Virginia Wade

Wade was born in Bournemouth, England, UK, on 10 July 1945. Her father, a Church of England clergyman, was the archdeacon of Durban.^[7]

At one year old, Wade moved to South Africa with her parents. There, she learned how to play tennis. When she was aged 15, the family moved back to England, and she went to Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth.^[8] In 1961, she was on the tennis team of Wimbledon County Girls' Grammar School. She studied mathematics and physics at the University of Sussex, graduating in 1966.^[9]

Wade's tennis career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of the Open Era. In April 1968, as an amateur, she won the inaugural open tennis competition – the British Hard Court Championships at Bournemouth. She turned down the £300 first prize, choosing to play for expenses only.^[10] Five months later, after turning professional, she won the women's singles championship at the first US Open (and prize-money of $6,000 - $55,550 today), defeating Billie Jean King in the final. Her second Major tennis singles championship came in 1972 at the Australian Open when she defeated Australian Evonne Goolagong in the final in two sets. She was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1973 Birthday Honours for services to lawn tennis.^[11]

Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. It was the 16th year in which she had played at Wimbledon, and she secured her first appearance in the final by beating the defending champion and top-seed Chris Evert in the semifinal in three sets. In the final, she beat seventh-seeded Betty Stöve in three sets to claim the championship, nine days before her 32nd birthday.^[12] 1977 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships as well as the Silver Jubilee year of Elizabeth II, who attended the final for the first time since 1962.^[13][14]

Wade also won four Major women's doubles championships with Margaret Smith Court – two of them at the US Open tennis tournament, one at the Australian Open, and one at the French Open. In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the Italian Open women's doubles championship with Virginia Ruzici of Romania.

Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles championships and amassed $1,542,278 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. She played at Wimbledon on 26 occasions, an all-time record;^[15] 24 of those times were in the women's singles.^[16]

Since 1981, while she was still playing, Wade has been a reporter on tennis events for the BBC.^[17] In 1982, she became the first woman to be elected to the Wimbledon Committee.^[18]

Wade was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1986 Birthday Honours for services to lawn tennis^[17][19] and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2025 Birthday Honours for services to tennis and to charity.^[20]

In 1989, Wade was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.^[21]

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

Girl with a Dolphin (1973)

Wade has no children and has never married. She has said "If I'd done better earlier, and my career had been at its peak earlier and I'd faded, I would probably have had a totally different life." She lives mostly in New York City and in Chelsea, London.^[23]

She posed for sculptor David Wynne for the 17-foot-high fountain Girl with a Dolphin, installed at Tower Bridge in 1973.^[24]