Jo Durie is one of the most popular and richest Tennis Player who was born on July 27, 1960 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom. Her most productive year as a solo player was 1983. She ended the season as No. six in world ranking as well as on the leader of prize money board. In her debut as an unseeded participant, Durie made it to the semifinals of the French Open, beating both Pam Shriver and Tracy Austin throughout the course. The following year, she was able to make a second Grand Slam singles semifinal appearance at the US Open, where she ultimately lost against Chris Evert in straight sets. Her incredible rise up the singles rankings in 1983 culminated in a quarterfinal appearance of the Australian Open in December. Durie’s successes as a singles athlete in 1983 led to her being awarded a spot in the 1984 WTA Tour Championship as the fifth seed.
Durie would go on to win five woman’s doubles titles from eighteen finals during her career. Her most successful year as a doubles player, aside from the Grand Slams in 1987 and 1991 was in 1983, when she reached six finals, winning three titles. Durie also reached the semifinals of the women’s doubles at the French Open and Wimbledon. By virtue of this success she gained a place at the 1984 WTA Tour Championship in doubles, and reached the final partnering Ann Kiyomura.
Partnering her fellow British player Jeremy Bates, Durie won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1987, the first British doubles team to win the title for fifty-one years. In 1991 they became the first British doubles team ever to win the Australian Open mixed doubles title. As of 2013 both of these records still stand. As a team Bates and Durie reached an additional three mixed doubles quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1986, 1990 and 1993. They also reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in 1992 as defending champions.
She was the winner of 2 top level WTA Singles championships (both from 1983) in Mahwah, New Jersey and Sydney and was a career champion with winnings against Steffi Graf Zina Garrison Pam Shriver, Hana Mandlikova, and Tracy Austin. Back injuries that continued to plague her in 1989 caused the reorganization of her service. Durie was the last player to appear in the WTA Tour singles tournament at the Virginia Slims of Newport tournament in the year 1990. In 1991, she was at thirty, and being one of the oldest singles players that year, she enjoyed another great run to four rounds of the US Open.
Durie was a faithful participant in The British Wightman Cup (1979, 1981-89), British Federation Cup (1981-95) and British European Cup teams (1989-92). Durie was also the youngest player of the British Federation Cup team, along with Virginia Wade and Sue Barker who made it to the final of the team in 1981. Durie played a key role in leading his British Team to victory at the European Championship in Prague in 1992.
Her most successful year at Wimbledon as a singles player came in 1984 when she reached the quarterfinals, beating a 15-year-old Steffi Graf in a memorable fourth-round match. It was just after Wimbledon that she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5.
