Pam Shriver

Pam Shriver

Pam Shriver was sixteen years and two months old when she reached the 1978 US Open final, still the youngest major finalist of the Open era. Swinging an oversized Prince racquet, the sixteenth seed beat reigning Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova 7-6, 7-6 in the semifinal before Chris Evert stopped her 7-5, 6-4. That fortnight stayed her singles summit: eight more major semifinals and a career-high of world No. 3 in 1984 never produced a second final.

So she partnered the rival she could not pass. Alongside Navratilova she won 79 doubles titles, twenty of them majors, a record 109-match winning streak from April 1983 to July 1985 and the calendar-year Grand Slam in 1984. Twenty-one women's doubles majors in all, plus mixed at Roland Garros in 1987 and Olympic gold beside Zina Garrison in Seoul in 1988. She retired in 1997 with 26 career titles, entered the Hall of Fame in 2002, and spent the decades since as one of the game's sharpest broadcast voices.