Rosemary Casals

Rosie Casals

Full name	Rosemary Casals
Country	United States
Born	(1948-09-16) September 16, 1948 San Francisco, California
Height	5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)
Turned pro	1968
Plays	Right-handed
Prize money	$1,362,222
Int. Tennis HOF	1996 (member page)
Singles
Career record	595–325
Highest ranking	No. 5 (September 13, 1976)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (1967)
French Open	QF (1969, 1970)
Wimbledon	SF (1967, 1969, 1970, 1972)
US Open	F (1970, 1971)
Doubles
Career record	508–214
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (1969)
French Open	F (1968, 1970, 1982)
Wimbledon	W (1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973)
US Open	W (1967)
Other Doubles tournaments
Championships	W (1971, 1973, 1974)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon	W (1970, 1972)
US Open	W (1975)

Rosemary "Rosie" Casals (born September 16, 1948) is a former American professional tennis player.

Rosemary Casals earned her reputation as a rebel in the staid tennis world when she began competing in the early 1960s. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 tournaments and worked for the betterment of women's tennis. She was a motivating force behind many of the changes that shook the tennis world during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of these changes helped make tennis the popular sport that it is today.

Early life

Casals was born in 1948 in San Francisco to poor parents who had immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. Less than a year after Casals was born, her parents decided they could not care for her and her older sister, Victoria. Casals's great-uncle and great-aunt, Manuel and Maria Casals, took the young girls in and raised them as their own. When the children grew older, Manuel Casals took them to the public tennis courts of San Francisco and taught them how to play the game. He became the only coach Casals would ever have. But Nick Carter, former touring pro, father to Denise who was once nationally ranked, and made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon, gave her some lessons. He was the teacher of many ranking junior players, including Jeoff Brown, national junior doubles champ, and others at Arden Hills, Carmichael, California, where Mark Spitz trained. Casals used a continental forehand like he did, with the power in it that all his students had, using the "racket back, step, and hit" method.

While still just a teenager, Casals began to rebel on the court. She hated the tradition of younger players competing only against each other on the junior circuit. Gutsy and determined right from the start, Casals wanted to work as hard as possible to better her game. For an added challenge, she often entered tournaments to play against girls who were two or three years older.

Junior tennis was the first of several obstacles Casals faced during her tennis career. At five-feet-two-inches tall,^[1] she was one of the shortest players on the court. Another disadvantage for her was class distinction. Traditionally, tennis was a sport practiced in expensive country clubs by the white upper class. Casals's ethnic heritage and poor background immediately set her apart from most of the other players. "The other kids had nice tennis clothes, nice rackets, nice white shoes, and came in Cadillacs," Casals told a reporter for People. "I felt stigmatized because we were poor."

Unfamiliarity with country club manners also made Casals feel different from the other players. Traditionally, audiences applauded only politely during matches and players wore only white clothes on the court. Both of these practices seemed foolish to Casals. She believed in working hard to perfect her game and expected the crowd to show its appreciation for her extra efforts. In one of her first appearances at the tradition-filled courts at Wimbledon, she was nearly excluded from competition for not wearing white. Later in her career, she became known for her brightly colored outfits.

Tennis career

The frustrations Casals endured due to her size and background affected her playing style. Despite her sweet-sounding nicknames, "Rosie" and "Rosebud," she was known as a determined player who used any shot available to her to score a point — even one between her legs. "I wanted to be someone," Casals was quoted as saying in Alida M. Thacher's Raising a Racket: Rosie Casals. "I knew I was good, and winning tournaments — it's a kind of way of being accepted." By age 16 Casals was the top junior and women's level player in northern California. At 17 she was ranked eleventh in the country and was earning standing ovations for her aggressive playing style.

More experience on the national and international levels of play helped Casals improve her game. In 1966 she and Billie Jean King, her doubles partner, won the U.S. hard-court and indoor tournaments. That same year they reached the quarter-finals in the women's doubles at Wimbledon. In 1967 Casals and King took the doubles crown at Wimbledon ^[2] and at the United States and South African championships. The two dominated women's doubles play for years, becoming one of the most successful duos in tennis history. (They are the only doubles team to have won U.S. titles on grass, clay, indoor, and hard surfaces.) Casals was also a successful individual player, ranking third among U.S. women during this period.

Fights for rights of professional and women players

Despite her victories on the courts, Casals continued to fight tennis traditions on several fronts. Amateur tennis players (those who are unpaid) had always been favored over professionals (those who were paid). Because many tennis players came from non-wealthy backgrounds, they were forced to accept money in order to continue playing. This, in turn, made them professionals and prevented them from entering major tournaments that allowed only amateurs to play, such as Wimbledon. Fighting against this discrimination, Casals worked for an arrangement that allowed both amateur and professional tennis players to compete in the same tournaments.

Casals's next challenge was to overcome the vast difference in prize monies awarded to male and female players. Even though they worked just as hard and played just as often as men, women earned much smaller prizes. In 1970 Casals and other women threatened to boycott traditional tournaments if they were not paid higher prize money and not given more media attention. The ruling body of U.S. tennis, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), refused to listen to their demands. In response, the women established their own tournament, the Virginia Slims Invitational. The attention generated by this successful tournament quickly brought about the formation of other women's tournaments and greater prize monies for women.

Joins tennis team

Casals soon became involved in another innovation: World Team Tennis (WTT). WTT involved tennis teams, each made up of two women and four men, from cities throughout the United States. Matches included both singles and doubles games. During her years with WTT, Casals played with the Detroit Loves and the Oakland Breakers and coached the Los Angeles Strings.

The strain of playing almost constantly took a physical toll on Casals. She underwent knee surgery in 1978 and was forced to change career directions. Since 1981 she has been president of Sportswomen, Inc., a California company she formed to promote a Women's Classic tour for older female players. She also began the Midnight Productions television company and has broadened her own sporting activities to include golf. Casals continues to search for new chances to improve the game of tennis. In 1990, she again teamed with Billie Jean King to win the U.S. Open Seniors' women's doubles championship. Casals won 112 professional doubles tournaments, the second most in history behind Martina Navratilova.^[3] Her last doubles championship was at the 1988 tournament in Oakland, California, where her partner was Navratilova.^[3]

Casals played in a total of 685 singles and doubles tournaments during her career.

Casals was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996.

Grand Slam record

• Australian Open
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1969 (with Billie Jean King)

• French Open
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1968 (with King), 1970 (with King), 1982 (with Wendy Turnbull)

• Wimbledon
  • Women's Doubles champion: 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973 (all with King)
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1980, 1983 (both with Turnbull)
  • Mixed Doubles champion: 1970, 1972 (both with Ilie Năstase)
  • Mixed Doubles runner-up: 1976 (with Dick Stockton)

• U.S. Championships/Open
  • Singles runner-up: 1970, 1971
  • Women's Doubles champion: 1967 (with King), 1971 (with Judy Tegart Dalton), 1974 (with King), 1982 (with Turnbull)
  • Women's Doubles runner-up: 1966 (with King), 1968 (with King), 1970 (with Virginia Wade), 1973 (with King), 1975 (with King), 1981 (with Turnbull)
  • Mixed Doubles champion: 1975 (with Stockton)
  • Mixed Doubles runner-up: 1967 (with Stan Smith), 1972 (with Năstase)

Grand Slam singles finals (2)

Runner-ups (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1970	US Open	Margaret Court	6–2, 2–6, 6–1
1971	US Open	Billie Jean King	6–4, 7–6

Grand Slam women's doubles finals (21)

Wins (9)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1967	Wimbledon	Billie Jean King	Maria Bueno Nancy Richey Gunter	9–11, 6–4, 6–2
1967	U.S. Championships	Billie Jean King	Mary-Ann Eisel Donna Floyd Fales	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
1968	Wimbledon (2)	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Ann Haydon-Jones	3–6, 6–4, 7–5
1970	Wimbledon (3)	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Virginia Wade	6–2, 6–3
1971	Wimbledon (4)	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Evonne Goolagong Cawley	6–3, 6–2
1971	US Open (2)	Judy Tegart Dalton	Françoise Dürr Gail Lovera	6–3, 6–3
1973	Wimbledon (5)	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve	6–1, 4–6, 7–5
1974	US Open (3)	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve	7–6, 6–7, 6–4
1982	US Open (4)	Wendy Turnbull	Barbara Potter Sharon Walsh	6–4, 6–4

Runner-ups (12)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1966	U.S. Championships	Billie Jean King	Maria Bueno Nancy Richey Gunter	6–3, 6–4
1968	French Open	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Ann Haydon-Jones	7–5, 4–6, 6–4
1968	US Open (2)	Billie Jean King	Maria Bueno Margaret Court	4–6, 9–7, 8–6
1969	Australian Open	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Judy Tegart Dalton	6–4, 6–4
1970	French Open (2)	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Gail Lovera	6–1, 3–6, 6–3
1970	US Open (3)	Virginia Wade	Margaret Court Julie Tegart Dalton	6–3, 6–4
1973	US Open (4)	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Virginia Wade	3–6, 6–3, 7–5
1975	US Open (5)	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Virginia Wade	7–5, 2–6, 7–6
1982	French Open (2)	Wendy Turnbull	Anne Smith Martina Navratilova	6–3, 6–4
1980	Wimbledon	Wendy Turnbull	Kathy Jordan Anne Smith	4–6, 7–5, 6–1
1981	US Open (6)	Wendy Turnbull	Kathy Jordan Anne Smith	6–3, 6–3
1983	Wimbledon (2)	Wendy Turnbull	Pam Shriver Martina Navratilova	6–2, 6–2

Grand Slam mixed doubles finals (6)

Wins (3)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1970	Wimbledon	Ilie Năstase	Olga Morozova Alex Metreveli	6–3, 4–6, 9–7
1972	Wimbledon (2)	Ilie Năstase	Evonne Goolagong Cawley Kim Warwick	6–4, 6–4
1975	US Open	Richard Stockton	Fred Stolle Billie Jean King	6–3, 6–7, 6–3

Runner-ups (3)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1967	U.S. Championships[4]	Stan Smith	Billie Jean King Owen Davidson	6–3, 6–2
1972	US Open (2)	Ilie Năstase	Margaret Court Marty Riessen	6–3, 7–5
1976	Wimbledon	Richard Stockton	Françoise Dürr Tony Roche	6–3, 2–6, 7–5

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

A = did not participate in the tournament

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

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

Casals was originally seeded 14th for the 1978 Wimbledon Championships, but a knee injury forced her withdrawal before the draw was made^[5]

See also

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

References

External links

• Rosemary Casals at the International Tennis Federation
• International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Rosemary Casals at the Women's Tennis Association
• Rosemary Casals at the Fed Cup