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 US Open in 1979 and 1981 and the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1980, before a series of injuries cut her career short.

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 Cawley).

Her most important loss of 1980 was in a semifinal of the U.S. Open. As top seed and defending champion, she was expected to continue her winning streak against third-ranked Evert. However, after racing to an early 4?0 lead in the first set, Austin lost the match 4?6, 6?1, 6?1. Evert went on to beat Hana Mandlikova in the final, thus securing for herself the #1 ranking for 1980 in the public eye and on the WTA computer.

After missing the early months of 1981 to chronic injuries, Austin returned to the tour in the summer and put the disappointment of a Wimbledon loss to Pam Shriver behind her. First, she beat both Navratilova and Evert to win the Canadian Open in Toronto and then won the U.S. Open again 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 at times during 1980 when she captured the two sponsors' tour-ending events, defeating Navratilova to win the Avon Championships in March and Andrea Jaeger to capture the last Colgate Series Championships in January 1981.

Austin repeated her success at the sponsors' year ending events by winning the Toyota Series Championships in December 1981, 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 round robin match at that tournament 4?6, 6?4, 7?6, and then blamed her semifinal loss to Austin on exhaustion.)

After a fleeting period of great success, back injuries and recurring sciatica problems began to impair Austin's effectiveness and sidelined her for long stretches. She won her 29th and final top-level singles title in 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 Jaeger, the world no. 3, 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, 2007 and 2008 Australian Open and usually participates in the BBC's Wimbledon coverage.

Family

Tracy's older sister, Pam, and her older brother, Jeff Austin, were also professional tennis players, as were brothers Doug and John. She is the sister-in-law of fitness author Denise Austin. She is married to Scott Holt and is the mother of three sons.

Trivia

Austin was the first opponent of Steffi Graf when the German made her professional debut at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart in 1982. Austin defeated the 13-year-old Graf 6?4, 6?0. When asked about Graf after the match, Austin said, "There are hundreds of girls like her in America." Their paths crossed again twelve years later in 1994 at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California when Austin, in the middle of her comeback, played Graf, who was World No. 1 at the time. This proved to be another lopsided encounter with Graf blanking Austin 6?0, 6?0.

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (2)

Titles (35)

Singles (30)

• 1977 (1) Portland
• 1978 (2) Filderstadt, Tokyo Gunze
• 1979 (7) US Open, Washington, D.C., Italian Open, Hilton Head, San Diego, Tokyo Emerson Cup, Filderstadt
• 1980 (12) Avon Championships, Colgate Series Championships, Hilton Head, US Indoors, La Costa, Eastbourne, Cincinnati, Seattle, Boston, Tucson, San Diego, Filderstadt
• 1981 (7) US Open, Toyota Series Championships, Filderstadt, Canadian Open, Eastbourne, Atlanta, San Diego
• 1982 (1) San Diego

Doubles (4)

• 1978 (2) Phoenix, Filderstadt (both with Betty Stöve)
• 1979 (2) Hollywood, Mahwah (both with Stöve)

Mixed Doubles (1)

• 1980 Wimbledon (with John Austin)

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

A = did not participate in the tournament.

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

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

See also

• Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final

External links

• International Tennis Hall of Fame Profile
• Fed Cup record

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