Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 260 weeks (fourth-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 seven times: 1974–1978, 1980 and 1981. Evert won 157 singles titles, including 18 majors (among which a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record six US Open titles). Alongside Martina Navratilova, her greatest rival, Evert dominated women's tennis from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.
In singles, Evert reached the semifinals or better in 52 of the 56 majors she played, including at 34 consecutive majors entered from the 1971 US Open through the 1983 French Open. She never lost in the first or second round of a major, and lost in the third round only twice. Evert holds the record of most consecutive years (13) of winning at least one major title, and contested an all-time record 34 major women's singles finals. Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 89.97% (1309–146) is the second highest in the Open Era, for men or women. On clay courts, Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 94.55% (382–22) remains a WTA Tour record. She also won three major doubles titles, two partnering with Navratilova and one with Olga Morozova.
Evert served as president of the Women's Tennis Association for eleven years, 1975–76 and 1983–91. She was awarded the Philippe Chatrier award and inducted into the Hall of Fame. In later life, Evert was a coach and is now an analyst for ESPN, and has a line of tennis and active apparel.
Evert was born in 1954 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Colette (née Thompson) and Jimmy Evert, and raised in a committed Catholic household. She is a 1973 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale.
Evert's father was a professional tennis coach, and tennis was a way of life in his family. Chris and her sister Jeanne became professional tennis players.
Evert began taking tennis lessons from her father Jimmy Evert when she was five years old. He was a professional tennis coach who had won the men's singles title at the Canadian Championships in 1947. By 1969, she had become the No. 1 ranked under-14 girl in the United States. Evert played her first senior tournament in that year also, reaching the semifinals in her hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, losing to Mary-Ann Eisel in three sets. For years, this was the record for the furthest a player had reached in her first senior-level tournament. That record was broken when another Floridian, Jennifer Capriati, reached the final at Boca Raton in 1990. In 1970, Evert won the national 16-and-under championship and was invited to play in an eight-player clay-court tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 15-year-old Evert defeated Françoise Dürr in the first round in straight sets before defeating Margaret Court 7–6, 7–6 in a semifinal. Court was the world No. 1 player and had just won the Grand Slam in singles. These results led to Evert's selection for the U.S. Wightman Cup team as the youngest player ever in the competition.
Evert made her Grand Slam tournament debut at age 16 at the 1971 US Open; she received an invitation after winning the national 16-and-under championship. After an easy straight-sets win over Edda Buding in the first round, she faced the American No. 4, Mary-Ann Eisel in the second round. With Eisel serving at 6–4, 6–5 (40–0) in the second set, Evert saved six match points before going on to win 4–6, 7–6, 6–1. She made two further comebacks from a set down, against fifth seed Dürr and Lesley Hunt, both seasoned professionals, before losing in straight sets to top seed Billie Jean King in a semifinal. This defeat ended a 46-match winning streak built up through a variety of professional and junior tour events.
In 1973, Evert was the runner-up at the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships. A year later she won both those events during her then-record 55-consecutive-match winning streak, which included eight other tournament wins. She ended the year with a 100–7 match record, winning 16 tournaments including two Grand Slams, having been a finalist in her first Australian Open, and having for a fourth straight year reached the semifinals at the US Open. She was chosen as the year-end number one by the leading tennis experts and authorities of the day – except Bud Collins.
For the next five years, Evert was the world's No.1 player. In 1975 she won her second French Open and the first of four straight US Open titles by defeating Cawley in a three-set final. Also in November of that year, the official WTA computer ranking system was instituted, with Evert being the first No. 1. In total, Evert logged 260 weeks at number one. Ten years after she had first achieved the number-one spot, she regained it in November 1985 at the age of 30 years and 11 months. That made her the oldest woman to have reached WTA number one, a record that stood for 27 years until Serena Williams surpassed it in 2013.
Evert's domination of the women's game and her calm, steely demeanor on court earned her the nickname of the "Ice Maiden" of tennis. Throughout her career, Evert was ranked number one in the world at the end of seven different years by Tennis magazine, by World Tennis magazine and as well as a majority of other major tennis experts from 1974 through 1978, and in 1980 and 1981.
The 1976 season held a unique distinction for Evert, as this was the only time in her career where she won both Wimbledon and the US Open titles in the same year. She defeated Goolagong Cawley in a thrilling three-set final on grass and then dismantled her on clay at Forest Hills, losing just three games. However, Evert lost to Goolagong Cawley again in the final of the Virginia Slims Championships. In all, Evert won 26 of 39 matches with Cawley. Evert's 1976 performance earned her Sports Illustrated's title of Sportsman of the Year. She is the first woman to be the sole recipient of this honor, and is one of only four tennis players to receive it.
The years 1977 and 1978 saw Evert continue to dominate the women's game, winning two more US Opens. Evert won the final US Open played at Forest Hills on clay (1977) and the inaugural championship to be held on hard courts at Flushing Meadow (1978). She won 18 of 25 tournaments during this two-year period and had a match record of 126–7. Of particular note is that Evert skipped the French Open during these years (as well as 1976) to play in King's World TeamTennis. The other noteworthy event was Evert's three-set loss to eventual champion Wade in the semifinals of the 1977 Wimbledon Championships. It was Wimbledon's centenary year, coinciding with Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee as monarch.
Though she was successful on all surfaces, it was on clay courts where Evert was most dominant. Beginning in August 1973, she won 125 consecutive matches on clay, losing only eight sets throughout; this run continues to stand as the benchmark among both men and women players. The streak was broken on May 12, 1979, in a semifinal of the Italian Open when Evert lost to Tracy Austin in a third-set tiebreaker. Evert said after the match, "Not having the record will take some pressure off me, but I am not glad to have lost it." Evert rebounded with another clay court streak that reached 64 matches (including titles at the 1979 and 1980 French Open) before ending with a semifinal loss to eventual winner Hana Mandlíková at the 1981 French Open (a record of 189 victories in 191 matches on clay from 1973 to 1981).
Evert's record of seven French Open singles titles stood for 27 years until being broken in June 2013 by Rafael Nadal. She still holds the French Open singles title record for female players. Evert held the record for most clay court Grand Slam titles (10, with seven French Opens and all three US Opens played on clay in 1975–77) before Nadal won his 11th French Open championship in 2018.