Betsy Nagelsen McCormack

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Betsy Nagelsen McCormack

Betsy was an internationally ranked player on the WTA Tour for more than 20 years, and a two-time Grand Slam tournament champion in doubles. She achieved a career high ranking of world No. 25 in singles and No. 11 in doubles, and won more than 30 career titles in singles and doubles. She won the Australian Open doubles title in 1978 and 1980, and was a finalist at the 1978 Australian Open. She was a four-time member of the U.S. Wightman Cup Team.

Before launching her pro career, Nagelsen-McCormack was the world’s top junior player in 1973 and winner of the prestigious USTA Girls’ Sportsmanship Award.

Playing in her 20th consecutive main draw at Wimbledon in 1993, Nagelsen-McCormack won the over-35 women’s doubles championship, and went on to win back-to-back titles in the US Open Senior women’s doubles in 1993 and 1994.

After her retirement in 1996, Nagelsen-McCormack became a commentator for ABC and ESPN in the United States and Australia’s Nine Network.

Her late husband, Mark H. McCormack, was founder and chairman of International Management Group (IMG) and widely recognized as the inventor of sports marketing. Following his passing in 2003, the company was sold to a longtime family friend, Ted Forstmann, founder of Forstmann Little and the financier of recognized brands, Gulfstream and Dr. Pepper.

McCormack is active in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Women’s Hall of Fame at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center at the College of William & Mary. She also serves on the boards of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was honored as the recipient of the House of Hope Humanitarian Award for her service to House of Hope, an Orlando ministry for troubled teens.

Today, Nagelsen-McCormack remains active in the sport, and serves as Head Coach for the State College of Florida Women’s Tennis Team

"There is no substitute for Excellence – not even success. Success is tricky, perishable and often outside our control; the pursuit of success makes a poor cornerstone, especially for a whole personality. Excellence is dependable, lasting and largely an issue within our own control; pursuit of excellence, in and for itself, is the best of foundations,” The Heart of the Order, by Thomas Boswell (Doubleday, 1989).