Betsy Nagelsen

Betsy Nagelsen

Betsy Nagelsen got closest to a major singles title at the 1978 Australian Open, where the eighth seed lost the final at Kooyong to unseeded Australian Chris O'Neil, 6-3, 7-6. Nagelsen never got back to a slam singles final, settling instead into a long career built on variety: she turned professional in 1973, reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 23 in 1981, and kept playing tour level tennis until 1996.

Doubles suited her better. Nagelsen won the Australian Open women's doubles twice, in 1978 with Renata Tomanova and in 1980 alongside Martina Navratilova, part of 8 career titles. Her last big final came in mixed doubles at the 1987 US Open, where she and Paul Annacone pushed Navratilova and Emilio Sanchez to a deciding tiebreak before losing 6-4, 6-7, 7-6, the match that completed Navratilova's Triple Crown. Nagelsen later became a courtside broadcaster and married IMG founder Mark McCormack in 1986.