One of the game's prodigies, Tracy Ann Austin was meteoric, an iron-willed girl whose blaze was glorious though fleeting. A variety of injuries cut short what had promised to be one the great careers. At 14 her junior career was practically a memory.

She had won the U.S. 12s title at 10 in 1972, and added 21 more age-group titles. Arriving at Forest Hills in 1977, an unseeded amateur, she was already the youngest winner of a pro tournament, Portland, OR earlier in the year. Sensationally, she made her way to the last eight of the U.S. Open by beating fourth-seeded champ Sue Barker, 6-1, 6-4, and Virginia Ruzici, who would win the French in 1978, 6-3, 7-5. Wimbledon finalist Betty Stove stopped her there, 6-2, 6-2, but the 5-foot, 90-pound Tracy, in ponytail and pinafore, was the youngest of all major quarterfinalists-until Jennifer Capriati, a younger 14, was a French semifinalist in 1990.

Her performance earned no dollars, but she did get a congratulatory phone call from the First Hacker, President Jimmy Carter.

Two years later, 1979, at 16 years, 9 months, Tracy not only dethroned four-time champ Chris Evert 6-4, 6-3, at Flushing Meadow but undercut Maureen Connolly (1951) as the youngest U.S. champ by a couple of months. Earlier that year Evert's 125-match clay-court winning streak in the semis of the Italian, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), then won the title, her first important prize over lefty Sylvia Hanika, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

She won the U.S. again in 1981 in a thrilling finish over Martina Navratilova, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-1). That year she won seven and had a 58-7 match record, and in 1980 12 titles on 68-7. Having made her Wimbledon debut in 1977 (a third-round loss to Evert, 6-1, 6-0) she was a semifinalist in 1979 and 1980, champs, Navratilova, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), and Evonne Goolagong, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.

But back maladies began to impair her effectiveness and sideline her for long stretches. San Diego, 1982, was the last of Austin's 29 pro titles. By 1983, before her 21st birthday, she was virtually finished. She has tried comebacks, as recently as 1994, in two tournaments, the Australian and French Opens, but that was it. In Melbourne, however, she became the only post-induction Hall of Famer to win a major match, beating Elna Reinach, 6-1, 7-5, then losing to Sabine Hack, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. In Paris, ranked No. 78, she lost to Marketa Kochta, 6-0, 6-1, and called it quits, posting a career record of 29 singles wins and 13 other finals of 122 tournaments on 348-87 (.800) in matches. She won four doubles titles. A near-fatal auto accident in 1989 was another discouraging factor. A resolute 5-foot-4 groundstroker, right-handed with a two-fisted backhand, she had immense patience and fortitude, and deadly passing shots. Few errors marred her performances.

Evert, who reclaimed her U.S. title in the 1980 final at Flushing, recalls, "Tracy's mental strength was scary. She had no weaknesses, she was obsessive about winning." By 1977 Austin was No. 4 in the U.S. rankings, the greenest to stand so high until Capriati's No. 3 in 1990. She continued in that elite group through 1983, No. 1 in 1980. Five straight years, from 1978, she was in the World Top Ten, No. 2 in 1980 and 1981. Briefly in 1980 she was No. 1 on the WTA computer, breaking the Evert/Navratilova stranglehold of nearly six years. She had tremendous battles with those two whose world she invaded. At the close of 1981 she won the Toyota Championship at East Rutherford, NJ, by beating Chris (6-1, 6-2) and Martina (2-6, 6-4, 6-2) in succession, the first of only three to accomplish that back-to-back double, preceding Hana Mandlikova and Steffi Graf.

Turning pro in October 1978, she won $1,966,487 in career prize money. She played on three winning Federation Cup teams (1978, 1979 and 1980) for the U.S., and two Wightman Cup winners (1979, 1981). Tracy was born into a tennis family December 12, 1962, in Palos Verdes, CA, and grew up in Rolling Hills. Her older sister and brothers--Pam, Jeff and John-played the pro circuit, and she and John won the Wimbledon mixed in 1980, the only brother-sister pairing to do so. She entered the Hall of Fame in 1992, married Scott Holt in 1994, has a child, and works frequently as a TV tennis commentator.