Editing Virginia Wade (section)

==Tennis career==
{{BLP sources section|date=November 2008}}
Wade's tennis career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of the [[History of tennis#Open Era|Open Era]]. In 1968, as an amateur, she won the inaugural open tennis competition – the British Hard Court Open at Bournemouth. She turned down the £300 first prize, choosing to play for expenses only.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rosewall hustles to £1,000 win |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000560/19680429/202/0023 |url-access=subscription |work=[[Daily Mirror]] |date=29 April 1968 |issue=20012 |page=23 |access-date=2 October 2021 |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref> Five months later, after turning professional, she won the women's singles championship at the first [[US Open (tennis)|US Open]] (and prize-money of $6,000 - ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|6000|1968|r=0}}}} today), defeating [[Billie Jean King]] in the final. Her second Major tennis singles championship came in 1972 at the [[Australian Open]] when she defeated Australian [[Evonne Goolagong]] in the final 6–4, 6–4. She was appointed a member of the [[Order of the British Empire]] (MBE) in the [[1973 Birthday Honours]] for services to lawn tennis.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=45984 |date=2 June 1973 |page=6489 |supp=y}}</ref>

Wade won [[The Championships, Wimbledon|Wimbledon]] in 1977. It was the 16th year in which she had played at Wimbledon, and she secured her first appearance in the final by beating the defending champion [[Chris Evert]] in the semifinal 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. In the final, she beat [[Betty Stöve]] in three sets to claim the championship, nine days before her 32nd birthday. 1977 was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Wimbledon Championships as well as the [[Silver Jubilee]] year of [[Elizabeth II]], who attended the final for the first time since 1962.<ref>{{cite news |title=Wade hopes for Jubilee repeat |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/wimbledon/2036120.stm |publisher=BBC Sport |date=9 April 2017 |access-date=17 February 2024}}</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10399688 "Queen returns to Wimbledon after 33 years"]. [[BBC News]]. 24 June 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2017</ref>

Wade also won four Major women's doubles championships with [[Margaret Smith Court]] – two of them at the US Open tennis tournament, one at the [[Australian Open]], and one at the [[French Open]]. In 1983, at the age of 37, she won the [[Rome Masters|Italian Open]] women's doubles championship with [[Virginia Ruzici]] of Romania.

Over her career, Wade won 55 professional singles championships and amassed $1,542,278 in career prize money. She was ranked in the world's top 10 continuously from 1967 to 1979. Her career spanned a total of 26 years. She retired from singles competition at the end of the 1985 tennis season, and then from doubles at the end of 1986. She played at Wimbledon on 26 occasions, an all-time record;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rogerfederer/10926645/Wimbledon-2014-Britains-Jamie-Delgado-smashes-record-with-23rd-consecutive-All-England-Club-appearance.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/rogerfederer/10926645/Wimbledon-2014-Britains-Jamie-Delgado-smashes-record-with-23rd-consecutive-All-England-Club-appearance.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Wimbledon 2014: Britain's Jamie Delgado smashes record with 23rd consecutive All England Club appearance|work=The Telegraph|date=25 June 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 24 of those times were in the women's singles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2017.wimbledon.com/en_GB/draws_archive/player_profile.html?id=238dbbd8-dc38-49fc-96d0-d73d198ec35a|title=Player Profile - The Championships, Wimbledon 2017 - Official Site by IBM|last=Wade|first=Virginia|year=2017|website=Official Wimbledon website|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016085029/http://2017.wimbledon.com/en_GB/draws_archive/player_profile.html?id=238dbbd8-dc38-49fc-96d0-d73d198ec35a|archive-date=16 October 2018|access-date=16 October 2018}}</ref>