I was too young to remember Chris Evert in her prime. By the time I was old enough appreciate to tennis she was Chris Evert-Lloyd and still relevant but on the downside of her career. Martina Navratilova was peaking though, and with her glasses, size, and relentlessly businesslike approach Evert-Lloyd seemed to shrink in comparison. She won at least one over Martina though later in her career which I remember. And she was still hot. I remember thinking she was old...now I'm like 10-15 years older than she was at the time. Sigh.
Interesting about the weaker fields for Court. I saw that record and was like goddamn that is complete dominance. Top pros like Laver losing many of their peak years due to being a pro sucked too. lol 60s tennis basically.
Evert hardly shrank to Navratilova, yes she did get eventually overtaken by a vastly superior athlete who also had vastly superior racquet talent. A tough combo to overcome but overcome she did late in her career gaining a number of huge wins over Martina by slightly changing her tactics which allowed her mental toughness back into the match. They finished their career at 43-37 Martina.
Evert stat of the day:
Best record on clay of any player male or female for any single surface with a 125 match winning streak with the loss of only 7 sets from August 1973 to May 1979 when she was defeated by Tracy Austin in the semi finals of the 1979 Italian Open. When she finally lost she won 60+ straight after that.
At age 15 years 8 months Evert beat the then #1 Player in the world Margaret Court the first time she played her. (7-6, 7-6) Court had also just come off winning the Grand Slam. Evert also beat Billie Jean King, Virginia Wade and Betty Stove the first time she played them.