Elizabeth Smylie

Elizabeth Smylie (née Sayers, born 11 April 1963), sometimes known as Liz Smylie, is an Australian sports broadcaster and retired professional tennis player. During her career, she won four Grand Slam titles, one in women's doubles and three in mixed doubles. She also won three singles titles and 36 doubles titles on the tour. Liz also taught junior tennis players at Smith's Tennis Center, North Curl Curl. Sydney in the early 1990s.

Smylie transitioned into television commentary after 1997 following her playing career, working for the Nine Network on Wimbledon and the US Open and the Seven Network. For Seven she was notably the lead commentator for the famous 2003 Australian Open Women's Final between sisters Serena Williams and Venus Williams where Serena was trying to complete the career Grand Slam, which was specially held at night and watched by more than 2 million viewers in the five main capital cities in Australia.

Career

Smylie turned professional in 1982. She won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1985 with Kathy Jordan. In mixed doubles, she teamed with John Fitzgerald to win the 1983 US Open and 1991 Wimbledon titles and with Todd Woodbridge to win the 1990 US Open. She won the Virginia Slims Championships with Jordan in 1990. Her best Grand Slam performance in singles came at the Australian Open in 1987, when she reached the quarterfinals. Her highest ever singles ranking was world No. 20 and her highest in doubles was world No. 5.

She played Federation Cup from 1984 to 1994, and won a bronze medal in women's doubles with Wendy Turnbull at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Over her career, Smylie won three singles titles and 36 doubles titles. She won the Western Australian Sports Star of the Year award in 1985 and the Comeback Player of the Year award in 1990 and 1993.

She became a tennis commentator in the late 1990s, working for several broadcasters and across several tournaments during her post-playing career, including for Australian Open host Channel 7 in the 2000s and the BBC in the UK. Currently she works on the Australian Open world feed for Tennis Australia and can often be heard on the domestic broadcast Nine, 9Now and Stan Sport.

Personal life

She is married to player-manager Peter Smylie and they have three children including professional golfer Elvis Smylie. She was the long-time tournament director of the Australian Women's Hardcourts and also works as a sports television commentator. Her brother Mervyn Sayers played one first-class cricket game for Western Australia in 1979.

Grand Slam tournaments

Doubles: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Olympic Games

Doubles: 1 (bronze medal)

Smylie and Turnbull lost their semifinal match to Zina Garrison and Pam Shriver 6–7(5), 4–6. In 1988, there was no bronze medal play-off match, both beaten semifinal pairs received bronze medals.

Other significant finals

Year-end championships

Doubles: 1 (title)

WTA Tour finals

Singles: 6 (3–3)

Doubles: 69 (36–33)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

• NR = not ranked

Mixed doubles

External links

• at theWomen's Tennis Association
• atWorld Tennis
• at theBillie Jean King Cup(archived)
• atTennis Australia