Little Miss Cool

Pony-tailed Teen-Ager Chris Evert became an instant favorite with the gallery when she arrived at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in Forest Hills, N.Y., five months ago. But many experts doubted that she was ready for the stiff world-class competition she would meet in center court. Unseeded and playing on grass for one of the few times in her brief career, "Little Miss Cool" nonetheless battled her way into the semifinals, winning one gutsy, come-from-behind victory after another. Then, alas, she met Mrs. Billie Jean King, the reigning queen of U.S. tennis. Billie Jean, the first woman athlete in history to win $100,000 in a single year, soundly spanked Chris 6-3, 6-2. For the moment, the Cinderella saga had come to an end.

For 1971, that is. Last week, playing in the $25,000 Women's International at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., her first tournament since the U.S. Open, Little Miss Cool was hotter than ever. In a stunning upset, she blasted Billie Jean off the court. A fixture on the clay courts of Fort Lauderdale since she was six, Chris Evert was always slight and something of a hitless wonder. Her backhand was so weak that her tennis-pro father, Jim Evert, taught her to hit the shot with both hands. Though she goes far toward making up in precision what she lacks in power, her pitter-patter serves and lack of a strong volley proved her ultimate undoing at Forest Hills. In the five months since, however, she not only polished her game but grew a full inch taller and five pounds heavier. (She is now 5 ft. 5 in. and weighs 115 Ibs.) As a result, there was more snap in her strokes, more zing in her serve and more zap in her overall attack as she advanced to the finals against Billie Jean King.

The big rematch drew an overflow crowd, many perching on nearby rooftops to watch the action. After the

Dixieland band died down and the airplanes towing banners of encouragement had passed overhead, the hometown heroine went to work. Breaking Billie Jean's serve in the very first game, she took the opening set handily, 6-1. The second set was more of the same, as Chris kept her older opponent running with a maddening array of pinpoint placements, drop shots and lobs and--when an opening came--a two-fisted backhand drive down the line. In the final game, when the tenacious Billie Jean fought back from match point five times, one excited fan yelled: "Get it over with!" Chris, who usually plays with a poker-faced poise that one of her opponents describes as "almost eerie," shouted back: "I'm trying." Then, trying harder, she scored on a solid forehand to win, 6-0.

"I can't remember ever losing a match that badly," said Billie Jean. Chris, just 17, and not eligible to turn professional until next season, had to bypass the $4,400 first prize. Billie Jean, for one, can hardly wait for Chris to turn pro. "If Chris comes out on the tour," she promised, "she'll find out the facts of life." One fact Chris already knows: while fighting for room at the top, she will be pressured from below by another two-fisted Evert. In the opening round of last week's tournament, Chris' sister Jeanne scored another big upset by defeating Rosemary Casals, the No. 3 money winner on the tour last year. Jeanne, however, will have to wait even longer to cash in on the pro purses. She is 14.

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