When St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., held its commencement exercises three months ago, the girl voted most popular by her fellow students was noticeably absent. She was off on a European tour trying to live up to another title bestowed by her schoolmates: most likely to succeed. As it happened, Christine Marie Evert, 18, class of '73, honor student and yearbook sports editor, was destined for some graduate work in the School of Hard Knocks, Big-Time Tennis Department.
In her first season as a tennis professional, Evert started out with everything going for her—perhaps too much.
In only two years she had leapfrogged from obscurity to national fame. In technique, tennis attire and hair style she had become the model for her generation of players. Having just become a princess of women's tennis, she was already being touted for empress.
Needed Struggle. She knew that she still had a few things to learn, and that was perhaps one reason why she spurned the rebel pro circuit led by Billie Jean King and Margaret Court.
Chrissie joined the weaker tour sponsored by the rival United States Lawn Tennis Association. Not surprisingly, in her first two months of playing for pay, she won 29 of 30 matches. "Being a pro," she said, flashing her most-likely-to-succeed smile, "is lots of fun." Still, she so dominated the U.S.L.T.A. competition that she soon began to worry that she might be losing her competitive edge. "I just want someone to start testing me," she said after a while, "someone to give me a real struggle."
She got it when the two warring women's groups declared a truce that allowed players from both circuits to compete against one another in major tournaments. Evert's first test came at the French Open in June when she advanced to the finals against Margaret Court, won the first set 7-6, took a commanding 5-3 lead in the second—and then fell apart. Suffering from a bad case of overconfidence, she blew the second set 7-6 and lost the third 6-4. Then in quick and dispiriting succession, she lost to Australia's Evonne Goolagong in the finals of the Italian Open, to Britain's Virginia Wade in the semifinals at Nottingham and to the U.S.'s Julie Heldman in the quarter-finals of the London Grass Court Championships.
Evert staged a brief comeback at Wimbledon by defeating Court but then got soundly spanked in the finals by Billie Jean King.
Chrissie came back to the U.S. with an attitude of "thanks, I needed that."
Last week she told TIME Correspondent Peter Range: "I'm not used to losing.
Europe was really the proof that I could. It made me realize that I wasn't putting 100% into my matches, that I can produce some good tennis only when I'm really hungry to win." Added her mother and traveling companion, Colette: "Europe was good for Chrissie. She realized that she was no longer the prima donna. She had her first slump. Nobody paid much attention to her at Wimbledon because she had been losing. It was a kind of relief."