Tracy Austin Tracy Ann Austin Holt (born December 12, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Austin won 30 WTA Tour-level singles tit ...

defeated four-time defending champion

Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 2 ...

in the final, 6–4, 6–3 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 1979 US Open. It was her first

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

singles title. Austin became the youngest major champion in the

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today a ...

, aged 16 years and 9 months (a record later surpassed by

Monica Seles Monica Seles (born December 2, 1973) is a Serbian–American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

at the 1990 French Open, and one that still stands at the US Open). She was also the youngest woman to defeat the world No. 1 and No. 2 at one tournament since the WTA rankings were established in 1975, a record that still stands.

Seeds

The seeded players are listed below.

is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated. # Chris Evert-Lloyd ''(runner-up)'' #

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...

''(semifinalist)'' #

(champion) #

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 fo ...

''(quarterfinalist)'' #

Evonne Goolagong Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and was one of the world's leadi ...

''(quarterfinalist)'' #

Dianne Fromholtz Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat (née Fromholtz; born 10 August 1956) is an Australian former professional tennis player who reached a highest singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1979. Career Fromholtz began playing tennis at the age of seven. She ...

''(fourth round)'' #

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, (born 26 November 1952) is an Australian retired tennis player. 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-u ...

''(third round)'' #

Kerry Melville Reid Kerry Melville Reid (née Melville; born 7 August 1947) is an Australian former professional tennis player. During her 17-year career, Reid won a major singles title and 26 other singles titles, and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments. ...

''(quarterfinalist)'' #

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

''(semifinalist)'' # Greer Stevens ''(fourth round)'' #

Kathy Jordan Kathryn 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 women's singles runn ...

''(fourth round)'' # Regina Maršíková ''(fourth round)'' #

Sue Barker Susan Barker (born 19 April 1956) is a British former television presenter and professional tennis player. During her playing career, Barker won 15 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including a major at the 1976 French Open. She reached a career- ...

''(second round)'' #

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster, pundit, and coach. She was ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and List of W ...

''(first round)'' #

Ann Kiyomura Ann Kiyomura-Hayashi (born August 22, 1955) is a retired American professional tennis player. She is from San Mateo, California. Early years Born in San Mateo, California, Kiyomura was the youngest of four children. Her father Harry was a tennis ...

''(second round)'' #

Betty Stöve Betty Flippina Stöve (born 24 June 1945) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best known for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 1977. S ...

''(second round)''

Qualifying

Draw

Key

* Q = Qualifier * WC = Wild card * LL =

Lucky loser A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw. This can occur when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness ...

* r =

Retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

Finals

Earlier rounds

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

External links

1979 US Open – Women's draws and results
at 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. there are 211 nat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:1979 US Open - Women's Singles Women's Singles US Open (tennis) by year – Women's singles 1979 in women's tennis 1979 in American women's sports