Evert - Sue Barker video
 

Between Margaret Court's great forcing forehand drive and Graf's amazing weapon, there were few more noted for that stroke, than Sue Barker of GB, who was steady enough to win a depleted field '76 RG. and got to the the semi's of W and Australia twice and was ranked #3 in the world. she has 11 singles titles to her name and 12 doubles per Wiki, including 2 grass, 5 clay and 4 carpet. . I had never seen her play before. while this match was not particularly competitive, you do get to see that shot. Post Graf, it may look second rate, but for its day, it really was impressive to hit winners on clay past a top form Evert. This shot had some real pop but the back hand mishits. Sue isn't steady enough for Evert and she is definitely slower but she puts heart into retreiving and courage into her strokes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwDgx...&feature=feedu

Yes Sue's forehand is quite good with that old-fashioned racket.
Very few big forehand at that time.

It's interesting that so few top women players really have an outstanding top-tier forehand.

More women have an top-tier backhand but not forehand. For example Hingis, Serena, Seles, Evert.

Henin, Lindsay and Martina N have relatively balanced high quality forehand and backhand.Still their forehand is not at the same league as Graf. Actually although their forehands are great, they are still far behind the first-class standard of Graf's.

We normally have many competitors for best backhands in each era but when think of forehand, the shortlist is much limited and it's usually like Court for 60's, Barker for 70's and Graf from the 80's.

Is it because it's more difficult to develop and master a standing out first class forehand than a backhand? Why we see more top class backhand candidates in the backhand department(Seles, Serena, Hingis, Henin, Evert, Sabatini....) but only very limited candidates for best forehand(Court for 60's, Barker for 70's and Graf from 80's)?

Nice find! It seemed that the only shot that Barker wasn't stronger than Evert was her backhand. And that's all it took.

yea, she took big swings at all sorts of shots in this clip which may have been worth risks on the forehand but paid the price in some bad embarrassing errors on overheads/backhands and medicocre dropshots. Its odd though, the Barker game looks roughly like Graf - ultra lite . You can't go for broke on the forehand, unless your one hander is rock solid and effective, and you move very very well. Evert ate her for lunch as she did with Graf, until Graf's game and physique developed. At what, 16 or 17, the lunch bit back.

She still can rip them with the best

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnp_NwiuC8s

I can tell you have one of those droll, sophisticated sense's of humor.

What about Virginia Ruzici? great FH, and, like Sue, FO champion in the 70´s.

Great video! Reminds me of why I always wanted to watch Chris Evert play. :)

I haven't seen enough of Ruzici but there is some nice footage of Mimi Yausovec at RG and she too try to control rallies with her forehand.

Sue and Virginia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SGOp...eature=related

Great¡ what a big forehand from Sue¡ Ruzici was one of the best cc players of that time, she looks so cute and exotic.I heard she has gipsy roots - very common in Romania-...she seems a bit the aborigin Goolagong¡

Looks like Barker had a nice forehand. I'm sure most of the great British public have no idea Sue Barker won the French Open. If any British player won the French or any major today, she would be made a Dame immediately.

Unfortunately that might never happen again ( a female player winning a major tournament)

her own comments during that French Open put her 'win' in perspective.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...17/2/index.htm

Never seen her play before but it seems Sue Barker's bh was her weakness. Her FH was so much better and could outhit Evert. Not enough guile and variety compared to Evert in this video.

Thanks OP.

Graf must be shaking in her boots ...

Barker/Evert?
Only matched by Maria/Daniela.

Sue may have felt, at the time, she was winning a "B" tournament. But she barely won the thing!! She had to go 3 sets in each of her last 4 rounds. If it was such a "B" tournament, she apparently bought her "C" game to the event!

Considering the fact she is in the record books as a French Open champion, she'd be well advised now to say how "thrilled" she was to have won the French. It will always go down as the highlight of her career, at least according to the tennis historians. Winning the Virginia Slims of Dallas just doesn't cut it with most folks.

Maybe it wasn't about tennis 'historians' to Sue in the first place and that is why she could afford such candor. Its her careerr highlights, if she wants them to reflect when she played her best, rather when when she got on the right champions list, I am fine with that.

I like watching Sue play a lot. She was so pretty to me and with matching pretty strokes. She almost got to the Wimbledon final in 1977 and was someone to be leery of in a grand slam field up until about the time of this match clip.

Sue, Ruzici, and Mima were all fun to watch for me. They were clever players which is one reason why their clay court prowess was so considerable.

Most Americans remember Ruzici from her match with Tracy at the 77 US Open and from winning the US Clay Courts in 1982. She was very attractive in an exotic way. Her forehand was the real deal and she's the first female player that really spent a lot of time running around her backhand. She could control a rally with even Evert or Austin if allowed to camp out two to three steps inside the backhand court.

Mighty Mima was a good doubles player too. That may surprise some folks. But she was very steady, had a good return, and could volley sort of like Kathy Rinaldi or later Mary Joe Fernandez.

It depends on how you look at, Gunther...

IMMO, Ruzici and Baker were much more attractive than Graf.If she didn´t have, JUST that nose...( which would have helped Agassi...)