Rosie Casals

Full name	Rosemary Casals
Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1948-09-16) September 16, 1948 (age 70) San Francisco, CA, U.S.
Height	5 ft 2 1⁄2 in (1.59 m)
Turned pro	1968
Plays	Right-handed
Prize money	US$ 1,362,222
Int. Tennis HoF	1996 (member page)
Singles
Career record	595–325
Highest ranking	No. 3 (1970)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	SF (1967)
French Open	QF (1969, 1970)
Wimbledon	SF (1967, 1969, 1970, 1972)
US Open	F (1970, 1971)
Doubles
Career record	508–214
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (1969)
French Open	F (1968, 1970, 1982)
Wimbledon	W (1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1973)
US Open	W (1967, 1971, 1974, 1982)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	W (1971, 1973, 1974)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open	SF (1969)
French Open	SF (1969, 1970, 1972)
Wimbledon	W (1970, 1972)
US Open	W (1975)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	W (1970, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981)
Wightman Cup	W (1967, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982)

Rosemary "Rosie" Casals (born September 16, 1948) is a former American professional tennis player.

Rosemary Casals earned her reputation as a rebel in the tennis world when she began competing in the early 1960s. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 tournaments, and was a motivating force behind many of the changes that occurred in women's tennis during the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life[edit]

Casals was born in 1948 in San Francisco, to poor parents who had immigrated to the United States from El Salvador.^[1] Less than a year after Casals was born, her parents decided they could not care for her and her older sister, Victoria. Casals's great-uncle and great-aunt, Manuel and Maria Casals, took the young girls in and raised them as their own.^[1] When the children grew older, Manuel Casals took them to the public tennis courts of San Francisco and taught them how to play the game. He became the only coach Casals would ever have.^[1] But Nick Carter, former touring pro, father to Denise Carter-Triolo, who was once nationally ranked and made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon, gave her some lessons. He was the teacher of many ranking junior players, including Jeoff Brown, national junior doubles champ, and others at Arden Hills club, Sacramento, California, where Mark Spitz trained. Casals used a continental forehand like he did, with the power in it that all his students had, using the "racket back, step, and hit" method.

Casals attended San Francisco's George Washington High School.^[2]

While still just a teenager, Casals began to rebel on the court. She hated the tradition of younger players competing only against each other on the junior circuit. Gutsy and determined right from the start, Casals wanted to work as hard as possible to better her game. For an added challenge, she often entered tournaments to play against girls who were two or three years older.

Junior tennis was the first of several obstacles Casals faced during her tennis career. At five-feet-two-inches tall, she was one of the shortest players on the court.^[3] Another disadvantage for her was class distinction. Traditionally, tennis was a sport practiced in expensive country clubs by the white upper class. Casals's ethnic heritage and poor background immediately set her apart from most of the other players. "The other kids had nice tennis clothes, nice rackets, nice white shoes, and came in Cadillacs," Casals told a reporter for People. "I felt stigmatized because we were poor."^[1][4]

Unfamiliarity with country club manners also made Casals feel different from the other players. Traditionally, audiences applauded only politely during matches and players wore only white clothes on the court. Both of these practices seemed foolish to Casals. She believed in working hard to perfect her game and expected the crowd to show its appreciation for her extra efforts. In 1972 at the tradition-filled courts of Wimbledon, she was nearly excluded from competition for not wearing white.^[5] Later in her career, she became known for her brightly colored outfits, designed for her by Ted Tinling.^[6]

Tennis career[edit]

The frustrations Casals endured due to her size and background affected her playing style. Despite her sweet-sounding nicknames, "Rosie" and "Rosebud," she was known as a determined player who used any shot available to her to score a point — even one between her legs. "I wanted to be someone," Casals was quoted as saying in Alida M. Thacher's Raising a Racket: Rosie Casals. "I knew I was good, and winning tournaments — it's a kind of way of being accepted." By age 16 Casals was the top junior and women's level player in northern California. At 17 she was ranked eleventh in the country and was earning standing ovations for her aggressive playing style.

More experience on the national and international levels of play helped Casals improve her game. In 1966 she and Billie Jean King, her doubles partner, won the U.S. hard-court and indoor tournaments. That same year they reached the quarter-finals in the women's doubles at Wimbledon. In 1967 Casals and King took the doubles crown at Wimbledon ^[7] and at the United States and South African championships. The two dominated women's doubles play for years, becoming one of the most successful duos in tennis history. (They are the only doubles team to have won U.S. titles on grass, clay, indoor, and hard surfaces). Casals was also a successful individual player, ranking third among U.S. women during this period.

Casals soon became involved in another innovation: World Team Tennis (WTT). WTT involved tennis teams, each made up of two women and four men, from cities throughout the United States. Matches included both singles and doubles games. During her years with WTT, Casals played with the Detroit Loves in 1974, the Los Angeles Strings from 1975 through 1977, the Anaheim Oranges in 1978, and the Oakland Breakers in 1982, before serving as the player-coach of the San Diego Friars in 1983. She later played for the St. Louis Eagles in 1984, the Chicago Fyre in 1985, the Miami Beach Breakers in 1986, and the Fresno Sun-Nets in 1988.^[8]

Casals won 112 professional doubles tournaments, the second most in history behind Martina Navratilova.^[9] Her last doubles championship was at the 1988 tournament in Oakland, California, where her partner was Navratilova.^[9]

Casals played in a total of 685 singles and doubles tournaments during her career.^[6]

Fights for rights of professional and women players[edit]

Despite her victories on the courts, Casals continued to fight tennis traditions on several fronts. Amateur tennis players (those who are unpaid) had always been favored over professionals (those who were paid). Because many amateur tennis players came from non-wealthy backgrounds, they were forced to accept under-the-table money in order to continue playing. This, in turn, made them professionals and prevented them from entering major tournaments that allowed only amateurs to play, such as Wimbledon. Fighting against this discrimination, Casals worked for an arrangement that allowed both amateur and professional tennis players to compete in the same tournaments.

Together with Billie Jean King, Casals challenged the large difference in prize monies awarded to male and female players. Even though they worked as hard and played as often as men, women earned much smaller prizes. In 1970 Casals and other women threatened to boycott the Pacific Southwest Championships if they were not paid higher prize money and not given more media attention. The ruling body of U.S. tennis, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), refused to listen to their demands. In response, the women established their own tournament, the 1970 Virginia Slims Invitational. The attention generated by this successful tournament, which was won by Casals after a victory in the final over Judy Dalton, quickly brought about the formation of other women's tournaments and greater prize monies for women.

In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Casals's name and picture.^[10]

Post-tennis career[edit]

The strain of playing almost constantly took a physical toll on Casals. She underwent knee surgery in 1978 and was forced to change career directions. Since 1981 she has been president of Sportswomen, Inc., a California company she formed to promote a Women's Classic tour for older female players. She also began the Midnight Productions television company and has broadened her own sporting activities to include golf.

In 1990, she again teamed with Billie Jean King to win the U.S. Open Seniors' women's doubles championship.

Casals was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996.

Portrayal in film[edit]

Elizabeth Berridge played Casals in the 2001 TV movie When Billie Beat Bobby.
Natalie Morales plays Casals in the 2017 film Battle of the Sexes.^[11]

Grand Slam finals[edit]

Singles: 2 finals (2 runners-up)[edit]

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1970	US Open	Grass	Margaret Court	2–6, 6–2, 1–6
Loss	1971	US Open	Grass	Billie Jean King	4–6, 6–7(2–5)

Doubles: 21 finals (9 titles, 12 runners-up)[edit]

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1966	U.S. Championships	Grass	Billie Jean King	Maria Bueno Nancy Richey	3–6, 4–6
Win	1967	Wimbledon	Grass	Billie Jean King	Maria Bueno Nancy Richey	9–11, 6–4, 6–2
Win	1967	U.S. Championships	Grass	Billie Jean King	Mary-Ann Eisel Donna Floyd Fales	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Loss	1968	French Open	Clay	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Ann Haydon-Jones	5–7, 6–4, 4–6
Win	1968	Wimbledon (2)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Ann Haydon-Jones	3–6, 6–4, 7–5
Loss	1968	US Open (2)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Maria Bueno Margaret Court	6–4, 7–9, 6–8
Loss	1969	Australian Open	Grass	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Judy Tegart Dalton	4–6, 4–6
Loss	1970	French Open (2)	Clay	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Gail Lovera	1–6, 6–3, 3–6
Win	1970	Wimbledon (3)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Virginia Wade	6–2, 6–3
Loss	1970	US Open (3)	Grass	Virginia Wade	Margaret Court Julie Tegart Dalton	3–6, 4–6
Win	1971	Wimbledon (4)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Evonne Goolagong	6–3, 6–2
Win	1971	US Open (2)	Grass	Judy Tegart Dalton	Françoise Dürr Gail Lovera	6–3, 6–3
Win	1973	Wimbledon (5)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve	6–1, 4–6, 7–5
Loss	1973	US Open (4)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Virginia Wade	6–3, 3–6, 5–7
Win	1974	US Open (3)	Grass	Billie Jean King	Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve	7–6, 6–7, 6–4
Loss	1975	US Open (5)	Clay	Billie Jean King	Margaret Court Virginia Wade	5–7, 6–2, 6–7
Loss	1982	French Open (2)	Clay	Wendy Turnbull	Anne Smith Martina Navratilova	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1980	Wimbledon	Grass	Wendy Turnbull	Kathy Jordan Anne Smith	6–4, 5–7, 1–6
Loss	1981	US Open (6)	Hard	Wendy Turnbull	Kathy Jordan Anne Smith	3–6, 3–6
Win	1982	US Open (4)	Hard	Wendy Turnbull	Barbara Potter Sharon Walsh	6–4, 6–4
Loss	1983	Wimbledon (2)	Grass	Wendy Turnbull	Pam Shriver Martina Navratilova	2–6, 2–6

Mixed Doubles: 6 finals (3 titles, 3 runners-up)[edit]

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1967	U.S. Championships[12]	Grass	Stan Smith	Billie Jean King Owen Davidson	3–6, 2–6
Win	1970	Wimbledon	Grass	Ilie Năstase	Olga Morozova Alex Metreveli	6–3, 4–6, 9–7
Win	1972	Wimbledon (2)	Grass	Ilie Năstase	Evonne Goolagong Kim Warwick	6–4, 6–4
Loss	1972	US Open (2)	Grass	Ilie Năstase	Margaret Court Marty Riessen	3–6, 5–7
Win	1975	US Open	Clay	Dick Stockton	Fred Stolle Billie Jean King	6–3, 6–7, 6–3
Loss	1976	Wimbledon	Grass	Dick Stockton	Françoise Dürr Tony Roche	3–6, 6–2, 5–7

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline[edit]

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

Casals was originally seeded 14th for the 1978 Wimbledon Championships, but a knee injury forced her withdrawal before the draw was made^[13]

See also[edit]

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

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 
  Rosemary Casals at the International Tennis Federation


• 
  Rosemary Casals at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
  


• 
  Rosemary Casals at the Women's Tennis Association


• 
  Rosemary Casals at the Fed Cup