Tracy Austin

Tracy Ann Austin Holt (b. December 12, 1962, in Palos Verdes, California) is a former World No. 1 women's professional tennis player from the United States who won the women's singles title at the U.S. Open in 1979 and 1981 and the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1980, before a series of injuries cut short her career. Her older sister, Pam, and her older brother, Jeff, were also professional tennis players, as were brothers Doug and John Austin. She is the sister-in-law of fitness author Denise Austin. She is married to Scott Holt and is the mother of three sons.

Career

As a junior player, Austin won 21 age-group titles, including the U.S. national 12-and-under title at age 10 in 1972. In 1977, she became the youngest player to win a professional tournament, capturing the title in Portland, Oregon aged 14 years and 28 days. Later that year, she made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon, losing to Chris Evert in the third round. At the U.S. Open two months later, she reached the quarterfinals, losing to Betty Stove.

Austin became the youngest-ever U.S. Open champion in 1979, aged 16 years and 9 months. In the final, she faced Evert who was bidding to win the title for the fifth consecutive year. Austin won the match 6-4, 6-3. Earlier that year, Austin had ended Evert's 125-match winning streak on clay by beating her in three sets in a semifinal of the Italian Open.

Austin was a singles semifinalist at Wimbledon in both 1979 (losing to Martina Navratilova) and 1980 (losing to Evonne Goolagong).

Austin won the U.S. Open again in 1981 in a close final against Navratilova 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(1).

In 1980, Austin won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with her brother John.

Austin was ranked the World No. 1 singles player in 1980, breaking Evert's and Navratilova's six year monopolization of the top spot. During that year, Austin captured the two sponsors' tour-ending events, defeating Navratilova to win the Avon Championships in March and Andrea Jaeger to capture the Colgate Series Championships in January 1981.

Austin repeated her success at the Toyota Series Championships in December 1981 by defeating Evert and Navratilova in back-to-back matches. Her 6-1, 6-2 semifinal defeat of Evert was her last career victory over her arch rival. (Evert had defeated Austin in an earlier roundrobin match at that tournament 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.)

After a fleeting period of great success, back injuries began to impair Austin's effectiveness and sidelined her for long stretches. She won her 29th and final top-level singles title at San Diego in 1982. Austin's last good showing at a major event was at the 1982 season-ending Toyota Series Championships where she defeated world no. 3, Andrea Jaeger in straight sets to reach the semifinals. However she was unable to repeat the previous year's victory over Evert, who defeated Austin 6-0, 6-0 in less than 50 minutes. By 1983, before her 21st birthday, she was virtually finished as a top ten player.

Austin began her first comeback on the tour in 1988 when she played in seven doubles tournaments and 1989 when she played in one doubles and two singles tournaments. This comeback was ended by a near-fatal motor vehicle accident. She attempted a second comeback in 1993 and 1994 but was not particularly successful.

In 1992, Austin became the youngest person to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Since retiring as a player, Austin has worked frequently as a commentator for NBC and the USA Network. She worked for the Seven Network at the 2006 and 2007 Australian Open and usually participates in the BBC's Wimbledon coverage.

source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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