Betty Stöve

Betty Flippina Stöve (born 24 June 1945) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best known for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 1977. She also won ten Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Career

Stöve began playing tennis internationally in the mid-1960s. She made her Grand Slam debut at the 1964 Wimbledon. A virus, complicated by a malfunctioning thyroid gland, forced Stöve out of tennis for an 18-month period in the late 1960s. Despite being advised that she should never play tennis again, Stöve recovered to have her best years on the circuit.

Stöve was an accomplished singles player reaching several finals on tour and attaining a singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1977. Stöve's best grand slam singles performance was at the 1977 Wimbledon where she reached the final beating fellow doubles partner Martina Navratilova en route in the quarterfinals, and Sue Barker in the semi-finals preventing an all-England final. She lost the final in three sets to third-seeded Virginia Wade. Queen Elizabeth II attended the final. In addition she also reached the final of the doubles (with Navratilova) and the mixed doubles with Frew McMillan, but won neither of them. She is notably the last player in any Grand Slam event to earn such a record.[citation needed] Later that year Stöve was also a semifinalist at the 1977 US Open, losing to eventual champion Chris Evert. This time she won the women's doubles with Navratilova and the mixed doubles with McMillan. In 1978 Stove reached the semi-finals or better at 9 of the singles events she contested reaching 5 finals but failing to win any of them. Notable players she beat in singles include Martina Navratilova, Evonne Goolagong, Sue Barker, Maria Bueno, Virginia Ruzici, Tracy Austin, Kerry Reid, Billie Jean King, and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch. One notable player she was never able to beat was Chris Evert, to whom she lost on every one of the 10 occasions they played.

Stöve had her greatest success in doubles. She won 10 Grand Slam doubles championships, six in women's doubles and four in mixed doubles. She won two women's doubles championships with Billie Jean King and two with Wendy Turnbull. Her other two titles were won with Françoise Dürr and Martina Navratilova. All of her mixed doubles championships were with Frew McMillan. Stöve was the runner-up in 17 Grand Slam doubles tournaments, eight in women's doubles and nine in mixed doubles. She won a total of 78 doubles titles on tour and ranked World No. 1 in doubles.

She competed for the Netherlands Fed Cup team in 1966, 1969, 1970–1972, and 1976–1983.

Stöve was elected treasurer at the founding meeting of the Women's Tennis Association on June 21, 1973. At that meeting Stöve was asked by Billy Jean King to block the exit, saying: 'don't let anybody out until we have an association'.

Post-retirement activity

Stöve coached Hana Mandlíková from 1980 through 1990. She also coached Kristie Boogert.

Stöve is a former member of the ITF Committee of Management, its first female member.

She served three terms as president of WTA Tour Players Association and received the WTA Tour Honorary Membership Award in November 1987.

In 1989, Stöve and Mandlíková wrote Total Tennis, a tennis instruction book. Stöve speaks six languages, and she is an accomplished photographer.

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 14 (6 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 13 (4 titles, 9 runners-up)

Year-End Championships finals

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Career finals

Singles 16 (4 titles, 12 runner-ups)

(*) Note: Tokyo was a non-tour event in 1976, and some events listed above are before the inception of the WTA in June 1973.

Doubles 138 (78 titles, 60 runner-ups)

Grand Slam tournament timelines

Singles

Doubles

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

See also

• Performance timelines for all female tennis players since 1978 who reached at least one Grand Slam final

External links

• at the Women's Tennis Association
• at the International Tennis Federation
• at the Billie Jean King Cup (archived)
• at Wimbledon