Early life

Born in Bournemouth in England, Virginia Wade learned to play tennis in South Africa, where her parents moved when she was one year old. Her father was the Archdeacon of Durban. When Wade was 15, the family moved back to England and she went to Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth. In 1961 Wade was in the tennis team of Wimbledon County Girls' Grammar School. She went on to study mathematics and physics at the University of Sussex, graduating in 1966.

Tennis career

Wade's tennis career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of the open era. In 1968, she scored two notable firsts. As an amateur, she won the inaugural open tennis competition — the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth (her birthplace). She turned down the US$720 first prize. Five months later, she had become a professional and captured the women's singles championship at the first US Open (and the prize-money of $6,000)($40,829 today), defeating Billie Jean King in the final.

Wade's second Grand Slam singles championship came in 1972 at the Australian Open. There, she defeated the Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley in the finals 6-4, 6-4.

Wade won at Wimbledon, England, in 1977. It was the sixteenth year in which Wade had played at Wimbledon, and she made her first appearance in the final by beating the defending champion Chris Evert in a semifinal 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. In the finals, she faced Betty Stöve. Not only was 1977 the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships, but it was also the 25th year of the reign (the Silver Jubilee) of Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen attended the Wimbledon championships for the first time in a quarter-century to watch the final. Wade beat Stöve in three sets to claim the championship, nine days before her 32nd birthday. Wade received the trophy from Queen Elizabeth, and the audience at Centre Court burst out into a chorus of "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow!" to celebrate her triumph.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in December 1977 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the National Sports Stadium at London's Crystal Palace.

Wade also won four Grand Slam women's doubles championships with Margaret Smith Court - two of them at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, one at the Australian Open, and one at the French Open.

Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles championships and amassed $1,542,278 dollars in career prize money. She was ranked in the world's top 10 continuously from 1967 to 1979. Her career spanned a total of 26 years. She retired from singles competition at the end of the 1985 tennis season, and then from doubles at the end of 1986.

In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the Italian Open women's doubles championship, along with her teammate Virginia Ruzici of Romania.

The 26 times that Wade played at Wimbledon is an all-time record., 24 of those times being in the women's singles.

After tennis

Since 1981, while she was still playing, Wade has been a reporter on tennis events for the BBC. In 1982, Wade became the first woman to be elected to the Wimbledon Committee.

In 1986, Wade was honoured with the distinction of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

In 1989, Wade was also inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 finals (3 titles)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
Winner	1968	US Open	Grass	Billie Jean King	6-4, 6-2
Winner	1972	Australian Open	Grass	Evonne Goolagong	6-4, 6-4
Winner	1977	Wimbledon	Grass	Betty Stöve	4-6, 6-3, 6-1

Women's doubles: 10 finals (4 titles, 6 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score in final
Runner-up	1969	US Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Françoise Dürr Darlene Hard	0-6, 6-4, 6-4
Runner-up	1970	Wimbledon	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	6-2, 6-3
Runner-up	1970	US Open	Grass	Rosie Casals	Margaret Court Judy Tegart Dalton	6-3, 6-4
Runner-up	1972	US Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve	6-3, 1-6, 6-3
Winner	1973	Australian Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Kerry Harris Kerry Melville	6-4, 6-4
Winner	1973	French Open	Clay	Margaret Court	Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve	6-2, 6-3
Winner	1973	US Open	Grass	Margaret Court	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	2-6, 6-3, 7-5
Winner	1975	US Open	Clay	Margaret Court	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	7-5, 2-6, 7-6(7-5)
Runner-up	1976	US Open	Clay	Olga Morozova	Linky Boshoff Ilana Kloss	6-1, 6-4
Runner-up	1979	French Open	Clay	Françoise Dürr	Betty Stöve Wendy Turnbull	3-6, 7-5, 6-4

Year-End Championships finals

Doubles: 2 finals (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score in final
Winner	1975	Los Angeles	Carpet	Margaret Court	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	6-7(2-7), 7-6(7-2), 6-2
Runner-up	1977	New York City	Carpet	Françoise Dürr	Martina Navratilova Betty Stöve	7-5, 6-3

Singles championships (55)

(Source: Virginia Wade at the Women's Tennis Association)

Bold type indicates a Grand Slam championship

• 1968 - US Open, Bloemfontein, Bournemouth, East London, Dewar Cup-Crystal Palace
• 1969 - Cape Town, Hoylake, Dewar-Perth, Dewar-Stalybridge, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar-Crystal Palace, East London
• 1970 - German Indoors, West Berlin Open, Irish Open, Stalybridge, Aberavon
• 1971 - Cape Town, Catania Open, Rome, Newport-Wales, Cincinnati, Dewar-Billingham, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar Cup Final-London, Clean Air Classic
• 1972 - Australian Open, VS Indoors-Mass., Merion, Buenos Aires
• 1973 - Dallas, Bournemouth, Dewar-Aberavon, Dewar-Edinburgh, Dewar-Billingham, Dewar Cup Final-Albert Hall
• 1974 - VS Chicago, Bournemouth, VS Phoenix, Dewar-Edinburgh, Dewar Cup-London
• 1975 - VS Dallas, VS Philadelphia, Paris Indoors, Eastbourne, Dewar Cup, Stockholm
• 1976 - U.S. Indoor Championships, Dewar Cup
• 1977 - Wimbledon, World Invitational Hilton Head, Tokyo Sillook
• 1978 - Mahwah, Tokyo Sillook, Florida Open

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

R#

RR

Q#

A

NH

(W) Won tournament; reached (F) final, (SF) semifinal, (QF) quarterfinal; (R#) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a (RR) round-robin stage; reached a (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent from tournament; or (NH) tournament not held.

Tournament	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	1970	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977		1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	Career SR
Australia	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	W	QF	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	2R	1 / 5
France	A	A	A	A	A	4R	A	2R	QF	1R	QF	3R	2R	A	A	A		A	2R	3R	4R	3R	1R	1R	2R	0 / 14
Wimbledon	2R	2R	2R	4R	2R	QF	1R	3R	4R	4R	QF	QF	SF	QF	SF	W		SF	QF	4R	2R	2R	QF	3R	3R	1 / 24
United States	A	A	4R	2R	QF	4R	W	SF	SF	A	QF	QF	2R	SF	2R	QF		3R	QF	3R	3R	1R	2R	2R	A	1 / 20
SR	0 / 1	0 / 1	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 3	1 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 2	1 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 2	1 / 2		0 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	3 / 63
Career statistics
Year End Ranking														2	3	4		4	8	15	30	59	40	61	89

SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]