Wade, Virginia

In August 1960, twenty- year -old Virginia Wade was invited to the UK team to participate in the Whiteman Cup match with the US team. Her debut in the national team was unsuccessful, she lost both her singles and doubles, but since then she regularly defended the colors of the British flag in this competition for two decades (until 1985 ).

In 1967 , at age 21, Wade first appeared in the UK national team in the Federation Cup . In her first season in the Federation Cup, she spent seven games for the national team, winning five of them, and reached the final with the team, where the British lost to the US team . Wade continued to play for the UK national team throughout her career and played a total of 99 matches, winning 66 of them. She made her way to the finals with the national team three more times, in December 1970 , 1972 and 1981 , but failed to win this trophy. In 2002, she was awarded a special award for excellence in the Federation Cup ^[3] .

In 1968, Wade, who then played as an amateur, won the first women's Open Era tournament in her native Bournemouth . In the same year, she won her first Grand Slam tournament , becoming the winner of the US Open . She also won her first Whiteman Cup, winning all three of her games. The following year, she reached the finals in the same tournament in the women's doubles.

In 1972, Wade won his second Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open , and in 1973 won three of the four Grand Slam women's doubles, winning the so-called Minor Helmet. In 1974 and 1975, she won the Whiteman Cup twice more. In 1975, she also won a second time at the U.S. Women's Open and became the first winner of the WTA Doubles Championship in Tokyo with Margaret Court .

In 1977, the centenary of the Wimbledon Tournament , Virginia Wade wins her third Grand Slam singles event. Speaking in front of Queen Elizabeth II , who celebrated the 25th anniversary of her reign, she defeated the reigning champion, Chris Evert , in the semifinals, and Betty Stove from the Netherlands in the finals. At the end of the season, she was recognized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) “player of the year” , although she was not able to take first place in the ranking. The following year, she won the Whiteman Cup for the fourth time, in 1979 at the French Open for the tenth time she reached the final of the Grand Slam tournament in women's pairs (and lost for the sixth time), and in 1981 , at 36, for the fourth time once with the British team reached the final of the Federation Cup.

Virginia Wade spent her last matches in professional tennis in 1986 . At the age of 41, she made it to the second round of the US Open in female pairs with Sandy Collins , and spent the last game of her career in October 1986 in British Brighton , where, together with Catherine Sueir, lost to Steffi Graf and Helena Sukova .

In 1986, Virginia Wade became an officer of the Order of the British Empire ^[4] . In 1989, the name Wade was listed on the International Tennis Hall of Fame .

Singles (3)

Victories (3)

Women's Doubles (10)

Victories (4)

Lost (6)

In 1982, Virginia Wade became the first woman in history to enter the organizing committee of the Wimbledon Tournament. She continued administrative activities after the end of her sports career.

Wade also became one of the leading sports commentators of two large television and radio broadcasting companies at once: BBC in their homeland, in the UK, and CBS in the USA ^[5] .

• WTA Website Profile
• Profile on ITF website
• Profile on the Federation Cup website

• Virginia Wade at the International Tennis Hall of Fame website