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The Delray Tennis Center, which opened in 1974, has been a hub for women's tennis. It hosted the former Virginia Slims Tournament and the Billie Jean King Fed and Davis cups.
Titles earned by the top tennis athletes who have lived in this county reach back into the 1970s and continue through present times.
Delray Beach's own tennis star Coco Gauff scored a hard-fought victory over Aryna Sabalenka on June 7 to bring home the French Open title.
It isn't the first time the trophy has arrived in Palm Beach County.
Gauff joins at least six other women's champions who have lived or stayed in a county where tennis thrives, drawing several elite professional players.
Evert Tennis Academy Boca Raton has trained many college and elite professionals. It is operated and owned by Chris Evert and her brother John.
More: How Coco Gauff's grandmother made history in Palm Beach County
Chris Evert, 70, one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, is the queen of French Open women's championships and has spent most of her life in Boca Raton.
She won the French in 1974-75, 1979-80, 1983 and 1985-86 — the highest number of victories for a female at Roland Garros in the open era. Now she covers the tournament each year as a color commmentator. She called the Gauff-Sabalenka final.
Though she was born in Fort Lauderdale, she moved to Boca at age 16 and raised her three sons born during her second marriage to Olympic skier Andy Mill here. She bought her house on 5 acres in 2003 and sold it in 2018. She still owns the tennis academy with her brother and helps coach the tennis team at Saint Andrews School, where she also coached her three sons.
She was briefly married to professional golfer Greg Norman, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, in 2008. The marriage lasted about a year.
More: How Grandview Prep, in partnership with Evert Tennis Academy, toppled a district dynasty
Two-time French Open champion Martina Navratilova, 68, doesn't live in Palm Beach County, but her wedding reception was held in Palm Beach a few months after she got married and she has often visited her good friend, Evert.
Navratilova, yet another women's tennis great, won the French Open in 1982 and 1984.
Evert attended the reception for Navratilova and Julie Lemigova on Feb. 14, 2015. The couple tied the knot at the Peninsula Hotel in New York City the previous December. It's not clear where the reception occurred on the island.
Navratilova and Lemigova got engaged in September 2014 during a U.S. Open Tennis Channel interview when Navratilova turned to Lemigova, got down on one knee and produced a diamond ring.
They live in Miami Beach and own a farm in Broward County. Lemigova is a cast member of "The Real Housewives of Miami."
Steffi Graf, 55, bought a second home at the height of her game in 1989 at the Polo Club of Boca Raton. She owned it through a stalking episode, dating and marrying fellow tennis great Andre Agassi and having their two babies.
It was sold in 2003 when the family moved to Las Vegas, where Agassi grew up.
Graf's first Grand Slam title was at the French in 1987 and her last before she retired in 1999. In between, she added four more — in 1988, 1993 and 1995-96.
She and Agassi first started seeing each other after the French Open in 1999 when she was 30.
A man was charged with trespassing in 1992 at Polo Club after trying a number of times to contact Graf. He said he was a terrorist and wanted to harm the West German native.
Monica Seles, 51, was the youngest ever French champion in 1990 at age 16. She dominated at Roland Garros in the early 1990s, winning three in a row from 1990 to 1992.
In 1991, she couldn't manage to evade the press after she'd won the Australian and French but had to withdraw from Wimbledon days before it began. She was besieged at her Sarasota home.
Soon after she and her family were spotted on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago. News reports at the time said they stayed there about six weeks before Seles re-emerged at the U.S. Open where she took the title.
It's not known how she knew now-President Donald Trump, who had bought the historic property a year earlier.
Some felt her career was cut tragically short when a fan of Graf got on the court in Hamburg, Germany and stabbed Seles in the shoulder. Seles was out of action for two years, suffering from depression and an eating disorder.
Jennifer Capriati, 49, made her professional debut in 1990 at the age of 13 years, 11 months, reaching the finals at the Boca Raton Tournament. She made it to the semifinals of the French the same year.
Her personal struggles began to show with arrests for shoplifting jewelry at a Tampa mall in 1993 and possession of marijuana the next year. Capriati wasn't convicted of either charge.
Her single French Open title came in 2001 after winning only one match between 1994 and 1998. Then she staged a comeback with a vengeance, sending her into the Top 10.
Capriati had to stop competing in 2004 because of injuries. Years late, she faced criminal charges and was saved from a drug overdose, both in or near her 2,800-square-foot condo on Singer Island, which she bought in 2007.
In June 2010, Capriati was rushed to St. Mary's Medical Center for an accidental overdose of prescription medication.
In 2013, she was arrested on charges of stalking and battery against her ex-boyfriend, Ivan Brannan Jr., who also owned a condo on Singer Island.
In a Valentine's Day incident, Capriati punched her boyfriend in the chest at a North Palm Beach gym. On Feb. 18, a co-worker of Brannan's told North Palm Beach police that Capriati tried to get into a locked door at their office. She was pacing, yelling and pounding on a window. The co-worker also told police that Capriati had called the business up to 50 times a day. That was the ninth incident involving Capriati and Brannan in which police were called to investigate.
Charges against Capriati were dropped after she completed anger management classes and community service.
More: Florida is home to the GOATS of sports: Jordan, Brady, Tiger, Serena, Gretzky, Tyson ...
Serena Williams, 43, considered the greatest women's tennis player of all time, moved to Palm Beach County with her tennis star sister Venus when she was 9 in order to be coached by Rick Macci in Boca Raton.
Williams owns 23 Grand Slams titles, three from the French in 2002, 2013 and 2015. Venus, no slouch herself with seven Grand Slam titles, never took a French Open.
Together they bought a property with an 8,500-square-foot home featuring two master suites in Ballenisles in 2000, according to Palm Beach County official records. Serena in 2001 bought a property with her mother in Jupiter's Abacoa. She has owned a number of north county properties along with her husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian.
Coco Gauff's family moved to Delray Beach when she was 7, but The Palm Beach Post learned recently that Gauff was actually born at West Boca Medical Center. She came early, during her mother's baby shower, so despite her parents living in Atlanta at the time, she's a true Palm Beach County native.
The shower, which carried on without Candi, Coco's mother, was hosted at the home of Coco's grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, who in 1961 was the first Black student to attend Delray Beach's all-white Seacrest High School.
More: How Coco Gauff's grandmother made history in Palm Beach County
Yvonne Odom and her husband, Eddie Odom Jr., founded the Delray Beach American Little League to extend the sport to kids in mostly Black neighborhoods not covered by the other league.
Gauff grew up in Delray Beach, training at Pompey Park.
Gauff credits her neighbors to the north in Palm Beach County as her inspiration.
"Serena Williams has always been my idol...and Venus," she has said. "They are the reason why I wanted to pick up a tennis racquet."
Holly Baltz is an editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Coco Gauff: French Open female tennis champions in Palm Beach County
Continue reading...
Titles earned by the top tennis athletes who have lived in this county reach back into the 1970s and continue through present times.
Delray Beach's own tennis star Coco Gauff scored a hard-fought victory over Aryna Sabalenka on June 7 to bring home the French Open title.
It isn't the first time the trophy has arrived in Palm Beach County.
Gauff joins at least six other women's champions who have lived or stayed in a county where tennis thrives, drawing several elite professional players.
Evert Tennis Academy Boca Raton has trained many college and elite professionals. It is operated and owned by Chris Evert and her brother John.
More: How Coco Gauff's grandmother made history in Palm Beach County
Chris Evert holds record 7 women's French Open victories, lived in Boca Raton
Chris Evert, 70, one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, is the queen of French Open women's championships and has spent most of her life in Boca Raton.
She won the French in 1974-75, 1979-80, 1983 and 1985-86 — the highest number of victories for a female at Roland Garros in the open era. Now she covers the tournament each year as a color commmentator. She called the Gauff-Sabalenka final.
Though she was born in Fort Lauderdale, she moved to Boca at age 16 and raised her three sons born during her second marriage to Olympic skier Andy Mill here. She bought her house on 5 acres in 2003 and sold it in 2018. She still owns the tennis academy with her brother and helps coach the tennis team at Saint Andrews School, where she also coached her three sons.
She was briefly married to professional golfer Greg Norman, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, in 2008. The marriage lasted about a year.
More: How Grandview Prep, in partnership with Evert Tennis Academy, toppled a district dynasty
Martina Navratilova held wedding reception in Palm Beach
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Two-time French Open champion Martina Navratilova, 68, doesn't live in Palm Beach County, but her wedding reception was held in Palm Beach a few months after she got married and she has often visited her good friend, Evert.
Navratilova, yet another women's tennis great, won the French Open in 1982 and 1984.
Evert attended the reception for Navratilova and Julie Lemigova on Feb. 14, 2015. The couple tied the knot at the Peninsula Hotel in New York City the previous December. It's not clear where the reception occurred on the island.
Navratilova and Lemigova got engaged in September 2014 during a U.S. Open Tennis Channel interview when Navratilova turned to Lemigova, got down on one knee and produced a diamond ring.
They live in Miami Beach and own a farm in Broward County. Lemigova is a cast member of "The Real Housewives of Miami."
Steffi Graf dated Andre Agassi while she owned Boca Raton home
Steffi Graf, 55, bought a second home at the height of her game in 1989 at the Polo Club of Boca Raton. She owned it through a stalking episode, dating and marrying fellow tennis great Andre Agassi and having their two babies.
It was sold in 2003 when the family moved to Las Vegas, where Agassi grew up.
Graf's first Grand Slam title was at the French in 1987 and her last before she retired in 1999. In between, she added four more — in 1988, 1993 and 1995-96.
She and Agassi first started seeing each other after the French Open in 1999 when she was 30.
A man was charged with trespassing in 1992 at Polo Club after trying a number of times to contact Graf. He said he was a terrorist and wanted to harm the West German native.
Monica Seles escaped press at Mar-a-Lago
You must be registered for see images attach
Monica Seles, 51, was the youngest ever French champion in 1990 at age 16. She dominated at Roland Garros in the early 1990s, winning three in a row from 1990 to 1992.
In 1991, she couldn't manage to evade the press after she'd won the Australian and French but had to withdraw from Wimbledon days before it began. She was besieged at her Sarasota home.
Soon after she and her family were spotted on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago. News reports at the time said they stayed there about six weeks before Seles re-emerged at the U.S. Open where she took the title.
It's not known how she knew now-President Donald Trump, who had bought the historic property a year earlier.
Some felt her career was cut tragically short when a fan of Graf got on the court in Hamburg, Germany and stabbed Seles in the shoulder. Seles was out of action for two years, suffering from depression and an eating disorder.
Jennifer Capriati, the teen phenom who got into trouble on Singer Island
You must be registered for see images attach
Jennifer Capriati, 49, made her professional debut in 1990 at the age of 13 years, 11 months, reaching the finals at the Boca Raton Tournament. She made it to the semifinals of the French the same year.
Her personal struggles began to show with arrests for shoplifting jewelry at a Tampa mall in 1993 and possession of marijuana the next year. Capriati wasn't convicted of either charge.
Her single French Open title came in 2001 after winning only one match between 1994 and 1998. Then she staged a comeback with a vengeance, sending her into the Top 10.
Capriati had to stop competing in 2004 because of injuries. Years late, she faced criminal charges and was saved from a drug overdose, both in or near her 2,800-square-foot condo on Singer Island, which she bought in 2007.
In June 2010, Capriati was rushed to St. Mary's Medical Center for an accidental overdose of prescription medication.
In 2013, she was arrested on charges of stalking and battery against her ex-boyfriend, Ivan Brannan Jr., who also owned a condo on Singer Island.
In a Valentine's Day incident, Capriati punched her boyfriend in the chest at a North Palm Beach gym. On Feb. 18, a co-worker of Brannan's told North Palm Beach police that Capriati tried to get into a locked door at their office. She was pacing, yelling and pounding on a window. The co-worker also told police that Capriati had called the business up to 50 times a day. That was the ninth incident involving Capriati and Brannan in which police were called to investigate.
Charges against Capriati were dropped after she completed anger management classes and community service.
More: Florida is home to the GOATS of sports: Jordan, Brady, Tiger, Serena, Gretzky, Tyson ...
Queen Serena Williams lives in Palm Beach Gardens
Serena Williams, 43, considered the greatest women's tennis player of all time, moved to Palm Beach County with her tennis star sister Venus when she was 9 in order to be coached by Rick Macci in Boca Raton.
Williams owns 23 Grand Slams titles, three from the French in 2002, 2013 and 2015. Venus, no slouch herself with seven Grand Slam titles, never took a French Open.
You must be registered for see images attach
Together they bought a property with an 8,500-square-foot home featuring two master suites in Ballenisles in 2000, according to Palm Beach County official records. Serena in 2001 bought a property with her mother in Jupiter's Abacoa. She has owned a number of north county properties along with her husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian.
Coco Gauff, the newest star, has family rooted in Delray Beach
Coco Gauff's family moved to Delray Beach when she was 7, but The Palm Beach Post learned recently that Gauff was actually born at West Boca Medical Center. She came early, during her mother's baby shower, so despite her parents living in Atlanta at the time, she's a true Palm Beach County native.
The shower, which carried on without Candi, Coco's mother, was hosted at the home of Coco's grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, who in 1961 was the first Black student to attend Delray Beach's all-white Seacrest High School.
More: How Coco Gauff's grandmother made history in Palm Beach County
Yvonne Odom and her husband, Eddie Odom Jr., founded the Delray Beach American Little League to extend the sport to kids in mostly Black neighborhoods not covered by the other league.
Gauff grew up in Delray Beach, training at Pompey Park.
Gauff credits her neighbors to the north in Palm Beach County as her inspiration.
"Serena Williams has always been my idol...and Venus," she has said. "They are the reason why I wanted to pick up a tennis racquet."
Holly Baltz is an editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Coco Gauff: French Open female tennis champions in Palm Beach County
Continue reading...
