Valerie Jean Bradshaw (née Ziegenfuss; June 29, 1949) is an American former female 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. She started as an amateur player at the beginning of the 1970s, then turned professional. She is most famous for being one of the Original 9 with eight of her fellow players, who rebelled against the

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tenn ...

in 1970. Their actions brought about the creation of the Virginia Slims Circuit, which was the basis for the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

. During her career, she reached the fourth round at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

(in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

) and the US Open on two occasions (

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

and

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

). She reached one singles final at the Virginia Slims of Oklahoma in 1972. After winning two rounds of qualifying, she defeated 5th seeded Helen Gourlay, No. 2 seed Francoise Durr, and Judy Dalton (seeded 6th) and then lost to Rosie Casals. She had far more success in doubles tournaments, with 12 doubles final appearances, including six victories. She won a bronze medal in doubles in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City with

Jane Bartkowicz Jane Bartkowicz (born April 16, 1949), known during her career as Peaches Bartkowicz, is a former top tennis player from the United States in the 1960s. Career She played her first tournament in July 1963 at the Tri-State Championships in Cinc ...

Early life

Ziegenfuss was born and raised in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Career review

Original 9

In 1970, the top women tennis players started to become frustrated at the lack of equality within tennis in terms of prize money on offer for male and female players. The publisher

Gladys Heldman Gladys Medalie Heldman (May 13, 1922 – June 22, 2003) was an American tennis player, promoter, manager and magazine publisher. She was the founder of '' World Tennis'' magazine. As a manager, she supported and represented Billie Jean King and ...

, founder of '' World Tennis'' magazine, offered $5,000 of her own money, which enabled the players to negotiate their own contracts. Ziegenfuss and the other players, including

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

and Rosie Casals, signed $1 contracts in the summer of 1970 and formed the Virginia Slims Circuit.

WTA Tour finals

Singles 1

Doubles 10 (6–4)

References

Notes

* The Original 9 featured

, Rosie Casals, Peaches Bartkowickz, Nancy Richey, Kerry Melville, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman and Kristy Pigeon. * The Virginia Slims Circuit was the name of the modern day circuit WTA circuit before the formation of the

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. The association governs the WTA Tour, which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, and was founded to create a better future fo ...

in 1973. It became the

in 1988.

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ziegenfuss, Valerie American female tennis players Tennis players from San Diego 1949 births Living people Tennis players at the 1968 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in tennis 20th-century American sportswomen