former professional tennis player from the United States of America who won the 1982 French Open, 1982 French Open girls' doubles championship with Beth Herr. Life and career Janet Lagasse's main achievement was winning the Fre ...

, Herr also won the Wimbledon girls' doubles and US Open girls' doubles with

Penny Barg Penny Barg (born 11 April 1964) is a retired tennis player from the U.S. She is also known as Penny Barg-Mager. Tennis career During her career Penny Barg, a former champion of the Orange Bowl Junior Singles, won three WTA doubles titles. She also ...

, and won the US Open girls' singles in the same year.

Professional career

Herr cut short college and went directly into professional tennis after the NCAA Championship, and played on tour for 11 years, with wins over

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 ...

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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 ...

Virginia Wade Sarah Virginia Wade (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 ...

, and

Mary Joe Fernández Mary Joe Fernández Godsick (born María José Fernández; August 19, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in both singles and doubles. In singles, Fernández was the runner-up ...

. In 1983, she lost a second-round singles match to

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 ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, 6–8 in the third set. Commentators on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

mentioned her ability to hit numerous swinging volleys for winners, something for which no female had previously been noted.

WTA career finals

Singles: 1 title

Personal life

After tennis, she finished her undergraduate degree at UCLA and then went to law school at UCLA. She married

Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game of ...

founder Steve Bellamy and after a short stint as a lawyer at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. She later won the US Open and World Championships of

paddle tennis Paddle tennis, rebranded as Pop tennis in 2015, is a game adapted from tennis and played for over a century. Compared to tennis, the court is smaller and has no doubles lanes, and the net is lower. Paddle tennis is played with a solid paddle as op ...

and teamed with Scotty Freedman to become the greatest mixed-doubles team in the sports' 112-year history, as they were undefeated as a team from 2000 to 2007.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herr, Beth Living people 1964 births American female tennis players American lawyers Paddle tennis players University of California, Los Angeles alumni USC Trojans women's tennis players Wimbledon junior champions US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' doubles American women lawyers UCLA School of Law alumni Tennis people from Ohio