The 21st century
Zimbabwe · born Salisbury (now Harare), 1979 · five times Wimbledon champion in doubles and mixed
All playersBack to the rankings
3
Wimbledon women's doubles titles, 2004 to 2007
2
Wimbledon mixed titles, 2004 and 2010
10
Major titles in doubles and mixed
163
Weeks as world No. 1 in doubles
4
Grass titles at Birmingham, 2001 to 2010
Born in Salisbury, now Harare, on 17 February 1979, Black was the youngest of the three tennis-playing children of Don Black and the world's top junior in 1997. She turned professional in 1998, reached No. 31 in singles in March 1999 and won one WTA singles title, at Waikoloa in 2002. Her record was made in doubles: 60 WTA titles, five major women's doubles titles and five in mixed, and 163 weeks as world No. 1, a ranking she first reached in October 2005. She finished 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 as year-end No. 1, and in 2010 completed a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles with Leander Paes. She played the Olympics for Zimbabwe in 2004 and 2008, won the 2014 WTA Finals with Sania Mirza and retired in 2015.
| Major singles titles | 1: Wimbledon (1997) |
|---|---|
| Major doubles titles | 2: Wimbledon (1995, 1997) |
| Wimbledon doubles titles | 3: 2004 with Rennae Stubbs, beat Liezel Huber and Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 7-6; 2005 with Huber, beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amélie Mauresmo 6-2, 6-1; 2007 with Huber, beat Katarina Srebotnik and Sugiyama 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 |
| Wimbledon mixed titles | 2: 2004 with Wayne Black, beat Alicia Molik and Todd Woodbridge 3-6, 7-6, 6-4; 2010 with Leander Paes, beat Lisa Raymond and Wesley Moodie 6-4, 7-6 |
| Wimbledon mixed final lost | 2009 with Paes, 5-7, 3-6 to Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Mark Knowles |
| Birmingham | Doubles 2001 with Elena Likhovtseva; 2008 and 2009 with Huber; 2010 with Raymond |
| Eastbourne | Doubles 2008 with Huber; finals lost 2001 and 2002 |
| Finals to remember | Wimbledon 2004: won the women's doubles with Stubbs and the mixed with her brother on the same day, after a mixed semi-final against Bob Bryan and Lindsay Davenport |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Women's doubles | with Rennae Stubbs |
| 2004 | Mixed doubles | with Wayne Black |
| 2005 | Women's doubles | with Liezel Huber |
| 2007 | Women's doubles | with Liezel Huber |
| 2010 | Mixed doubles | with Leander Paes |
| Birmingham | ||
| 2001 | Women's doubles | with Elena Likhovtseva |
| 2008 | Women's doubles | with Liezel Huber |
| 2009 | Women's doubles | with Liezel Huber |
| 2010 | Women's doubles | with Lisa Raymond |
| Eastbourne | ||
| 2008 | Women's doubles | with Liezel Huber |
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
"He used to say that his dream was for one of his kids to win it one day."
The person behind the player.
Harare · childhood
Don Black, an avocado farmer turned tennis teacher, had his children up at 5:30 for an hour on the cement court before school, then grass-court matches from 4:30 to 6. He often coached barefoot, and so did they. "Our feet were as tough as anything," Cara said. At first he discouraged her from tennis; by 12 she could beat him.
Source: The HeraldHarare · the family courts
The Black property, 22 acres split by Enterprise Road, had four grass courts and a single hard court ringed by banana trees. According to the family, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver played on those courts when they visited, and Laver slept in the bed that later became Cara's.
Source: The HeraldWimbledon 1956
Her father had played Wimbledon himself in the 1950s and reached the third round in 1956, where he held four match points against Ashley Cooper and lost. "It was his pinnacle," Cara said. Two of his children, Wayne and Cara, later won Wimbledon titles, together in the 2004 mixed doubles.
Source: The HeraldWimbledon 2004 · final Sunday
On the last day she won the women's doubles with Rennae Stubbs, her first major women's doubles title, then played two mixed matches with her brother Wayne. They beat Bob Bryan and Lindsay Davenport 7-5, 7-5 in the semi-final, then came back from 2-6 down in a second-set tiebreak against Todd Woodbridge and Alicia Molik to win the final.
Source: The Spokesman-ReviewMiami 2010
After a first-round loss in Miami, Liezel Huber ended their partnership, which had brought four major titles. Black was open about it: "After Miami, she just felt like I wasn't good enough to play with anymore. It wasn't my decision to stop. It was hers." Three months later she won Wimbledon again, in the mixed with Paes.
Source: Tennis.comSingapore 2014
At 35, with Sania Mirza, she won the WTA Finals 6-1, 6-0 against Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-wei, a pair who had been 12-0 in finals. She had already told Mirza she might not play a full season in 2015, or at all, because she was "struggling with [her] body a little bit".
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