Renee Blount (born 12 May 1957 in Washington, DC) is a retired American professional tennis player.
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Blount, a protégé of Arthur Ashe,[1] was a number one singles and doubles All-American player for UCLA.[2] She joined the WTA Tour in 1978 and went on to reach a career high ranking of 63 in singles and 8 in doubles in the world.
She was the 5th seed in the 1978 Australian Open and competed in the 1979 US Open and the 1980 US Open.
In 1979, Blount made history when she became the first African American woman to win a professional tennis tournament since Althea Gibson when she won the Futures of Columbus.[3]
In 1984, Blount achieved her best Grand Slam women's doubles result, reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon partnering Janet Newberry, losing to Kathy Jordan and Anne Smith 6–0, 6–1.
Blount was, also, a mixed doubles semi-finalist at the French Open and extended Martina Navratilova to three sets at the Australian Open in 1980. She has competed in Wimbledon five times including a 1986 doubles quarter finalist appearance.
After retiring from professional tennis, she became an assistant coach at the University of Virginia and was inducted into the St. Louis Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.
Blount founded the Keswick Tennis Foundation to help children with autism and disabilities develop skills through tennis. She currently coaches at the Keswick Tennis Foundation in Central Virginia.