A Year in Women's Tennis: 1977
1977 marked the 10th season of open tennis and the centenary of its leading tournament: Wimbledon. It marked the retirements of two players who had helped usher in the open era and remain among the greatest champions ever in the women’s game - Maria Bueno and Margaret Smith-Court - and the remarkable comebacks of two others: Billie Jean King (from injury) and Evonne Goolagong Cawley (from maternity). It also marked the rebirth of a truly international circuit for women in the form of the Colgate Grand Prix which, confusingly, began in October 1976, paused between January and March in deference to the Virginia Slims tour and ended in November 1977. In addition to these two tours, three team events – the Wightman Cup, Federation Cup and World Team Tennis - and countless tournaments, many of which had existed long before the birth of open tennis, outside the structure of either the Grand Prix or the Virginia Slims circuits, made the calendar a real patchwork of tournaments, circuits, tours and competitions. As if that were not enough, the year stands unique in that it saw five grand slam tournaments, the Australian Open being held both in January and December.
The 1976-77 Australian season spanned the Christmas-New Year period and was reinvigorated by the sponsorship of Colgate, who staged and sponsored new events in Sydney and Melbourne to crown the circuit including the established state championships and the year’s first grand slam. Although neither Chris Evert (1976 season ending #1) nor Virginia Wade (#3) made the trip down under, the presence of Evonne Goolagong (#2), Martina Navratilova (#4), Dianne Fromholtz (#5), Betty Stove (#7), Kerry Reid (#8), Sue Barker (#10), Françoise Durr, Margaret Court (returning from a miscarriage), and Wendy Turnbull meant that the circuit could boast more leading players than had been the case for years. The Sydney event was won by Navratilova, with wins over Court, Fromholtz and Stove, and the Melbourne title went to Mrs Court – in what was to be her last ever tournament victory – with wins against Reid, Stove and Barker. Elsewhere, Fromholtz won the Australian Hardcourts (over Harrison) and Sydney Manly Seaside (over Eisterlehner) events, Reid the NSW Open (over Fromholtz) and Turnbull the Western Australian Championships (over Tomanova). Sadly, bad planning meant that whereas most of the lead-up tournaments happened before Christmas, the showpiece event, the Australian Open, took place after the New Year, in a direct clash with the first Virginia Slims event and of the players listed above, only Fromholtz and Reid entered, with the latter beating the former in the final. After a decade among the top 10 players in the world and two final defeats in major singles finals before – in Australia in 1970 and at Forest Hills in 1972, Kerry Reid finally became a Grand Slam singles Champion.
The 1977 Virginia Slims circuit, which consisted of 12 tournaments, including the finals, which were held in Madison Square Garden, New York, for the first time, was dominated by three players: Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Sue Barker. No-one else won a title and only Margaret Court (twice), Virginia Wade and Terry Holladay made it as far as a final.
Evert’s record of 6 wins from 8 tournaments, losing only to Navratilova 62 63 in the Washington final and to Wade 63 64 in the semis at San Francisco, is by far the most impressive. Her win/loss total for the tour was 32-2 (64 sets won 7 lost) and she appeared in the final of the tour championships for the 6th successive year – or put another way, maintained the record of reaching the deciding match every year since the tournament’s inception in 1972. With the only player ever to have beaten her in a slims final, Evonne Goolagong, missing the entire tour due to pregnancy, Chris duly added a 4th Virginia Slims title to the three she had won in 1972, 1973 and 1975 with a 26 61 61 win over Barker. In so doing, she became the first woman to hold the Wimbledon, US and Slims titles, the coveted triple crown, at the same time, albeit over two calendar years.
Martina notched up 4 titles on the tour (thus surpassing in the first three months of 1977 her total haul of titles in the disastrous season she had endured in 1976) from 7 finals in 10 events, falling to Evert three times Barker twice and Kathy May once. Barker, the reigning French Open Champion, confirmed her rise in the rankings with two titles from six finals in nine events. Sue lost three times to Chrissie and three times to Martina but gained revenge over the latter in the New York finale to reach the final round.
Elsewhere, the tour saw the departure of Margaret Court, who defaulted her quarter final against Durr in Detroit on discovering she was pregnant for the fourth time. Aged 34 and having miscarried in 1976, she decided to take no risks and stop playing immediately. It was Mrs Court’s 6th event of the year and in her previous five, she had made two finals in Hollywood Florida and Chicago, losing both to Evert, the semi finals in Los Angeles, losing to Navratilova, the quarter finals at Minneapolis, where she fell to Casals, and suffered a second round loss to Turnbull at Houston. She had also chalked up wins over Wade and Casals.
Russians Olga Morozova and Natasha Chmyreva, who were summoned back to the Soviet Union on government orders following its decision to withdraw its players from the professional tours, also disappeared from view during the slims tour.
Amid all these departures, the most noteworthy arrival was that of prodigy Tracy Austin. Tracy won the futures event in Portland Oregon over Stacy Margolin in early January to graduate to the slims tour, where she played her first event in Houston aged 14 and one month. Although she was beaten by Briton Linda Mottram in the first round there, in her other two slims events, Tracy beat Greer Stevens before falling to Rosie Casals in Bloomington Minnesota and beat Lindsey Beaven before losing once more to Casals 64 64 in L.A.
Meanwhile, Billie Jean King, who had missed the slims tour while recovering from a knee operation the previous November, came back with a win in the minor Lionel Cup circuit event in San Antonio Texas in preparation for a clay court campaign which would begin at the biggest clay court event of the year: the Family Circle Cup at Hilton Head. Inevitably, almost, this event was won for the 4th consecutive year by Evert, who beat Jausovec and King 60 61 in the last two rounds. Miss Evert won the other major Spring event stateside, the four-woman L’EGGS tournament in Tucson, Arizona, with wins over Wade and Navratilova.
On a tragic note, the sudden death of Aussie former singles top tenner Karen Krantzcke, aged 30, due to heart failure after a training run robbed the tennis world of a popular and respected player. Karen had just won the doubles and reached the semi finals of the singles in a tournament in Tallahassee Florida. In recognition of the widespread affection and respect in which she was held by her fellow professionals, the WTA named its sportsmanship award after her.
Traditionally, April was the moment when all eyes turned to Europe for the clay court season but the arrival of World Team Tennis in the United States meant that this was no longer the case. The inclusion of the German and Italian Championships into the Colgate tour did ensure a reasonable second grade entry of young Europeans and a few tour veterans but all the top names, including defending Roland Garros Champion Sue Barker, opted for the security of the guaranteed income the WTT contracts ensured and the convenience of staying put in the United States until Wimbledon.
Regina Marsikova became the third Czech, after Navratilova and Tomanova, to make her mark on the world stage in the 1970s with victories in Nice and Monte Carlo and a semi final finish in Hamburg, where the title was won by Laura Dupont (USA) over Heidi Eisterlehner (GER). Rome fell to Janet Newberry (USA) over Renata Tomanova (CZE) and Roland Garros to top-seeded but only 9th ranked Mima Jausovec (YUG) over Fiorenta Mihai (ROM). None of the players above would finish the year inside the top 10.
Meanwhile, the big guns competed in World Team Tennis. The championship was played in spring and summer segments with the Boston lobsters, featuring Navratilova, winning the eastern division and the Phoenix Racquets, featuring Evert, the western division. In the summer play-offs, it was the New York Apples led by King and Wade who beat the Indiana Loves, featuring Barker, in the semifinals and Phoenix in the final. The match was essentially won by Wade with an unbelievable 6-0 victory over Evert on the final night.
It was not until June that the massed ranks of women’s tennis came together once more – on the grass of England. The quality of entry in the warm-up tournaments had been much reduced in the years since WTT had been on the scene and in 1977 attention was centred around the Federation Cup at Devonshire Park, Eastbourne. All the Eastern bloc countries were absent from the field as they were locked in an ongoing dispute with the ITF, having pulled out of the competition the previous year because of the participation of the South Africans and Rhodesians. The United States team of Evert (making her Federation Cup début), King and Casals, swept through the field without the loss of a live rubber. In fact, the only match they conceded was the dead doubles in the final, when Evert and Casals were beaten by Kerry Reid and Wendy Turnbull. With Court retired and Goolagong-Cawley off the tour nursing a month-old baby, Australia was replaced as main challenger by Britain but Wade and Barker both fell to semi final defeats at the hands of Reid and Fromholtz respectively. The other semi finalists – South Africa, led by Greer Stevens and Brigitte Cuypers – were the object of anti-apartheid demonstrations which disrupted the genteel atmosphere of Devonshire Park.
Elsewhere, the grass court season was largely uneventful. In the same week that the Federation Cup was being played, Martina Navratilova won the Scottish Championships over Lesley Hunt and Kris Kemmer-Shaw in a field which contained many players not selected to represent their country at Eastbourne. Two veterans made ripples elsewhere. Brazilian Maria Bueno reached the quarter finals at Beckenham before falling to British youngster Jo Durie 26 61 61 and just after Wimbledon made the finals of the Irish Open at Dublin, where she lost to Aussie Mary Sawyer. Another former Wimbledon champion, Ann Haydon-Jones, picked up the Glasgow and Edgbaston tournaments.
The field at Wimbledon, even without Goolagong and Court, contained four former champions, two undefeated since they had lifted the trophy. Chris Evert, the defending champion and Billie Jean King, champion back in 1975 were joined by Miss Bueno, champion in 1959, 1960 and 1964 and Karen Hantze-Susman, who had lifted the trophy in 1962. Susman beat Sue Saliba 61 75 but fell ignominiously in the second round to the Dane Helle Sparre-Viragh 63 62 and Bueno, following a first round bye, battled through to the last 32 with a win over Janet Newberry (reigning Italian Champion and the conqueror of Navratilova at Forest Hills the previous Autumn) 16 86 86, saving a match-point at 5-6 in the final set. There, Maria fittingly played her last singles match ever at Wimbledon against old rival Billie Jean and lost 62 75. Two rounds later, Mrs King faced Miss Evert and was trounced 62 61. This was Chrissie’s first ever win over BJK on grass and her first victory over the old lady in a grand slam event. With Navratilova, seeded 2, a quarter final victim of Betty Stove, the semi final line-up pitched top-seeeded Evert against British #1 Virginia Wade and Stove against British #2 Sue Barker. Wade’s superb semi-final victory over Evert and her rather scrappy and nervy win over Stove in centenary year, in the presence of the Queen in her Silver Jubilee year provided the media with a feast of coincidences to savour and made Virginia, at almost 32 years of age the oldest first time Wimbledon Champion post-war.
With the resumption of WTT, tournaments on both sides of the Atlantic lacked most of the top names. In Europe, the clay court season concluded with the traditional tournaments in, Sweden (won by Tomanova) Switzerland (Hunt) and Austria (Mihai) whilst the North American clay court season saw Laura Dupont beat Nancy Richey in the US Clay Courts and Regina Marsikova win the Canadian Open over Marise Kruger. In the week before the US Open, Martina Navratilova beat Mima Jausovec 36 62 61 to lift the Charlotte title. The Canadian meeting was significant in that it marked the brief return to competition of Evonne Cawley, who lost her first match to Katja Burgemeister-Ebbinghaus and promptly went back on maternity leave.
Having lost her Wimbledon crown, Evert was merciless in maintaining her grip on the US Open. She sailed through the draw, winning every match in straight sets and conceded just 10 games in her first five matches. Her last two opponents did slightly better, though neither Betty Stove nor Wendy Turnbull was able to claim a set. Evert thus became the first woman to win a US hat-trick since Maureen Connolly in 1951-3 and won without conceding a set for the second straight year. She would go also down in history as the last woman to win the US Open at Forest Hills and the only woman to win it on clay as the tournament moved to its new home and a new surface at Flushing Meadows the following year. As at Wimbledon, the semi-final line-up contained unexpected names: Turnbull had eliminated # seed Wade and then upset Navratilova to reach the final and Stove had reached the semi-final round thanks to a victory over 14-year-old Tracy Austin, who had caused the sensation of the event in eliminating Britain’s Sue Barker, seeded 4, 61 64.
Following the US Open, the tennis circus dispersed all over the six continents for the final months of the year. The Americas saw the bulk of the action until early November and Evert and King dominated the final two months of the Colgate tour. Following a second round loss to Briton Michelle Tyler and a semi final defeat in Atlanta to Dianne Fromholtz, King won Phoenix, beating Casals 46 64 63 Navratilova 76 46 64 and Turnbull 16 61 60. She followed this up with a title in Sao Paolo Navratilova 62 36 64, Fromholtz 63 63, and Stove 61 64) and a third in Puerto Rico (d Ruzici, Stove 64 26 64 Newberry 61 63). Her 18 match win streak was stopped at 18 with a 62 62 loss to Evert in the final of the Colgate Tour Championships in Palm Springs after she had beaten Turnbull, Reid and Stove in the round robin. The Sao Paolo event marked the retirement from singles of Maria Bueno, who beat Katja Ebbinghaus 60 62 before losing to Betty Stove 63 60.
Evert, meanwhile, won both events she played post-US Open, in Atlanta (SF def. Virginia Wade 6-0, 7-5; F def. Dianne Fromholtz 6-3, 6-2) and the Colgate Series Finals in Palm Springs. There, she added her second series crown of the year and beat the players who would end the year ranked just below her: #2 King 6-2, 6-2, #3 Martina Navratilova 6-4, 6-1 and #4 Virginia Wade 1-6, 6-4, 6-4. Her 7-6, 6-4 round robin loss to Fromholtz was only her 4th of the year and her first since Wimbledon.
The only other titles of significance in the US, the Florida Federal Open at Tampa and the Hilton Head World Invitational were won by the Virginias: Ruzici and Wade. Ruzici beat Dupont in 64 46 62 in Tampa and Wade beat Goolagong-Cawley 64 67 63 at Hilton Head. The previous week, Virginia Wade had beaten Navratilova to win the Tokyo Toray event.
In Europe, Marsikova picked up clay court titles in Madrid and Barcelona and Mrs King beat Stove 64 26 63 in the semis and Wade 63 61 in the final of the Bremar Cup indoors in London. Mrs King, who had beaten Casals 57 62 62 in the semis, beat Miss Navratilova for the fourth time during the Autumn to win the Tokyo Gunze Tournament 75 57 61.
The Wightman Cup, played indoors at the Oakland Coliseum, was won by the US team of Evert, King, Casals and Joanne Russell in a 7-0 whitewash. The highlight of the tie was King’s 64 36 86 win over Wade in a dead rubber. The match was the 25th encounter between these two players (with King now leading 17-8) and firmly established Billie Jean, who thus ended the year undefeated against both Wade and Navratilova, as world number 2.
The South African circuit, which ten years earlier had been one of the major fixtures of the season was now reduced to a largely domestic affair and the Open title was won by Linky Boshoff over Brigitte Cuypers 64 61.
The calendar year was rounded out by the Australian circuit, which actually formed part of the 1978 Grand Prix even though the LTAA had decreed that the Australian Open would be the second dated 1977. The reason for this shift was the hope that in making the Australian the last leg of the slam, the quality of entry would be improved. The Australian season saw the return to form of Mrs Cawley, whose decision to delay her return until the grass court season down under paid dividends. She immediately embarked on a win streak of 20 consecutive matches in winning four consecutive tournaments: Colgate Sydney (d. Mappin 61 61, Whytcross 63 62, Holladay 60 26 64, Fromholtz 76 61, Reid 61 63), Melbourne (d Coles 61 61, Hunt 63 61, Fromholtz 36 61 63, Stove 61 62, Turnbull 64 61), NSW (d Gourlay 63 46 63, Reid 46 62 63, Barker 62 63) and Australian Opens (d Evers 61 63, Sato 64 60, Tegart 63 61, Reid 61 63, Gourlay 63 60), a run which included 8 wins over beating top ten players (Melville-Reid (#10) three times, Fromholtz (#8) twice, Stove (#7), Turnbull (#9) and Barker (#5)).
1977 ended with Ms. Evert still firmly established as the world’s top player but there were indications that there would be a tougher challenge to her supremacy in the year to come. Both Mrs Cawley and Mrs King had demonstrated through their fine form towards the end of the season that they were ready to challenge. Ms Wade, the only player to beat Ms Evert twice, had finally shown that she was still capable of winning major tournaments. shown that Ms Navratilova and Ms Fromholtz had both notched up a victory over Chrissie and Betty Stove and Wendy Turnbull, neither of whom were newcomers to the tour, had emerged from the pack of also-rans. Sue Barker (indoors), and Mima Jausovec (clay) had done enough to suggest that they may break through. Finally, Tracy Austin had shot up the rankings to finish the season ranked #12 and it seemed inevitable that she would climb high into the top 10 in the following 12 months.
The doubles year saw four different teams lift Grand Slam titles and one player, Aussie Helen Gourlay-Cawley, reach four of the five finals, each time with a different partner: the Wimbledon title was won by Gourlay and Joanne Russell over Navratilova and Stove. The latter pair won Forest Hills over Renée Richards and Betty Ann Grubb-Hansen-Stuart (later Mrs Dent) and Paris fell to Marsikova and Pam Teeguarden over Helen Gourlay and Rayni Fox. Helen Gourlay picked up the January 1977 titles Australian Open with Dianne Fromholtz with a victory over Betsy Nagelsen and Kerry Melville-Reid and in partnership with Evonne Goolagong-Cawley divided the December 1977 Open with Reid and Mona Schallau-Guerrant. It was the first year since 1963 that Mrs King did not make a women’s doubles final at one of the Grand Slam events
The WTA top 20 as of 31/12/1977 with number of singles titles won and finals lost (including events outside the tour).
- Chris Evert USA (11-1)
- Billie Jean King USA (7-2)
- Martina Navratilova CZE (6-6)
- Virginia Wade GBR (3-2)
- Sue Barker GBR (2-5)
- Rosie Casals USA (0-0)
- Betty Stove NTH (0-2)
- Dianne Fromholtz AUS (0-2)
- Wendy Turnbull AUS (0-2)
- Kerry Melville-Reid AUS (1-1)
- Mima Jausovec YUG (1-1)
- Tracy Austin USA (1-0)
- Greer Stevens RSA (0-0)
- Terry Holladay USA (0-1)
- Joanne Russell USA (0-0)
- Virginia Ruzici ROM (1-0)
- Kris Kemmer-Shaw USA (0-1)
- Janet Newberry USA (1-1)
- Katja Burgemeister-Ebbinghaus GER (1-1)
- Regina Marsikova CZE (6-0)
Evonne Goolagong-Cawley AUS (4-1) had played an insufficient number (5) of tournaments to receive a ranking in a period when the minimum was 6.
Margaret Smith-Court AUS (0-2), who had played 6 events, had retired. On July 2nd 1977, the last time she appeared on the WTA rankings, she was ranked #5 in the world.
