American Tennis Player-Turned-Nun, Who Defeated the Likes of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, Once Revealed Her Vow To Defeat Billie Jean King Due to Her Attitude – ‘Try Hard..’

During their early tennis days, when players like Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were busy dominating the WTA Tour, there was a player who found peace and calmness outside the sport. Andrea Jaeger, who played professional tennis for almost half a decade, chose to move away from the sport for a life outside of the spotlight. However, there was a time when the former American tennis player vowed to defeat Billie Jean King. 

The 57-year-old former player reached the highest world ranking of number 2 during her successful years on the circuit. However, she ended her career prematurely owing to her shoulder injuries, and later became a nun.

Andrea Jaeger vowed to knock down Billie Jean King

In 2008, the American tennis player who chose a spiritual path talked about the time when she wanted to defeat Billie Jean King badly after seeing the player’s attitude toward others. She shared an incident from when she was 14. During her second pro tournament, she defeated Wendy Turnbull to claim her early wins. However, after seeing Turnbull’s polite attitude in the locker room, Jaegar developed soft spot for her opponent. 

During the interview, she said, “At Wimbledon in 1983, Billie Jean King beat Wendy Turnbull and whoever beat Wendy, I always had to beat them because it bothered me so much.” However, it was another incident that provoked Jaegar. Speaking about the 12-time Grand Slam champion, Jaegar said, “”When we were going on Centre Court for our semi-final, a lady offered her a towel and Billie Jean said, ‘No, I won’t need one. I’m not going to sweat in this match.'”. 

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Seeing King’s carefree attitude, the tennis player said, “I thought, ‘Not only did you beat Wendy, now you’ve said this so I have to try hard.” Staying true to her words, Jaeger gave tough competition to Billie Jean King and won the Wimbledon semi-finals in straight sets.

Jaeger’s shocking revelation about the Wimbledon final

After defeating the former world number one in the semifinals, Jaegar, who was the world number two at that time, played the championship match against Martina Navratilova. That year, the 59-time Grand Slam champion won another Wimbledon title. 

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Talking about that defeat, she made a shocking revelation about the match; she claimed that she mis-hit shots on purpose. She gave her reasons for the same, as she felt guilty about disturbing Navratilova’s pre-match preparations. Jaegar said that she approached the 18-time Grand Slam champion’s trainer for help to get away from her father after a fight. Thus, she felt guilty for ruining Navratilova’s preparation for the final and refused to make an effort to win the match the next day.