" I got all choked up and I couldn't speak" - When Chris Evert's father spoke about her phone call after winning her first Wimbledon title
Chris Evert is an icon of women's tennis and has enjoyed a glittering career, winning 157 singles titles, including 18 Grand Slams.
Like many great players, Evert had an influential figure during her childhood that helped her become the champion she is — her father Jimmy Evert, a former player who later became a coach.
The 67-year-old was featured on the ESPN biography program 'SportsCentury' (1999), where several people spoke about her and her career. One such person was her father, who revealed his conversation with her over a phone call after she won her first Wimbledon title in 1974, aged only 19.
Jimmy Evert said he got all choked up after hearing the news of his daughter winning the grasscourt Major.
"When the phone finally did ring, I heard her voice at the other end of the line saying 'I won' and I got all choked up and I couldn't speak, and the next thing I heard was 'Dad are you all right'? Can you imagine your 19-year-old calling you from England and saying 'Hey Dad, I just won Wimbledon'? Everytime I think about it, it still brings tears to my eyes," Chris Evert's father said.
The 18-time Grand Slam singles champion went on to win Wimbledon two more times, in 1976 and 1981, beating Evonne Goolagong and Hana Mandlikova respectively in the finals.
"I had a pretty strict father"- Chris Evert
While speaking to the Fantastic Tennis Podcast earlier this year, Chris Evert spoke about her father, saying that he was very strict and that he taught her and her siblings tennis.
"I didn’t have any choice, let's put it that way. I had a pretty strict father. You couldn’t answer back to him, you really couldn't have a different generation. It was that generation of parents, the ones that grew up in the 30s, 40s, 50s," she said.
"So, my dad was a player himself and he won the US Indoors, he won the Canadian Open, played No. 1 for Notre Dame. Then, he went into the Navy and when he came back, he had to earn for a living. So he settled in Fort Lauderdale and was a teaching pro. There were five kids in our family and he taught every single one of them, starting at five years old," she added.
Jimmy Evert coached a handful of players during his lifetime, including former World No. 1 Jennifer Capriati. He passed away in 2015, aged 91.