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 primari ...

, 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 , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, 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 enr ...

's Gigi Fernández 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, 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, Hana Mandlíková, Martina Navratilova,

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 at Wimbledon, 6–8 in the third set. Commentators on HBO 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