Dana Gilbert (born November 26, 1959) is an American former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player.

Biography

Gilbert was raised in California, one of three siblings. Her youngest brother is

Brad Gilbert Brad Gilbert (born August 9, 1961) is an American former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 ...

, who also played tennis professionally, and made it to four in the world. She attended Piedmont High School, and then

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

on a tennis scholarship and played number one singles. At the age of 17 she won a gold medal at the

1977 Maccabiah Games At the 10th Maccabiah Games in Israel, more than 2,800 athletes from 34 countries participated in 26 different sports, including chess and bridge and for the first time badminton. The opening ceremonies were held on July 12, 1977, in Ramat Gan S ...

in Israel, a competition for Israeli and Jewish athletes, defeating

Stacy Margolin Stacy Margolin (born April 5, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player in the WTA tour and the ITF world tour from 1979 to 1987 whose career-high world singles ranking is No. 18 (career-high end of season ranking of No. 25 in 197 ...

, the number 8 under-18 player in the U.S. At the

1981 Maccabiah Games The 11th Maccabiah Games brought 3,450 athletes to Israel from 35 nations. The Opening Ceremony was held on July 7, 1981, before a crowd of 53,000 and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Ramat Gan Stadium, with 3,500 Jewish athletes paradin ...

, she and

Donna Rubin Donna Rubin (born October 5, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. She represented the U.S. at the 1977 Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning a silver medal in doubles with Jodi Appelbaum-Steinbauer, and at the 1981 Maccabiah Games ...

won a gold medal in the women's doubles. Playing as a wildcard, she was a surprise winner of the 1978 U.S. Clay Court Championships, on her professional debut. En route to the final, which she won over

Viviana González Viviana Marina González Locicero (born 22 April 1958) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. She is also known by her married name Viviana Segal. Biography A right-handed player from Rosario, González is the granddaughter of Felipe ...

, she had a win against second seed

Virginia Ruzici Virginia Ruzici (born 31 January 1955) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. She won the 1978 French Open – Women's singles, 1978 French Open singles championship. Career Ruzici became a professional tennis player in 1975. One of h ...

, who two-months earlier had won the French Open. In October, 1980 she won her second WTA singles title at Nagoya and also won the Japan Open doubles title in the same month. She made the fourth round of the 1982 French Open as a

lucky loser A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw. This can occur when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness ...

. In early 1983 she was ranked a career best 46 in the world, before retiring from professional tennis at the end of the year. She now lives in

San Anselmo, California San Anselmo () is an incorporated town in Marin County, California, United States. San Anselmo is located west of San Rafael, at an elevation of . It is located about north of San Francisco. The town is bordered by San Rafael to the east, F ...

and is married to Geoffrey Heinemann. In 1994 she was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

WTA Tour finals

Singles (2-0)

Doubles (1-0)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Dana 1959 births Living people American female tennis players Jewish American tennis players Competitors at the 1977 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1981 Maccabiah Games Maccabiah Games gold medalists for the United States Maccabiah Games medalists in tennis Tennis players from California UCLA Bruins women's tennis players 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American sportswomen Jews from California 20th-century American sportswomen