Word: evert
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...comparison, someone like Chris Evert, whose father belonged to a country club, is given significant advantages. She is able to play at an indoor tennis court, with good tennis rackets, new tennis balls, and other equipment...
...accomplishment was very nearly nonpareil. To put the grand slam of tennis in perspective, it is far rarer than either baseball's (16) or horse racing's (eleven) triple crowns. The recent demigods, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Billie Jean King among them have 47 major tournament victories, but none managed that perfect dominance over their rivals and the calendar. Only four other tennis players, male and female, belong in this most exclusive of tennis clubs: Don Budge (1938), Maureen Connolly (1953), Rod Laver (1962 and 1969) and Margaret Court (1970). On Saturday Steffi Graf of West Germany joined that...
Graf, 19, secured her place on the plaque with a style drawn more from Clausewitz than Connolly or Court. She dropped only two sets in the course of her conquest. In the first act, the Australian Open in January, she sent Evert down under 6-1, 7-6. In Paris in June, she pulverized Soviet Natalia Zvereva 6-0, 6-0, the only double bagel ever in a French Open singles final and the first in a grand-slam final since 1911. The walkover took all of 32 minutes on the soft, molasses-slow red clay. During the award ceremony...
Unconcerned by such questions, Graf blew through the tournament. The always formidable challenge of a semi-final appointment with Evert evaporated when the American caught a stomach flu and had to default. Then came the meeting with Sabatini, who had beaten Graf twice so far this year -- the only person to do so. But not this time. Graf was uneven -- "In the second set, I was not so tough" -- but finished overwhelmingly. When the Open was finally closed, Graf had lost just 23 games in six matches. That was all the more restful for Graf, who is off to Seoul...
Thirty-three and ready to try a second serve at marriage, to the mountain skier Andy Mill, Evert departed the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the first time in almost 20 years without the sure knowledge that she would return. "I don't know; we'll see," she said. During their tight semifinal, which may have turned on a bad call, Evert sensed a vulnerability in her old adversary that made her unhesitatingly pick Graf. "Martina's body language looks confident, but I can tell...