Tennis Hall of Famer and 18-time Grand Slam singles champ Chris Evert thinks a super competitive field and new tech at the US Open makes the game much more fun to follow.
Ever since she first took to the court, Chris Evert has been a trailblazer. After turning pro in 1972, Evert won the French Open, her first Grand Slam singles title, two years later and then went on to win a total of 18 singles Grand Slams amidst a 17-year career with a staggering 1309–146 win-loss record. Since retiring in 1989, Evert has also stayed at the forefront of tennis. She’s not only the founder of the Evert Tennis Academy, which trains both talented high schools students and full-time professional level players, but she is also publisher of the popular Tennis magazine. Yet, ever since leaving the game as a player, Evert has fused her love of the game’s nuts and bolts with her keen, technical eye, to become as one of the game’s best commentators. Once again, you can hear Evert on ESPN for the 141st edition of the US Open, which began August 30. Evert concedes that since becoming a color analyst her tennis left-brain has kicked in. During our conversation over the phone Friday, she said that she’s been talking much more about match metrics and stats in predicting outcomes in each round of play. “I’m not by any means a “techy” person,” Evert admits. “But it started at Wimbledon, (during) which I’ve started to wrap my head around the game in a different fashion.” Evert says that having the IBM Watson Power Rankings and Match Insights integrated into the ESPN broadcast interface has been a help and huge enhancement to reporting the game.
