Betty Stöve

Stöve began playing tennis internationally in the mid-1960s. She made her Grand Slam debut at the 1964 Wimbledon. A virus, complicated by a malfunctioning thyroid gland, forced Stöve out of tennis for an 18-month period in the late 1960s. Despite being advised that she should never play tennis again, Stöve recovered to have her best years on the circuit.^[1]

Stöve was an accomplished singles player reaching several finals on tour and attaining a singles ranking of number 5. Stöve's best grand slam singles performance was at the 1977 Wimbledon where she reached the final beating fellow doubles partner Martina Navratilova en route in the quarterfinals, and Sue Barker in the semi-finals preventing an all-England final. She lost the final to Virginia Wade: 4–6, 6–3, 6–1. Queen Elizabeth II attended the final. In addition she also reached the final of the women's doubles (with Navratilova) and the final of the mixed doubles with Frew McMillan, unfortunately losing them all. She is notably the last player in any Grand Slam event to earn such a record.^{[citation needed]} Later that year Stöve was also a semifinalist at the 1977 US Open, losing to Chris Evert. This time she won the women's doubles with Navratilova and the mixed doubles with McMillan. In 1978 Stove reached the semi-finals or better at 9 of the singles events she contested reaching 5 finals but failing to win any of them. Notable players she beat in singles include Martina Navratilova, Evonne Goolagong, Sue Barker, Maria Bueno, Virginia Ruzici, Tracy Austin, Kerry Reid, Billie Jean King, and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch. One notable player she was never able to beat was Chris Evert, to whom she lost on every one of the 10 occasions they played.

Stöve had her greatest success in doubles. She won 10 Grand Slam doubles championships, six in women's doubles and four in mixed doubles. She won two women's doubles championships with Billie Jean King and two with Wendy Turnbull. Her other two titles were won with Françoise Dürr and Martina Navratilova. All of her mixed doubles championships were with Frew McMillan. Stöve was the runner-up in 17 Grand Slam doubles tournaments, eight in women's doubles and nine in mixed doubles. She won a total of 75 doubles titles on tour and ranked World No. 1 in doubles.

She competed for the Netherlands Fed Cup team in 1966, 1969, 1970–1972, and 1976–1983.

Stöve coached Hana Mandlíková from 1980 through 1990. She also coached Kristie Boogert.^[1]

Stöve is a former member of the ITF Committee of Management, its first female member.^[1]

She served three terms as president of WTA Tour Players Association and received the WTA Tour Honorary Membership Award in November 1987.

In 1989, Stöve and Mandlíková wrote Total Tennis, a tennis instruction book.^[2] Stöve speaks six languages, and she is an accomplished photographer.^[1]

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1977	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Wade	6–4, 3–6, 2-6

Doubles: 14 (6 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1972	French Open	Clay	Billie Jean King	Winnie Shaw Nell Truman	6–1, 6–2
Win	1972	Wimbledon	Grass	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Judy Tegart Dalton	6–2, 4–6, 6–3
Win	1972	US Open	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Margaret Court Virginia Wade	6–3, 1–6, 6–3
Loss	1973	French Open	Clay	Françoise Dürr	Margaret Court Virginia Wade	2–6, 3–6
Loss	1973	Wimbledon	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	1–6, 6–4, 5–7
Loss	1974	US Open	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	6–7, 7–6, 4–6
Loss	1975	Wimbledon	Grass	Françoise Dürr	Ann Kiyomura Kazuko Sawamatsu	5–7, 6–1, 5–7
Loss	1976	Wimbledon	Grass	Billie Jean King	Chris Evert Martina Navratilova	1–6, 6–3, 5–7
Loss	1977	Wimbledon	Grass	Martina Navratilova	Helen Gourlay JoAnne Russell	3–6, 3–6
Win	1977	US Open (2)	Clay	Martina Navratilova	Renée Richards Betty-Ann Stuart	6–1, 7–6
Win	1979	French Open (2)	Clay	Wendy Turnbull	Françoise Dürr Virginia Wade	3–6, 7–5, 6–4
Loss	1979	Wimbledon	Grass	Wendy Turnbull	Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova	7–5, 3–6, 2–6
Win	1979	US Open (3)	Hard	Wendy Turnbull	Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova	6–4, 6–3
Loss	1980	US Open	Hard	Pam Shriver	Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova	6–7, 5–7

Mixed doubles: 13 (4 titles, 9 runners-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1971	US Open	Grass	Bob Maud	Billie Jean King Owen Davidson	3–6, 5–7
Loss	1973	French Open	Clay	Patrice Dominguez	Françoise Dürr Jean-Claude Barclay	1–6, 4–6
Loss	1975	Wimbledon	Grass	Allan Stone	Margaret Court Marty Riessen	4–6, 5–7
Loss	1976	US Open	Clay	Frew McMillan	Billie Jean King Phil Dent	6–3, 2–6, 5–7
Loss	1977	Wimbledon	Grass	Frew McMillan	Greer Stevens Bob Hewitt	6–3, 5–7, 4–6
Win	1977	US Open	Clay	Frew McMillan	Billie Jean King Vitas Gerulaitis	6–2, 3–6, 6–3
Win	1978	Wimbledon	Grass	Frew McMillan	Billie Jean King Ray Ruffels	6–2, 6–2
Win	1978	US Open (2)	Hard	Frew McMillan	Billie Jean King Ray Ruffels	6–3, 7–6
Loss	1979	Wimbledon	Grass	Frew McMillan	Greer Stevens Bob Hewitt	5–7, 6–7
Loss	1979	US Open	Hard	Frew McMillan	Greer Stevens Bob Hewitt	3–6, 5–7
Loss	1980	US Open	Hard	Frew McMillan	Wendy Turnbull Marty Riessen	5–7, 2–6
Loss	1981	French Open	Clay	Fred McNair	Andrea Jaeger Jimmy Arias	6–7, 4–6
Win	1981	Wimbledon (2)	Grass	Frew McMillan	Tracy Austin John Austin	4–6, 7–6, 6–3

Year-End Championships finals

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1973	New York City	Carpet (i)	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Margaret Court	2–6, 4–6
Loss	1974	Los Angeles	Carpet (i)	Françoise Dürr	Rosie Casals Billie Jean King	1–6, 7–6, 5–7
Win	1979	New York City	Carpet (i)	Françoise Dürr	Sue Barker Ann Kiyomura	7–6, 7–6

Singles (11)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 1966	Bristol Open[3]	Grass	Norma Baylon	6–3, 7–5
Win	2–0	Jul 1972	Hilversum, Netherlands	Clay	Marijke Schaar	7–5, 6–3
Win	3–0	Jul 1973	Hilversum, Netherlands	Clay	Helga Masthoff	7–5, 6–2
Win	4–0	Sep 1976	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet (i)	Margaret Court	1–6, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	4–1	July 1977	Wimbledon	Grass	Virginia Wade	6–4, 3–6, 1–6
Loss	4–2	Oct 1977	Brasil Tennis Cup	Hard	Billie Jean King	6–1, 6–4
Loss	4–3	Jan 1978	Virginia Slims of Washington	Carpet	Martina Navratilova	5–7, 4–6
Loss	4–4	Feb 1978	WTA Seattle	Carpet	Martina Navratilova	1–6, 6–1, 1–6
Loss	4–5	Sept 1978	Pan Pacific Open	Carpet	Virginia Wade	4–6, 6–7
Loss	4–6	Oct 1978	Brighton International	Carpet	Virginia Ruzici	7–5, 2–6, 5–7
Loss	4–7	Oct 1978	Women's Stuttgart Open	Hard	Tracy Austin	3–6, 3–6

(*) Note that Tokyo was a non-tour event in 1976, and some events listed above are before the inception of the WTA in June 1973.^[4]

Doubles (75)

Grand slam events in boldface.

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

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Betty Stöve.

• Betty Stove at the Women's Tennis Association
• Betty Stove at the International Tennis Federation
• Betty Stove at the Billie Jean King Cup
• Betty Stove at Wimbledon