Rosemary "Rosie" Casals (born September 16, 1948) is an American former professional tennis player. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 titles and was crucial to many of the changes in women's tennis during the 1960s and 1970s.
Casals was born in 1948 in San Francisco to parents who had immigrated to the United States from El Salvador.[1] One of her paternal great-uncles was the world renowned Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, whom she would never meet.[2] Less than a year after Casals was born, her parents decided they could not care for her and her older sister Victoria. Casals's great-uncle and great-aunt, Manuel and Maria Casals, raised them as their own.[1] When the children grew older, Manuel Casals took them to the public tennis courts of San Francisco and taught them how to play the game. He became the only coach Casals had.[1] However, Nick Carter, gave some lessons. Casals attended San Francisco's George Washington High School.[3]
At five-feet-two-inches tall, she was one of the shorter players on the court.[4] Traditionally, tennis was a sport practiced in expensive country clubs. Casals's ethnic heritage and poor background immediately set her apart from most of the other players. "The other kids had nice tennis clothes, nice rackets, nice white shoes, and came in Cadillacs," Casals told a reporter for People. "I felt stigmatized because we were poor."[1][5]
Later in her career, she became known for her brightly colored outfits, designed for her by Ted Tinling.[6]
Tennis career
Casals was known as a determined player who used any shot available to her to score a point. "I wanted to be someone," Casals was quoted as saying in Alida M. Thacher's Raising a Racket: Rosie Casals. "I knew I was good, and winning tournaments — it's a kind of way of being accepted." By age 16, Casals was the top junior and women's level player in Northern California. At 17, she was ranked eleventh in the U.S. In 1966, she and Billie Jean King, her doubles partner, won the U.S. hard-court and indoor tournaments. In 1967, Casals and King took the doubles crown at Wimbledon [7] and at the United States and South African championships. The two became one of the more successful duos in tennis history. Casals was also a successful individual player, ranking third among U.S. women during this period.[citation needed]
Casals won 112 professional doubles tournaments, the second most in history behind Martina Navratilova.[9] Her last doubles championship was at the 1988 tournament in Oakland, California, where her partner was Navratilova.[9]
Casals played in a total of 685 singles and doubles tournaments during her career.[6]
Fights for rights of professional and women players
With Billie Jean King, Casals challenged the large difference in prize monies awarded to male and female players. Women earned much smaller prizes. In 1970, Casals and other women threatened to boycott the Pacific Southwest Championships if they were not paid higher prize money and not given more media attention. The ruling body of U.S. tennis, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), refused to listen to their demands. In response, the women established the 1970 Virginia Slims Invitational. The attention generated by this successful tournament, which was won by Casals, quickly brought about the formation of other women's tournaments and greater prize monies for women.[citation needed]
In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Casals's name and picture.[10]
Post-tennis career and personal life
Casals underwent knee surgery in 1978 and was forced to change career directions. Since 1981 she has been president of Sportswomen, Inc., a California company she formed to promote a Women's Classic tour for older female players. She also began the Midnight Productions television company. In 1990, she again teamed with Billie Jean King, this time to win the U.S. Open Seniors' women's doubles championship. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996.[citation needed]
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