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

* * {{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