Wendy Turnbull, , (born 26 November 1952) is a retired tennis player from Australia. During her career, she won nine Grand Slam titles, four of them in women's doubles and five of them in mixed doubles. She also was a three-time Grand Slam runner-up in singles and won 11 singles titles and 55 doubles titles.
Career
Turnbull turned professional in 1975. Her career high rankings were third in singles and fifth in doubles. She was ranked in the year-end world top 20 for 10 consecutive years (1977 through 1986) and in the year-end world top 10 for eight consecutive years from 1977 to 1984. She was nicknamed "Rabbit" by her peers because of her foot speed around the court.
Turnbull was a singles runner-up at the
1977 US Open, the
1979 French Open, and the
1980 Australian Open
The 1980 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne, Australia. It was the 69th edition of the Australian Open. The women’s tournament was held 24-30th of November 1980 an ...
. She won four women's doubles titles and five mixed doubles titles at Grand Slam events.
She was a 12-time runner-up in Grand Slam doubles events: 11 times in women's doubles and one time in mixed doubles. Nine of her 11 women's doubles losses were to teams that included
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 ...
.
Turnbull teamed with
Elizabeth Smylie
Elizabeth Smylie (née Sayers, born 11 April 1963), sometimes known as Liz Smylie, is a retired Australian tennis player. During her career, she won four Grand Slam titles, one of them in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. She also w ...
to win the bronze medal in women's doubles at the
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...
in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...
. She is one of very few players to have a winning record against
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
(2–1 in head-to-head matches).
Turnbull was a member of Australia's Fed Cup team from 1977 through 1988, compiling a 46–16 overall win–loss record (17–8 in singles and 29–8 in doubles). She was the captain or coach of the team from 1985 to 1993.
In 1979, the
Supersisters
''Supersisters'' was a set of 72 trading cards produced and distributed in the United States in 1979 by Supersisters, Inc. They featured famous women from politics, media and entertainment, culture, sports, and other areas of achievement. The c ...
trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Turnbull's name and picture.
Turnbull was appointed to the
International Tennis Federation
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there ...
(ITF) Olympic Committee in 1991, the only player appointed to the committee. She also serves on the ITF's Fed Cup Committee.
Wendy Turnbull was made a Member of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
in 1984. In December 1993, the city of Brisbane named a public park in her honour. She was inducted into the
Australian Tennis Hall of Fame
The Australian Tennis Hall of Fame was established in 1993 by Tennis Australia under the leadership of then-president Geoff Pollard. Described by Tennis Australia as "one of the highest honours Australian tennis players can receive", inductees a ...
in 2009.
Australian Tennis Hall of Fame Inducts Turnbull
WTATour.com, 26 January 2009
Significant finals
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 3 (3 runner-ups)
Doubles: 15 (4 titles, 11 runner-ups)
Mixed doubles: 6 (5 titles, 1 runner-up)
Olympics
Doubles
Smylie and Turnbull lost in the semifinals to 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 ...
and Zina Garrison
Zina Lynna Garrison (born November 16, 1963) is an American former professional tennis player. Garrison was the runner-up in singles at the 1990 Wimbledon Championships, a three-time major mixed doubles champion, and an Olympic gold and bronze m ...
. In 1988, there was no bronze medal play off match, both beaten semifinal pairs received bronze medals.
Year-end championships finals
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
WTA career finals
Singles: 31 (11–20)
Doubles: 110 (55–55)
Grand Slam tournament timelines
Singles
Doubles
Mixed doubles
*Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.
See also
* Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final
Sources
External links
*
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Turnbull, Wendy
1952 births
Living people
Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States
Australian female tennis players
French Open champions
Olympic bronze medalists for Australia
Olympic tennis players of Australia
Tennis players from Brisbane
Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
US Open (tennis) champions
Wimbledon champions
Olympic medalists in tennis
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics
20th-century Australian women
21st-century Australian women