Class of 2020 and 2021 Tour the Museum

The 2021 International Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday will be extraordinary, with 12 icons entering the storied halls. On Friday, the inductees toured the museum filled with memorabilia, plaques, and exhibits dedicated to their achievements.

With COVID-19 canceling last year’s induction ceremony, the Class of 2020 is being celebrated this weekend along with the Class of 2021.

The Class of 2021 includes coach Dennis Van der Meer and the members of the Original 9: Peaches Bartkowicz, Rosie Casals, Julie Heldman, Billie Jean King, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Judy Tegart Dalton, and Kerry Melville Reid. The Class of 2020 inductees are Goran Ivanišević and Conchita Martínez. 

Seven of the Original Nine walked the halls of the museum on Friday in a special reunion as their celebration weekend kicked off.

“It's amazing,” Ziegenfuss said while standing in front of the Original 9 exhibit. “I’m just walking around with my mouth open. And then to remember we played, we're a part of that, oh my gosh. It’s wonderful.”

“It's hard to say enough,” Pigeon said. “This is history and to be a part of it and for you to recognize what we did—we were troublemakers, and now today, we're rockstars.”

King was an inductee into the Hall of Fame back in 1987 and will now be doubly enshrined.

“We're disrupters,” King said. “We were very fortunate to take a stand and be willing to give up our careers to help future generations. We are the leaders in women's sports.”

“This museum, this place has such an unbelievable spirit with all these unbelievable names, trophies, champions, it’s beyond an honor for me to be here,” Ivanišević said on Friday. “I’m not actually realizing what I did—tomorrow probably when I’m going to [give my] speech, which I’ve changed 477,000 times already.”

Ivanišević's Wimbledon victory is one of the most historic achievements in tennis. He had reached the Wimbledon final three times in the 1990s, but by 2001, he was well outside of the Top 100.

The 49-year-old hasn’t slowed down since his retirement in 2004 as he currently coaches World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, a recent winner of his 20th Grand Slam at Wimbledon.

“I believe that was meant to be, 20 years from my victory there for his 20th Grand Slam,” Ivanišević said. “It was perfect.”

Like Ivanišević, Martinez is a former Wimbledon winner, was ranked as high as No. 2, and is currently coaching a multiple Grand Slam champion (Garbine Mugurza). In 1994, Martinez beat Martina Navratilova on Centre Court to become the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon. She’d also reach the final of the 1998 Australian Open and 2000 Roland Garros.

Across her 18-year playing career, Martinez won 33 titles, three Olympic doubles medals, and five Fed Cup trophies.

“We’ve been waiting for a year and a half and to finally be here with my whole family and friends it’s a very special moment,” Martinez said on Friday. “It’s great to see the history of tennis and to share it with all of them.”

Van der Meer is being inducted posthumously after passing away in 2019 at the age of 86. His coaching career began in Johannesburg before he moved to the United States in 1961, and becoming famous for coaching Margaret Court and King.

Van der Meer noticed how different teaching methods were confusing for students, so he set out to standardize coaching for teaching pros. He opened the Van der Meer Academy, launched TennisUniversity, and in 1976, he founded the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR), which now has more than 16,000 members in 125 countries.

The induction ceremony will take place on Saturday at 6 p.m. EST.

Written by Nina Pantic