Beth Herr (born 28 May 1964) is an American tennis player from Centerville, Ohio, 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 ...

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

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

Gigi Fernández Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22, 1964) is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reach ...

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, 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

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, and

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

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 ...

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, 6–8 in the third set. Commentators on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, 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 based a ...

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

WTA career finals

Singles: 1–0

Doubles: 5–2

Paddle tennis

Beth was the winningest player in paddle tennis history winning virtually every event she ever played including the US Open and World Championships of paddle tennis With teammate, Scotty Freedman to become the greatest mixed-doubles team in the sports' history, as they were undefeated as a team from 2000 to 2007.

Pickleball

In her 2022 season, Beth finished #1 in singles, gender doubles and mixed doubles and won a gold medal in all 27 events that she played.

Personal life

After tennis, she finished her undergraduate degree at UCLA and then went to law school at UCLA. She married Tennis Channel founder Steve Bellamy and after a short stint as a lawyer at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips.

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 players from Ohio 20th-century American sportswomen