Renata Tomanova

Renata Tomanova

Renata Tomanova played two Grand Slam finals in the first half of 1976 and lost them both: 6-2, 6-2 to Evonne Goolagong at the Australian Open over the New Year, then 6-2, 0-6, 6-2 to Sue Barker at Roland Garros in June. The bigger prize had already arrived a year earlier. Alongside a teenage Martina Navratilova she beat Australia in the 1975 Fed Cup final in Aix-en-Provence, winning her singles against Helen Gourlay as Czechoslovakia lifted the trophy for the first time.

The finals sat inside a deeper career. She won 9 career titles, peaked at No. 22 in the rankings, and returned to the Australian Open semifinals in 1979. Her Grand Slam trophies came in doubles: the 1978 Australian Open alongside Betsy Nagelsen, and the 1978 Roland Garros mixed title with Pavel Slozil. Part of the generation that turned Czechoslovakia into a tennis power, she later settled in Germany and kept competing on the seniors circuit, where the national federation honoured her with its 2011 Deutsche Tennis Preis.