DEERFIELD BEACH — On 19 October 1980, Chris Evert claimed the 100th title of her career at the age of 25, defeating 15-year-old Andrea Jaeger 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the Maybelline Classic at the Deer Creek Racquet Club in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
The victory on hard courts at the inaugural event created by promoter George Liddy marked another step in Evert's pursuit of the world No 1 ranking, which she had lost to Martina Navratilova in September 1979 and would reclaim on 18 November 1980. Tracy Austin had held the top spot since April 1980 after beating Evert 6-4, 6-3 in the 1979 US Open final, but Evert arrived in Florida shortly after her fifth US Open triumph with 99 titles already to her name and six trophies won that season.
Evert, the "Ice Maiden" born in Florida in 1954 and coached by her father, had dominated alongside Navratilova since 1974, winning 11 Grand Slam crowns — Roland-Garros in 1974, 1975, 1979 and 1980, Wimbledon in 1974 and 1976 and the US Open in 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1980 — while never falling before the semi-finals of a major. The undisputed queen of clay, she compiled a 125-match winning streak on the surface between 1973 and 1979 and had spent 158 weeks as world No 1, including 113 consecutive weeks between May 1976 and July 1978.
Jaeger, born in 1965, arrived as the sport's new prodigy with three titles already, including a 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 win over Barbara Potter in Las Vegas in January before turning 15 and a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Hana Mandlikova to win the Buick Riviera Classic in Las Vegas in September. She had reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, where she lost to Evert 6-1, 6-1, and the semi-finals at the US Open, where she fell to Mandlikova 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, but had not taken a set in three previous meetings with Evert.
In their fourth meeting Evert again outclassed the teenager to lift her 100th trophy, a milestone that preceded a further 76 weeks at world No 1 until May 1982 and a career total of 260 weeks at the summit. Evert would finish with 154 titles and 18 Grand Slam crowns before retiring in 1989, while Jaeger would beat her three times in 1982, claim 10 titles and finish runner-up at Roland-Garros in 1982 and Wimbledon in 1983 to Navratilova before a shoulder injury forced her retirement in 1985 at the age of 20.