On the eve of the French Open, some thoughts on Chris Evert
When you are a diehard fan of women's tennis the way I am, you have many favorites. But my absolute favorite of all time is the great Chris Evert, who won the French Open seven times. In 1976, 1977, and 1978, when she was world number one and undefeated on clay, she did not play at Roland Garros, but if she had, one imagines her French Open wins would have totalled nine or ten.
Though American-born, Evert's baseline game was made for the slow red clay of Europe, and her performance on clay was the envy of every Spanish, Italian, and French player. She won a record 125 consecutive matches on clay, spanning a near six-year period between August, 1973 and May, 1979. That is the record, among men and women, for consecutive matches won on any surface.
And as great as Evert was on clay, she was also an enormous threat on other surfaces. Her .900 winning average is the best in tennis history, among both men and women. She won at least one of the four Grand Slam tournaments each year for thirteen consecutive years, an Open-era record. Evert won the Australian Open twice, Wimbledon three times, and the U.S. Open six times, and she won a total of five Grand Slam doubles titles.
Chris Evert is also famous for creating the now ubiquitous two-handed backhand. She was known as the Ice Maiden or the Ice Queen because she never showed her emotions on court, a tactic her father taught her when she was a little girl practicing in Florida. I also remember hearing her called Prissy Chrissy, for her ponytail-and-bow style sometimes contrasted with the on-court looks of other players.
Unfortunately, it seemed to me that players grabbed onto Evert's all-American girl look as a way to defend against suspicions of there being--oh, my!--lesbians on the tour. Monica Seles once said of her, “Chris brought a lot of femininity to the game with her hair in ribbons and her clothing." And Steffi Graf, in an especially offensive piece of flattery, said “Chris was the player who brought femininity to the game. A real lady who was always fair.” As though "femininity" has anything to do with professional athletics.
I like to think that both players regret having said those things, but they may still be clueless, for all I know. Evert played during a time when there was even more sexism in tennis than there is now, and she was always either being "complimented" for being feminine, or disparaged for not being "friendly." No one summed up Evert better than Rosie Casals, who said "Chrissie was funny off the court, but not so funny on the court."
Evert had a mental toughness that was the envy of everyone on the tour. Trapping her opponents on the baseline with shots of amazing depth and accuracy, Evert would then bring out her clay-court skills, and lob or drop for a point. So cleanly did Evert paint the lines, she was able to hit successful passing shots without even bringing her opponents to the net first.
Chris Evert is also half of one of the greatest sports rivalries in history. She and Martina Navratilova met a total of eighty times, with an almost even split of wins. They have also maintained one of the greatest sports friendships of all time.
Evert and the great Navratilova played with wooden racquets, which means that everything they did was much harder to do than with today's racquets. Evert won most of her early matches with Navratilova, but as Navratilova brought her new brand of power tennis to the game, she bgan to dominate the rivalry. Her serve-and-volley style would hardly be considered a power game today, however, when players like the Williams sisters, Lindsay Davenport, and Maria Sharapova all whack the ball repeatedly at high speeds.
A few years ago, a commentator asked Navratilova if, in her prime, she could have beaten the Williams sisters. Navratilova's response was "With a wooden racquet, I'd beat them today."
Many of us (and I'm in good company here; both Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe have called for the return of the wooden raquet) believe the demise of the wooden racquet was one of the worst things to happen to professional tennis, bringing an end to tactical tennis (with the exception of some clay court players, such as Patty Schnyder, and, of course, the wonderful Martina Hingis, and she is gone, too). I miss the Chris and Martina matches--the style, the mental competition, the strategy.
I miss Chris Evert.
Though American-born, Evert's baseline game was made for the slow red clay of Europe, and her performance on clay was the envy of every Spanish, Italian, and French player. She won a record 125 consecutive matches on clay, spanning a near six-year period between August, 1973 and May, 1979. That is the record, among men and women, for consecutive matches won on any surface.
And as great as Evert was on clay, she was also an enormous threat on other surfaces. Her .900 winning average is the best in tennis history, among both men and women. She won at least one of the four Grand Slam tournaments each year for thirteen consecutive years, an Open-era record. Evert won the Australian Open twice, Wimbledon three times, and the U.S. Open six times, and she won a total of five Grand Slam doubles titles.
Chris Evert is also famous for creating the now ubiquitous two-handed backhand. She was known as the Ice Maiden or the Ice Queen because she never showed her emotions on court, a tactic her father taught her when she was a little girl practicing in Florida. I also remember hearing her called Prissy Chrissy, for her ponytail-and-bow style sometimes contrasted with the on-court looks of other players.
Unfortunately, it seemed to me that players grabbed onto Evert's all-American girl look as a way to defend against suspicions of there being--oh, my!--lesbians on the tour. Monica Seles once said of her, “Chris brought a lot of femininity to the game with her hair in ribbons and her clothing." And Steffi Graf, in an especially offensive piece of flattery, said “Chris was the player who brought femininity to the game. A real lady who was always fair.” As though "femininity" has anything to do with professional athletics.
I like to think that both players regret having said those things, but they may still be clueless, for all I know. Evert played during a time when there was even more sexism in tennis than there is now, and she was always either being "complimented" for being feminine, or disparaged for not being "friendly." No one summed up Evert better than Rosie Casals, who said "Chrissie was funny off the court, but not so funny on the court."
Evert had a mental toughness that was the envy of everyone on the tour. Trapping her opponents on the baseline with shots of amazing depth and accuracy, Evert would then bring out her clay-court skills, and lob or drop for a point. So cleanly did Evert paint the lines, she was able to hit successful passing shots without even bringing her opponents to the net first.
Chris Evert is also half of one of the greatest sports rivalries in history. She and Martina Navratilova met a total of eighty times, with an almost even split of wins. They have also maintained one of the greatest sports friendships of all time.
Evert and the great Navratilova played with wooden racquets, which means that everything they did was much harder to do than with today's racquets. Evert won most of her early matches with Navratilova, but as Navratilova brought her new brand of power tennis to the game, she bgan to dominate the rivalry. Her serve-and-volley style would hardly be considered a power game today, however, when players like the Williams sisters, Lindsay Davenport, and Maria Sharapova all whack the ball repeatedly at high speeds.
A few years ago, a commentator asked Navratilova if, in her prime, she could have beaten the Williams sisters. Navratilova's response was "With a wooden racquet, I'd beat them today."
Many of us (and I'm in good company here; both Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe have called for the return of the wooden raquet) believe the demise of the wooden racquet was one of the worst things to happen to professional tennis, bringing an end to tactical tennis (with the exception of some clay court players, such as Patty Schnyder, and, of course, the wonderful Martina Hingis, and she is gone, too). I miss the Chris and Martina matches--the style, the mental competition, the strategy.
I miss Chris Evert.
posted by Diane at 2:18 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I agree with every word you said, but the lid on Pandora's box is wide open and I see no power on earth closing it. College baseball still uses aluminum bats even as the predictions are forthcoming from the engineers that their continued use will, ultimately, result in a fatality.
It's pretty hard to undo attitudes about technological advances with something as old-fashioned as tradition (wooden rackets). Face it, the equipment is making people money who probably would be club pros without it. There's simply not a lot of room in today's 'serve-and-volley' world for a lot of drop shots and lobs. That would require that we learn something of the game that isn't immediately available on the stats sheets.
By
Anonymous, at
2:55 PM
The sad part is that there is almost no serve-and-volley, either, in the women's game.
By
Diane, at
3:22 PM
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