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Pam Shriver
Pam Shriver (born July 4, 1962, in Baltimore, Maryland),
is a former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster from
the United States. During the 1980s and 1990s, she won a total of 22 Grand
Slam doubles titles and captured a women's doubles Gold Medal at the 1988
Olympic Games.
Shriver first came to prominence as a 16 year-old amateur
player in 1978, when she shocked the tennis world by reaching the women's
singles final at the US Open. She stunned the then reigning Wimbledon champion
Martina Navratilova in the semi-finals, beating her in straight sets 7-6,
7-6. She then lost to Chris Evert in the final 7-5, 6-4. Shriver also won
the first of 21 career singles titles in 1978 at Columbus, Ohio.
The 1978 US Open final was to be the only Grand Slam singles
final of Shriver's career. Her most notable successes in future years came
in doubles play. She won a total 112 career doubles titles – with 22
of them coming at Grand Slam events.
Shriver and Navratilova formed one of the all time great
women's doubles teams, capturing 7 Australian Open, 5 French Open, 5 Wimbledon
and 4 US Open titles. In 1984, the pair captured all four of the Grand Slam
women's doubles titles. This was part of a record 109-match winning streak
they achieved between 1983 and 1985. The pair were named the WTA Tour's 'Doubles
Team of the Year' 9 consecutive times from 1981-1989, and won the WTA Tour
Championships title 10 times between 1981 and 1992.
Shriver won another women's doubles Grand Slam title at the
US Open in 1991, partnering with Natasha Zvereva. She was also the 1987 French
Open mixed doubles champion with Emilio Sanchez. In 1988, Shriver won a women's
doubles Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul, partnering with Zina Garrison.
She swept all three Gold Medals (women's singles, women's doubles and mixed
doubles) at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana.
Shriver reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking in 1985.
Throughout the 1980s, she was ranked among the World's Top 10 in women's
singles, peaking at World No. 3.
In total, Shriver won 133 top-level titles – 21 in singles
and 112 in doubles. She is one of only 5 woman players in the Open Era to
win more than 100 career titles.
Shriver retired from competitive play in 1994 but has since
maintained a presence on the professional tour, mentoring Venus Williams
for a while and providing television commentary for ABC, CBS and ESPN in
the United States, the BBC in the United Kingdom, and 7 Sport in Australia.
Shriver was elected to serve as President of WTA Tour Players
Association from 1991-94. She has also served as President of the USA Tennis
Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the United States Tennis Association.
Shriver was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of
Fame in 2002.
Shriver's first husband, Joe Shapiro, a former Walt Disney
company lawyer, died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1999. In 2002, Shriver
married the former James Bond actor George Lazenby. She gave birth to their
first child, George Jr., in July 2004. On October 1, 2005, Shriver gave birth
to twins, Kate and Sam.
Schriver is a graduate of McDonogh School in Owings Mills,
Maryland.
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