Virginia Wade is a former professional tennis player who has been a reporter on tennis events for the BBC ever since her retirement. She has won three Grand Slam singles championships and four Grand Slam doubles Championships and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments.
Wade was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1986 Birthday Honours for services to Lawn Tennis. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1989.
Virginia Wade's net worth is under review for now. As a professional tennis player, she earned $1,542,278 from the various tournaments she has attended. The salary that she received as a tennis commentator and game analyst has not been disclosed, but it is safe to assume that with a famed athlete like her, the extensive networks like BBC were paying her well.
Virginia ready to serve at a game SOURCE: Sporting HeroesDuring her tennis career, when she won her first Wimbledon in 1977, she was awarded £13,500. She pocketed $6,000 when she won the US Open in 1968.
For most cases and scenarios, Virginia Wade's personal life has remained a mystery. There have not been many details regarding her love affairs and relationship. Wade never married in her life and always lived a single life with no children. While asked if it was a sacrifice, she replied
"You make sacrifices but if you're enjoying what you do, they're not really sacrifices. It's not like you sit down and say, 'Well, today I'm going to play for one more year and then I'm going to stop and have a family.' Life isn't like that. You tend to do the things that you enjoy doing, and it's hard to know when to quit. You want to quit playing well because you don't want to go out in a slump, but if you are playing well the tendency is to carry on."
Sarah Virginia Wade was born on July 10, 1945, in Bournemouth, England. She had moved to South Africa with her parents at one. It was only at the age of 15 when her family moved back to England.
She went to Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Sussex to study mathematics and physics. She graduated from university in 1966.
As an amateur, Virginia Wade won the inaugural open tennis competition- the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth in 1968. She turned professional after five months and won the women's singles championship at the first US Open, where she defeated Billie Jean King in the final.
Virginia won the Wimbledon in 1977 SOURCE: Getty Images Wade won her second Grand Slam singles championship in 1972 at the Australian Open, where she defeated the Australian Evonne Goolagong in the final. The following year, she was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire MBE in the 1973 Birthday Honours for services to Lawn Tennis.
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In the 16th year of her professional play, Virginia Wade won at Wimbledon. She had to face defending champion Chris Evert in the semifinal and Betty Stove in the competition's finals. She won over both the players claiming the Wimbledon Championship on the 100th anniversary of its start and the Silver Jubilee year of Elizabeth II.
For Wade's career, she has won 55 professional singles championships and won four Grand Slam women's doubles championships with Margaret Smith Court. From the year 1967-to 1979, she was consistently ranked in the world's top 10. She played tennis professionally for 26 years and retired at the end of the 1985 tennis season for singles, and at the end of the 1986 season, she retired from doubles.
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Virginia Wade has a record of 26 appearances in Wimbledon, with 24 of them being in the women's singles. After her retirement, she coached tennis to others for four years and worked as a tennis commentator and game analyst for the BBC and Eurosport.
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