Tracy Austin

American world No. 1 tennis player in 1980. She was national Jr. tennis champ 1977-1978, the youngest U.S. champion in 1979 and the youngest to crack the million dollar prize barrier. She played from age two, with a family that was quietly supportive and emphasized the fun of the game. Her dad was a nuclear physicist; four older siblings.

Tournaments began when she was 13 and at 16 she was the youngest woman to unseat the reigning queen, Chris Evert Lloyd. In 1979 she was the youngest player to win the U.S. Open and on 7 July 1980 she took over the No.1 rank from Martina Navratilova for most of the year, at age 17.

Austin had recurring back and neck injuries from February 1984. On 3 August 1989, she had a car crash when her car was hit by a van that went through a red light. Her heart and spleen were bruised, and her right knee, shattered. Told that she would never play tennis again, she took a long hiatus before making a comeback tournament on 22 February 1993. She quit tennis for good on 20 July 1994, at 22, becoming an analyst for ABC-TV during its broadcasts of the first Lipton International Players Championships.

She made over $2 million in product endorsements. With sportswriter Christine Brennan, she wrote her autobiography "Beyond Center Court" (William Morrow, 1992).

Austin married mortgage broker Scott Holt, 32, on 17 April 1993. They had their first child, Dylan Matthew Hold, on 15 April 1996 in Torrance, California. Second son, Brandon Scott, made his appearance on 6 April 1998 in Torrance, and in September 2000 they announced that they were expecting a third child in March 2001, Dylan.