Barbara Jordan Once Won the Australian Open. Really.

“To be honest, I don’t remember anything about that match,” said Mandlkikova. “I guess I don’t want to remember.”

For Jordan, the win was one for the ages, especially because it was the only singles title she won. She played the Australian Open only one more time, losing in the first round to Mandlikova in 1983, and never again advanced beyond the third round at a major. Her highest career ranking was No. 37.

For her win, Jordan received $10,000 in prize money, in contrast to the $50,000 awarded to the men’s singles champ, Guillermo Vilas of Argentina.

Jordan can take pride that she is just one of seven American women to have won the Australian during the Open era dating from 1969. The others are Navratilova, Evert, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams.

Jordan, who recently retired as an attorney for the city of San Jose, Calif., said she had not been back to Melbourne since 1983. She has attended Women’s Tennis Association reunions in the United States and, as a former member of the W.T.A.’s board of directors, she has been involved in helping the organization set up a pension fund for the game’s earliest pros.

Jordan does not dwell on her lone major title and, in fact, rarely tells friends and colleagues about it because she does not want to brag. She jokes that she used to be the answer to a trivia question at an Australian bar. Anyone who could identify her as the 1979 champ would win a free drink. She said hardly anyone did.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/19/sports/tennis/barbra-jordan-australian-open.html?emc=rss&partner=rss