The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. The association governs the WTA Tour, which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women, and was founded to create a better future for women's tennis. The WTA's corporate headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida, with its European headquarters in London and its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing.
The WTA Finals is the season-ending championship of the WTA Tour. It is the most significant tennis event in the women's annual calendar after the four majors, as it features the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams based on their results throughout the season.
Kerry Melville Reid is a former professional tennis player from Australia. During her 17-year career, Reid won one Grand Slam singles title and 26 other singles titles and was the runner-up in 40 singles tournaments. Reid was included in the year-end world top-ten rankings for 12 consecutive years (1968–1979). She won at least one tournament annually from 1966 through 1979, except for 1975. Her career-high ranking was world No. 5 in 1971, behind Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong, and Rosie Casals.
The ITF Grand Prix Circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players founded in 1970 as the ILTF Grand Prix Tennis Circuit it ran annually until 1989 when it and WCT Circuit were replaced by a single world wide ATP Tour.
Françoise Dürr is a retired French tennis player. She won 50 singles titles and over 60 doubles titles.
The Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the women's top tier tennis tour founded in 1970 as the Virginia Slims Series of events that were then part of ILTF World Circuit. It eventually became the basis for the later WTA Tour. The players, dubbed the Original 9, rebelled against the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) because of the wide inequality between the amount of prize money paid to male tennis players and to female tennis players. In 1971 it was rebranded as the Virginia Slims Circuit until 1978 and was a rival tour to the ILTF Women's International Grand Prix. In 1979 it was branded as the Avon Championship Circuit until 1981. In 1982 it was merged with the Toyota International Series as a single women's tennis tour and rebranded under it's last title name until 1989. In 1990 it was succeeded by the WTA World Tour.
The 1985 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 13th season since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced in March 1985, and concluded in March 1986 after 52 events.
The Virginia Slims of Washington, now defunct, was a Grand Prix and WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1972 to 1991. It was held in Washington, D.C. in the United States and played on indoor carpet courts from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1990. From 1976 to 1977, it was played on indoor hard courts and in the final year it was played on outdoor hard courts.
The 1983 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 11th season since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 3, 1983, and concluded on March 4, 1984, after 64 events.
The Eckerd Open is a defunct WTA Tour affiliated women's tennis tournament founded in 1953 as a combined men's and women's clay court tennis tournament called the Masters Invitational tournament in St Augustine, Florida. In 1954 that event moved to Jacksonville, Florida until 1959. In 1960 the event moved to St Petersburg. It remained at the former location until 1974. After the combined event the St. Petersburg Masters Invitational finished in 1970. The women's event continued under various brand names and various locations in the Tampa Bay Area until it was abolished in 1990.
The 1978 Colgate-Palmolive Grand Prix was a professional tennis circuit held that year. It consisted of four Grand Slam tournaments, the Grand Prix tournaments and the Nations Cup, a team event. In addition eight World Championship Tennis (WCT) tournaments, a separate professional tennis circuit held from 1971 through 1977, were incorporated into the Grand Prix circuit. The 28 tournaments with prize money of $175,000 or more formed the Super Series category. Jimmy Connors won 10 of the 84 tournaments which secured him the first place in the Grand Prix points ranking. However he did not play enough tournaments (13) to qualify for largest share ($300,000) of the bonus pool, which instead went to third–ranked Eddie Dibbs.
The 1984 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 12th season since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced in March 1984, and concluded in March 1985 after 53 events.
The 1986 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 14th season since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on March 24, 1986, and concluded in December, 1986 after 41 events. The season was abbreviated in order to return the tour to a calendar year basis.
The 1987 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 15th season of the tennis circuit since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced in January 1987, and concluded in December 1987 after events.
The 1977 Virginia Slims Championships were the sixth season-ending WTA Tour Championships, the annual tennis tournament for the best female tennis players in singles on the 1977 WTA Tour. The singles event consisted of two round robin groups of four players each. The winners of each group played each other in the final and additionally there was a play-off match for third place. The tournament was played on indoor carpet and was held from March 24 to 27 in Madison Square Garden in New York City. First-seeded Chris Evert won the singles event and the accompanying $50,000 first prize money.
The 1977 WTA Tour consisted of a number of tennis tournaments for female tennis players. It was composed of two circuits the newly streamlined version of the Virginia Slims Circuit and the world wide Colgate International Series. The year 1977 also saw the creation of the first official ranking system and these rankings were used to determine acceptance into the tournaments.
The 1978 WTA Tour consisted of a number of tennis tournaments for female tennis players. It was composed of two subsidiary circuits, the newly streamlined version of the Virginia Slims Circuit and the world wide Colgate International Series. The tour was administered by the Women's International Professional Tennis Council.
The 1979 WTA Tour consisted of a number of tennis tournaments for female tennis players. It was composed of the newly streamlined version of the Avon Championships Circuit and the Colgate Series Circuit. The year 1979 also saw the creation of the first official ranking system and these rankings were used to determine acceptance into the tournaments.
The Toyota International Series was a professional women's tennis circuit founded in 1977 as the Colgate International Series it consisted of tournaments absorbed from the ILTF Women's International Grand Prix and included all those world wide events that were not part of the Virginia Slims Circuit who's tournaments were mainly in the United States. In 1979 it was renamed as the Colgate Series. In 1981 the Toyota Motor Corporation took over sponsorship of the circuit from the Colgate-Palmolive Company where it resumed under it's last title name until 1982.
The ILTF Women's International Grand Prix was one of the worldwide top-tier tennis tours for women founded in 1971 as the ILTF Women's Grand Prix. It was administered by International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). Also known as the ILTF Women's Grand Prix Circuit it was formed by taking the top premier events from the earlier ILTF World Circuit, and was a rival tour to the Virginia Slims Circuit. In 1976 it's last remaining ten events were absorbed into a new women's tour called the Colgate International Series circuit (eventually becoming the Toyota International Series circuit.
Chris Evert 
Françoise Dürr 
Virginia Wade 
Helen Gourlay Cawley 