Ruta Gerulaitis (; born November 18, 1955) is a 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 from the United States. She is the sister of
Vitas Gerulaitis
Vytautas "Vitas" Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1978. Gerulaitis won the men's si ...
.
Biography
Early life
Gerulaitis, the daughter of
Lithuanian immigrants, grew up in New York City. She and Vitas, an elder brother, were the only children of Vitas Gerulaitis Sr. and Aldona Gerulaitienė (née Čenkutė).
It wasn’t until the age of 15 that she began playing tennis competitively.
Tennis career
Gerulaitis and her brother teamed up at the
1975 US Open to make the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles.
At the
1978 Wimbledon Championships, Gerulaitis made it to the fourth round of the singles and en route won a match against 16th seed
Marita Redondo, in which she dropped just two games.
Her best performance in a
grand slam tournament came at the
1979 French Open, where she was a singles quarterfinalist. Beating
Chris O'Neil in the first round, she started her second round match with a 6–0 first set against 14th seed
Ilana Kloss
Ilana Sheryl Kloss (born 22 March 1956) is a South African former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and administrator. She was the World's No. 1 ranked doubles player in 1976, and World No. 19 in singles in 1979. She won the Wimbledon j ...
, before her South African opponent retired hurt. In the third round she upset eighth seed
Betty Stöve in straight sets, then was beaten in the quarter-finals by the only other American remaining in the draw, eventual tournament champion
Chris Evert
Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 2 ...
.
She competed on the WTA Tour until 1980.
Personal life
Gerulaitis married
ABC Sports
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial America ...
vice-president John Martin in 1983.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerulaitis, Ruta
1955 births
Living people
American female tennis players
American people of Lithuanian descent
Tennis players from New York City
21st-century American women
20th-century American sportswomen