Lesley Hunt (born 29 May 1950) is a former

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

. Particularly noted as a junior player, in 1964 at the age of 14 she won a rare double in the Western Australian Women's open, taking both the Open and Junior titles. She won the Australian junior championship in 1967 and 1968 and reached the final of the Wimbledon Junior Invitational in 1968. That year she also won the French and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Junior Championships.''W.A. Hall of Champions'' inductee booklet. (2006) Published by the

Western Australian Institute of Sport The Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) is an elite sports institute set up in 1983 by the Government of Western Australia to support athletes in Western Australia. Previously, if elite athletes from Western Australian needed to train or ...

In 1968, she won the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

and French Open Junior titles and the Australian Open Junior title again the following year. In 1974 she was ranked number 3 in Australia. Between 1967 and 1979 she was never outside the top six in Australia, playing among contemporaries

Margaret Court Margaret Court (''née'' Smith; born 16 July 1942), also known as Margaret Smith Court, is an Australian retired former world No. 1 tennis player and a Christian minister. Considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, her 24 maj ...

Evonne Goolagong Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Goolagong was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. At the age of 19, she won the French Open sing ...

Kerry Reid Kerry Melville Reid (née Melville; born 7 August 1947) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. During her 17-year career, Reid won one Grand Slam singles title and 26 other singles titles and was the runner-up in 40 singles to ...

and

Wendy Turnbull Wendy Turnbull, , (born 26 November 1952) is a retired tennis player from Australia. 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 runn ...

. Hunt was seeded once in the United States championships (number 8 in 1974); twice at the French Championships (number 4 in 1976 and 7 in 1977; and once at the Australian Championships (number 5 in 1974). She was runner-up in the 1971 Virginia Slims tournament, losing to Margaret Court and in 1976 reached the final of the Italian Open. In 1978, she made her first international open victory with a win in the

Swiss Open The Omega European Masters is the Swiss stop on professional men's golf's European Tour, and in 2009 it became the first event in Europe to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour. Founded as the Swiss Open in 1923, the tournament was prefixed with Eu ...

. She reached the finals of the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

and Italian Opens in the same year as well as the quarterfinals at the US Open. As a doubles player, she won the U.S Open Hardcourt and Claycourt titles with Evonne Goolagong. In December 1970, she joined with Court and Goolagong in the 1971 Federation Cup victory over Great Britain at

Royal King's Park Tennis Club Royal King's Park Tennis Club, founded in 1899, is located in Kings Park, Western Australia. It was originally called the Mount Tennis Club and included two asphalt courts. Later, lawn tennis, bowls and croquet facilities were added. The membe ...

. In the final match, she partnered with Court, beating

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 ...

and Winnie Shaw. Hunt was inducted into the

Western Australian Hall of Champions In 1983, the Sportswriters' Association of Western Australia proposed a Western Australian Hall of Champions to honour past athletes from the state who had made a significant impact in their sport. The Government of Western Australia asked the th ...

in 1993.

WTA Tour finals

Doubles 3 (1–2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Lesley 1950 births Living people Australian female tennis players Australian Open (tennis) junior champions French Open junior champions Sportswomen from Western Australia Tennis players from Perth, Western Australia Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles