Tracy Austin

Tracy Austin
Tracy Austin at the 2009 US Open
Nation:	United States
Birthday:	December 12, 1962
Size:	165 cm
1st professional season:	1978
Resignation:	1) October 1983 2) July 1994
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Prize money:	$ 1,992,380
singles
Career record:	335: 90
Career title:	30 WTA , 7 ITF
Highest ranking:	1 (April 7, 1980)
Weeks as No. 1:	21st
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	13:16
Career title:	4 WTA, 0 ITF
Highest ranking:	41 (August 14 1989)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Tracy Austin (born December 12, 1962 in Palos Verdes , California ) is a former American tennis player .

Tracy Austin, like her compatriot Andrea Jaeger, was considered a “child prodigy” and an upcoming star in tennis. At the age of 16 she won the US Open in 1979 , which she succeeded again in 1981. She also won the 1980 WTA Championships and the mixed title at Wimbledon . From April 7th to 20th, 1980 and from July 7th to November 17th, 1980 she also took the lead in the world rankings at short notice . But her career was short-lived due to numerous injuries. Persistent health problems forced the American to resign in 1983 when she was not even 21 years old.

Austin was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1992 as the youngest player to date .

Of her 14 games for the American Fed Cup team between 1978 and 1980, she lost only one, namely in 1978 in Melbourne against Kerry Reid in the encounter with Australia .

Career

As a junior, Austin won 21 year-old championships, including the American 12-year-old championship at the age of ten. In 1977, at the age of 14 years and 28 days, she became the youngest player to date in Portland (Oregon) to win a WTA tournament. In the same year she made her debut at Wimbledon and reached the quarter-finals at the US Open two months later .

In 1979, at the age of 16 and nine months, Austin became the youngest US Open winner to date. With 6: 4 and 6: 3 she defeated in the final Chris Evert , who had won the tournament four times in a row. That same year, Austin finished the Italian Open Everts streak of 125 consecutive wins on clay in the semi-finals .

In 1980 Austin won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon alongside her brother John Austin, and she reached the singles semi-finals as in the previous year. In April of that year she became the youngest player at the time to take the lead in the world rankings , displacing Chris Evert and Martina Navrátilová , who had alternated in the first two places for six years.

In 1981 Austin was able to win the US Open again at the age of 18 . She beat Martina Navratilova 1: 6, 7: 6 ⁴ and 7: 6 ¹ . Like two years before, she was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Associated Press .

After this successful period, her back problems became more and more noticeable and her mobility on the court was severely restricted. And yet Austin won her 29th title on the WTA Tour in San Diego in 1982 .

In the first round of the tournament in Filderstadt in 1982, the former child prodigy met another talent who was predicted to have a great future. The opponent there was the 13-year-old Steffi Graf , who played her first game on the professional tour. The American, who won in two sets, said at the subsequent press conference that there are hundreds of young girls of Graf's skill level in America. Graf responded with the remark "In three years I will beat you."

In 1983 a burned-out Austin had to announce her resignation. She was just 20 years old. Her and Andrea Jaeger's early retirement caused the WTA to introduce restrictions on the number of tournaments for young players.

After that it was quiet about the former star. During 1989 media reported that Austin had barely survived a serious car accident.

In 1993 and 1994 she attempted a comeback, but the connection to the top of the world did not want to succeed anymore. In one of her last games, she met Steffi Graf again, whom she described as an average talent in 1982. Graf won 6-0 and 6-0.

After her final resignation, Austin worked occasionally for American television stations as a commentator on sporting events, for example at the 2006 Australian Open .

In his essay "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart" from 1992 (German: "How Tracy Austin broke my heart"), David Foster Wallace develops from his disappointment over the completely meaningless, boring autobiography ( Beyond Center Court ) of this highly talented and tragic early on The sportswoman who failed because of her health made the thesis that natural athletes do not have to think about their work, but therefore cannot report meaningfully about them.

Tournament victories

singles

No.	date	competition	category	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	January 1977	Portland	WTA	Hard court (hall)	Stacy Margolin	6: 7, 6: 3, 4: 1 exercise
2.	October 29, 1978	Filderstadt	WTA Colgate Series	Carpet (hall)	Betty Stöve	6: 3, 6: 3
3.	November 1978	Tokyo	WTA	Hard court (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	6: 1, 6: 1
4th	7th January 1979	Washington	WTA Avon Championships Circuit	Carpet (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	6: 3, 6: 2
5.	April 15, 1979	Hilton Head Island	WTA Colgate Series	sand	Kerry Reid	7: 6 3 , 7: 6 7
6th	May 13, 1979	Rome	WTA Colgate Series	sand	Sylvia Hanika	6: 4, 1: 6, 6: 3
7th	5th August 1979	San Diego	WTA Colgate Series	Hard court	Martina Navrátilová	6: 4, 6: 2
8th.	September 1979	US Open	Grand Slam	Hard court	Chris Evert-Lloyd	6: 4, 6: 3
9.	November 11, 1979	Filderstadt	WTA Colgate Series	Carpet (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	6: 2, 6: 0
10.	December 1979	Tokyo	WTA	Hard court (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	6: 2, 6: 1
11.	January 13, 1980	Cincinnati	WTA Avon Championships Circuit	Carpet (hall)	Chris Evert-Lloyd	6: 2, 6: 1
12.	3rd February 1980	Seattle	WTA Avon Championships Circuit	Carpet (hall)	Virginia Wade	6: 2, 7: 6
13.	March 16, 1980	Boston	WTA Avon Championships Circuit	Carpet (hall)	Virginia Wade	6: 2, 6: 1
14th	March 23, 1980	New York City	WTA Tour Championships	Carpet (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	6: 2, 2: 6, 6: 2
15th	April 1980	Carlsbad	WTA	Hard court	Martina Navrátilová	7: 5, 6: 2
16.	April 13, 1980	Hilton Head Island	WTA Colgate Series	sand	Regina Maršíková	3: 6, 6: 1, 6: 0
17th	June 21, 1980	Eastbourne	WTA Colgate Series	race	Wendy Turnbull	7: 6, 6: 2
18th	3rd August 1980	San Diego	WTA Colgate Series	Hard court	Wendy Turnbull	6: 1, 6: 3
19th	5th October 1980	Minneapolis	WTA Colgate Series	Carpet (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	6: 1, 2: 6, 6: 2
20th	November 16, 1980	Filderstadt	WTA Colgate Series	Carpet (hall)	Sherry Acker	6: 2, 7: 5
21st	December 21, 1980	Tucson	WTA Colgate Series	Carpet (hall)	Peanut Louie	6: 2, 6: 0
22nd	January 12, 1981	Landover	WTA Tour Championships	Carpet (hall)	Andrea Jaeger	6: 2, 6: 2
23.	June 21, 1981	Eastbourne	WTA Toyota Series	race	Andrea Jaeger	6: 3, 6: 4
24.	2nd August 1981	San Diego	WTA Toyota Series	Hard court	Pam Shriver	6: 2, 5: 7, 6: 2
25th	22nd August 1981	Toronto	WTA Toyota Series	Hard court	Chris Evert-Lloyd	6: 1, 6: 4
26th	September 1981	US Open	Grand Slam	Hard court	Martina Navrátilová	1: 6, 7: 6, 7: 6
27.	September 27, 1981	Atlanta	WTA Toyota Series	Hard court	Mary-Lou Piatek	4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 3
28.	November 1, 1981	Filderstadt	WTA Toyota Series	Carpet (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4
29	December 20, 1981	East Rutherford	WTA Tour Championships	Carpet (hall)	Martina Navrátilová	2: 6, 6: 4, 6: 2
30th	August 1, 1982	San Diego	WTA Toyota Series	Hard court	Kathy Rinaldi	7: 6, 6: 3

Web links

Commons : Tracy Austin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• WTA Profile of Tracy Austin (English)
• ITF profile Tracy Austin (English)
• Fed Cup Statistics for Tracy Austin (English)
• Tracy Austin in the "International Tennis Hall of Fame" (English; with picture)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Foster Wallace , "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart"; in: ders .: The fun of it. All essays , Cologne 2018, pp. 39–54.