Half a century ago, women’s tennis witnessed the coronation of a queen. This matriarch built a dynasty from a green clay foundation. Spectators called her the “Queen of Clay,” pundits referred to her as the “Ice Maiden” and players and friends knew her as Chrissie. Fifty years later, Chris Evert is still revered as the woman in the arena.
Following the inaugural Family Circle Cup, which originated in Hilton Head in 1973 and is now the Credit One Charleston Open, the tides turned. One of the most prolific runs in the history of the sport would take place. A stretch of dominance that has yet to be repeated.
Between the 1970s and ’80s, the tournament ran through Evert. The trophy belonged to her as if it were her baby. The powers that be should seriously consider naming it after her because nobody’s hands have hoisted it more than hers. Here’s what it took to climb Mount Evert.
1974 was just the tip of the iceberg for the Ice Maiden, a nickname Evert would later earn for her stoic expressions and icy mannerism when the pressure was at its highest. No matter how high the stakes were, the moment was never too big. She was a stone-cold killer who never cracked.
A month prior to winning her maiden Grand Slam at the French Open that year and nearly sweeping all of the majors except the US Open that calendar year, Evert won her first Family Circle Cup title. As the tennis gods would have it, she would go on to win the Family Circle Cup a grand total of eight times, five of which she won consecutively from 1974-1978.
Evert’s unprecedented feat was so impressive that tennis legend Billie Jean King later acknowledged it. She experienced it firsthand in 1977 when Evert disavowed King in the Family Circle Cup 6-0, 6-1. The merciless match lasted less than an hour and was all but a shutout, or a “double bagel” in tennis parlance, in which a player blanks their opponent in two straight sets of zeroes.
Why was Evert’s play so electric on green clay? Because she built her game on precision, control and consistency. Green clay has a way of revealing everything. It slows the game just enough to strip it bare and expose a player’s footwork, patience and nerves. There are no shortcuts, no easy points and certainly no hiding. Evert wouldn’t overpower an opponent, but she would wear them down slowly and steadily by praying on their fatigue. She would strike her foe at their weakest and most vulnerable point and hunt them down before delivering the kill shot. Evert was almost always the predator and rarely ever the prey.
Evert was inevitable and so were the wins as she went on a tear that seemed eternal. She won a total of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, including seven at the French Open (Roland Garros), six at the US Open with four consecutive victories, three at Wimbledon and two at the Australian Open. Over her career, Evert reached 34 Grand Slam singles finals and made 52 semifinal appearances in the 56 Grand Slam tournaments she entered. She set a record with 125 consecutive match wins on clay and amassed 157 career singles titles.
Evert held the world No. 1 ranking for 260 weeks and achieved a remarkable career record of 1,309 wins to 146 losses, maintaining a 90% match win rate. She was a seven-time WTA Player of the Year and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1995.
Heroes get remembered, but legends never die, and their legacies echo for eternity. Legacy isn’t measured by winning alone, it’s what continues because of you long after you’re gone. In Charleston, every March and April, the green clay still slows the game. The rallies still stretch. The pressure still builds, point by point, match by match.
“Charleston is where champions are made,” Evert told The Sunday Dispatch in April 2025. “The competition here is always fierce and the green clay adds an interesting challenge.”
By Zach Giroux