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Sarah Virginia Wade (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional
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. 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 four majors. She was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world in singles, and No. 1 in the world in doubles.
Wade was the most recent British tennis player to win a major singles tournament until
Andy Murray won the
2012 US Open, and was the most recent British woman to have won a major singles title until
Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu (born 13 November 2002) is a British professional tennis player. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 10 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on 11 July 2022, and is the current British No. 1. Raducanu is the first British ...
won the
2021 US Open. After retiring from competitive tennis, she coached for four years, and has also worked as a tennis commentator and game analyst for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
and
Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, ...
and
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
in the U.S.
Early life
Wade was born in
Bournemouth, England, UK, on 10 July 1945. Her father was the archdeacon of
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
.
At one year old, Wade moved to
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
with her parents. There, she learned how to play tennis. When she was fifteen, the family moved back to England and she went to
Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School
Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School (TWGGS), established in 1905, is an all-female selective school in Royal Tunbridge Wells, a town in Kent, England. The "eleven plus" examination represents the main entrance criterion, along with residence ...
and
Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth. In 1961, she was in the tennis team of Wimbledon County Girls' Grammar School. She went on to study mathematics and physics at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
, graduating in 1966.
Tennis career
Wade's tennis career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of the
open era
The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...
. In 1968, as an amateur, she won the inaugural open tennis competition – the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth. She turned down the £300 first prize, choosing to play for expenses only. Five months later, after turning professional, she won the women's singles championship at the first
US Open (and prize-money of $6,000 - $ today), defeating
Billie Jean King in the final. Her second Major tennis singles championship came in 1972 at the
Australian Open. There, she defeated Australian
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 ...
in the final 6–4, 6–4. She was appointed a member of the
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(MBE) in the
1973 Birthday Honours for services to lawn tennis.
Wade won
Wimbledon in 1977. It was the 16th year in which she had played at Wimbledon, and she made her first appearance in the final by beating the defending champion
Chris Evert in the semifinal 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. In the final, she beat
Betty Stöve
Betty Flippina Stöve (born 24 June 1945) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best remembered for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 19 ...
in three sets to claim the championship, nine days before her 32nd birthday. 1977 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships, as well as the
Silver Jubilee year of
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
, who attended the final for the first time since 1962.
Wade also won four Major women's doubles championships with
Margaret Smith 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 m ...
– two of them at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, one at the
Australian Open, and one at the
French Open. In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the
Italian Open women's doubles championship with
Virginia Ruzici of Romania.
Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles championships and amassed $1,542,278 dollars in career prize money. She was ranked in the world's top 10 continuously from 1967 to 1979. Her career spanned a total of 26 years. She retired from singles competition at the end of the 1985 tennis season, and then from doubles at the end of 1986. The 26 times that she played at Wimbledon is an all-time record, 24 of those times being in the women's singles.
After tennis
Since 1981, while she was still playing, Wade has been a reporter on tennis events for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.