It was a real treat to meet Tracy Austin the other night at The Billies, the Women's Sports Foundation awards gala. (the picture posted is Tracy at last year's event. This year she looked even prettier!). Tennis fans know that the epic rivalry between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova would have been more of a three-way battle if Tracy Austin's playing career not been cut short by injuries. Tracy beat both Martina [semis] and Chrissie [final] to take the 1979 U.S. Open and two years later, beat Martina in the final (7-6 in the third!) to win the U.S, Open a second time. Austin, ranked number one for a time in 1980, often beat the twin-titans of the game and did not fear them. She had a mental toughness that rivaled Evert's and was the one who snapped Chrissie's 125-match clay court winning streak in Rome in 1979.

Tracy left the tour midway through the 1983 season, briefly came back in 1988 then suffered a broken leg in a car accident. Gritty as ever, she returned to the tour in the early 90s - AFTER she had been inducted into the International Hall of Fame - and had a few big wins including a match at what is now called the Pacific Life Open. I was in the front row in the stadium court when Tracy played a tough three-setter against a player whose name I don't remember. I reminded her of that match when we chatted at The Billies.
"I won! Can you believe that? I didn't win the whole thing but I won that match. It was fun to come back after a car accident," she said.
Austin, the mother of three sons. has kept plenty busy in the broadcast booth since then. She does the U.S. Open for the USA network, Wimbledon for BBC and the Australian Open for Channel 7 in Australia. She also works for MSNBC during the French Open and Wimbledon.
And she still loves the game that made her a superstar and in 2005 she and Jana Novotna took the women's senior doubles title at Wimbledon: "I play about three times a week. I love it and I feel very fortunate to have the passion to still play after all these years."
Tracy got a huge applause when she walked out on stage during the Hall of Champions portion fo the evening along with fellow American tennis players Lindsay Davenport and Pam Shriver.
Earlier, she shared with me her early memories of Billie Jean King:
I actually met Billie when I was about 8 years old. She came to our club to do a commercial for Wilson. I met her and was obviously ecstatic. As an up and coming junior, to meet her then, she was great to the kids. That's what's impressive about Billie. No matter how big a star she is, she talks to everybody. Even when I came on the tour, she was one of the few who made me feel comfortable even though I was kind of a rival. She was my Fed Cup coach and she was our Whitman Cup coach so she would help me with my game even though I was going to compete with her.in the future. She's a giver, always willing to giver, always wanting to help and willing to get behind causes that she believes in and give her time. That's what I think is so amazing about Billie is just the passion that she has. Most people have a passion or a desire to get involved with something but they didn't follow through. When she decides she's going to get behind something, she does it 100 percent. Even when she goes out on a limb. When she started the WTA tour, it was gutsy to go against the USTA, it was gutsy to demand equal prize money. She was really the pioneer."