The Open Era
United States · born Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1957 · right-handed · Australian Open champion at Kooyong in 1979, on her debut there
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3
Seeds beaten at Kooyong in 1979: MandlÃková, Tomanová and Walsh
68
Her world ranking going into the 1979 Australian Open
6-3, 6-3
Her winning score over Sharon Walsh in the final
$10,000
Winner's cheque, the biggest single payday of her career
No. 55
Career-high singles ranking, December 1979
Barbara Jordan was born in Milwaukee on 2 April 1957. At Stanford she was a three-time All-American, took an economics degree in three years and, with her sister Kathy, won the 1978 AIAW national doubles title. She first appeared on the WTA computer in August 1977 at No. 95, and in 1978 she won the USTA under-21 singles and doubles.
1979 was her first full season as a professional. At the Australian Open at Kooyong, her first appearance there, she was seeded fifth in a 32-player draw played over Christmas. She beat the second seed Hana MandlÃková in the quarter-finals, the third seed Renáta Tomanová in the semi-finals and the fourth seed Sharon Walsh 6-3, 6-3 in the first all-American women's final in the tournament's history. She reached a career-high No. 55 that December.
She never won another major singles title, but took the 1983 French Open mixed doubles with Eliot Teltscher. She served five terms on the WTA board and chaired its tournament committee in 1980. After tennis she earned a law degree at UCLA and became an attorney for the City of San Jose. She is in the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame and, with Kathy, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.
| Kooyong 1979 | Quarter-final: beat Hana MandlÃková 6-2, 6-2. Semi-final: beat Renáta Tomanová 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. Final: beat Sharon Walsh 6-3, 6-3 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon | Third round in 1978, 1980 and 1983, her best result there |
| Australian Open doubles | Quarter-finalist at Kooyong in 1979 |
| Australian Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Women's singles Australian Open | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"Back then the tournament was held right around Christmas, so most of the Americans went home and didn't play."
The person behind the player.
Melbourne, Christmas 1979
Players then stayed with local families during tournaments, so being far from home over the holidays did not feel so bad, she said: she was not alone for Christmas dinner.
Source: TENNIS magazine, 2009Kooyong, 1979
"I remember they had different locker rooms and they put the big stars in one and I was put in the crummy one," she recalled. Her final followed Guillermo Vilas's second straight men's title, and she stood in the locker room listening to the television commentators remind viewers that there was still a women's match to play.
Source: TENNIS magazine, 2009After Kooyong
Her prize was $10,000, by far the biggest single payday of her career. She promptly went out and bought her first car, a metallic brown Honda Civic.
Source: TENNIS magazine, 2009WTA board, 1980
At a WTA board meeting the next year Chris Evert said she had not yet won the Australian Open. Jordan looked up and said: "Yeah, that's no big deal. I've done that." Evert, she recalled, laughed hard.
Source: TENNIS magazine, 2009Kooyong
A bar near Kooyong used her as a trick trivia question: whoever knew who won the 1979 women's title won a drink. She doubted many people other than her friends ever got it. Years later, Australian Open officials holding a ceremony for past champions forgot to invite her; she found it funny.
Source: TENNIS magazine, 2009Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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