Tennis career Virginia Wade

wade s tennis career spanned end of amateur era , start of open era. in 1968, scored 2 notable firsts. amateur, won inaugural open tennis competition — british hard court open @ bournemouth. turned down us$720 first prize. 5 months later, had turned professional , won women s singles championship @ first open (and prize-money of $6,000 - $41,322 today), defeating billie jean king in final.

wade s second grand slam singles championship came in 1972 @ australian open. there, defeated australian evonne goolagong in final 6–4, 6–4. wade appointed member of order of british empire (mbe) in 1973 birthday honours services lawn tennis.

wade won @ wimbledon, in 1977. 16th year in wade had played @ wimbledon, , made first appearance in final beating defending champion chris evert in semifinal 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. in final, faced betty stöve. not 1977 100th anniversary of founding of wimbledon championships, silver jubilee year of elizabeth ii, attended wimbledon first time since 1962 watch final. wade beat stöve in 3 sets claim championship, 9 days before 32nd birthday.

she subject of life in december 1977 when surprised eamonn andrews @ national sports stadium @ london s crystal palace.

wade won 4 grand slam women s doubles championships margaret smith court – 2 of them @ u.s. open tennis tournament, 1 @ australian open, , 1 @ french open.

over career, wade won 55 professional singles championships , amassed $1,542,278 dollars in career prize money. ranked in world s top 10 continuously 1967 1979. career spanned total of 26 years. retired singles competition @ end of 1985 tennis season, , doubles @ end of 1986.

in 1983, @ age of 37, won italian open women s doubles championship, along teammate virginia ruzici of romania.

the 26 times wade played @ wimbledon all-time record, 24 of times being in women s singles.