Jo Durie

Infobox Tennis player
playername = Jo Durie


nickname =
country = UK
residence = London, United Kingdom
datebirth = birth date and age|1960|07|27
placebirth = Bristol, United Kingdom
height = height|m=1.83
weight = convert|68.0|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro = 1977
retired = 1995
plays = Right-handed
careerprizemoney = $1,224,016
singlesrecord = 321–305
singlestitles = 2
highestsinglesranking = No. 5 (April 29, 1984)
AustralianOpenresult = QF (1983)
FrenchOpenresult = SF (1983)
Wimbledonresult = QF (1984)
USOpenresult = SF (1983)
doublesrecord = 274–199
doublestitles = 6
highestdoublesranking =
updated =

Jo Durie (born July 27, 1960, in Bristol, United Kingdom) is a former world Top 5 professional tennis player from the United Kingdom. During her career, she won two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.

Career

Durie turned professional in 1977. As a singles player, she reached the semi-finals at both the French Open and the US Open in 1983. She was also a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open in 1983 and at Wimbledon in 1984 where she beat a young Steffi Graf in the fourth round. She won two top-level singles titles (both in 1983) at Mahwah, New Jersey and Sydney. Her career-high singles ranking was World No. 5. She had career wins over Steffi Graf, Zina Garrison, Pam Shriver, Hana Mandlikova, and Tracy Austin.

Partnering her fellow British player Jeremy Bates, Durie won the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon in 1987, the first British doubles team to win the title for 41 years and the Australian Open in 1991, the first time a British doubles team ever won the title. She also won a further four women's doubles titles during her career.

A member of the British Wightman Cup (1979, 1981-89), British Federation Cup (1981-95) and British European Cup teams (1989-92), Durie led the British team to victory in the European Championship in Prague in 1992. She was ranked the No. 1 British player for most of her career. She won the British National Singles titles a record seven times and the National Doubles title a record nine times. She was the second British woman player after Virginia Wade to win $1 million in prize money.

Durie retired during the Wimbledon Championships in 1995, (her eighteenth appearance at the Championships) with many memorable performances. After three successive operations on her left knee, Durie went into the Championships ranked 326 in the world; yet reached the second round of the ladies singles by beating France's Alexia Dechaume-Ballerat, ranked 85 in the world in straight sets in the first round. Her second round, and last singles match at Wimbledon was against Jana Novotna. After losing the match 6–2 6–2 Jo Durie was given a full standing ovation by the crowd on the 'old' No. 1 Court. Her last doubles match at Wimbledon was a mixed doubles, where she played with her long standing partner Jeremy Bates.

She is one of very few players to have a winning record against Steffi Graf and leads 4-3 in head-to-heads.

After retiring from the professional tour, Durie has worked as a TV tennis commentator for both the BBC and British Eurosport, and currently coaches former British number one Elena Baltacha alongside her own former coach Alan Jones. She won back to back Wimbledon Ladies Senior Invitation doubles titles in 1996 and 1997.

Grand Slam mixed doubles finals

Wins (2)

Runner-ups (4)

External links

*wta|id=40067|name=Jo Durie
*ITF female profile|number=20001921
*FedCupplayerlink|id=20001921