Even though Chris is playing brilliant tennis in this match, Joanne Russell was a great player and a tough opponent, with a game with plenty of variety, which made her enjoyable to watch. Thanks for this upload, much appreciated.

maybe it's just me and i'm too 'OLD SCHOOL" BUT i find this match and this era of women's tennis INFINITELY MORE ENJOYABLE AND INTERESTING TO WATCH THEN TODAY'S BASHFEST of everyone playing the same, everyone looking the same, etcetera...

I have no memory of Russell playing but she is better than I would have imagined. Thanks

Oh I loved watching this. Tennis of my childhood, rallies, offense and defense, net play…. Chrissie was dynamite and Russell in top form here with her hair and glasses giving me major Renee Richards visions.

wow, HD for such a vintage match. Way to go! Thanks for sharing.

evert is really hit out on her groundstrokes! love it! really nailing her groundies and with a wood racket which is like styrofoam compared to today's rackets.. i always enjoy watching evert's groundstrokes when she hits them as hard as she can when she is facing a attacking groundstroker and all court player like russell. it seems depending on the opponent, chris raises her groundstroke game and how hard she hits them, sometimes she just plays steady and works the point, other times like in this match because of russell's game she hits them as hard as she can AND uses her mind to work and construct the point!..

@N0vakDj Just so you know.... WTT competition scored the matches as team score vs team score, where they shake hands as a team at the end. They eliminated the individual reward system of 'I won my singles match' in an attempt to create a team-sport aspect to the events, and so all match results went into the final tally. So they didn't shake hands because the match in a sense, or 'the competition' was not yet complete at the end of this singles set. A little history! :)

Russell also had some extremely close matches with Evert years before in junior tournament competition in Florida.

russell had a good all around game.. i remember reading about the ONLY 3 set match russell ever gave to evert, i believe it was earlier in 1978 when evert was first coming off her 4 month lay-off at the beginning of that year and it was her 1st tournament back, ( i want to say the virginia slims of boston?) and from what i read, russell hit every ball to evert's forehand in the match! let me repeat this, EVERY SINGLE BALL, EVERY SINGLE POINT FOR THE ENTIRE MATCH RUSSELL HIT TO EVERT'S FOREHAND even with obvious openings to her backhand and obvious winners! i guess russell decided to break down the evert forehand... never heard of anyone in pro tennis male or female history who hit every single shot to one player's one stroke.. almost worked too, as evert pulled out the 3 set victory!.. would have loved to have seen this and see the dynamic of this strategy and what the players were thinking and evert's reaction to this!..

Russel had a great serve

This match was played after Martina beat Chris at Wimbledon and before the open where she beat shiver.

As the years went on Evert got into much trimmer shape. She is not fat here but about 10 pounds overweight yet she still played and moved greatly!! Even with wood Chrissie never played pitty pat tennis as some accused her and here is striking the ball with as much power as one could get!!

Thanks for sharing. WTT was more enjoyable during that era because the best players played. I have not watched tennis for 15 years. Boring.

@johnblacklovesmar I was impressed too. Strong serve and can do damage with the forehand. I liked her in the booth as well.

@LobOverTheBackhand: I liked her commentary, in general, as well. Her banter with Bud Collins could get pretty amusing at times. I remember well the Family Circle match you speak of in '89. Actually, the next week Mary Carillo was fairly brutal towards Martina as well when Martina lost in straights to Sabatini in the semifinals at Amelia. Martina was at a low-point with her confidence early that year, failing to reach the finals in 3 consecutive tournies she played in.

i miss when tennis was on HBO

I'm surprised Joanne Russell didn't score more success in singles. She has a solid game, unfortunately compared to the lady across the net, very few as consistent as Evert. But I think with more practice and belief in her own game, Joanne could've been a Top 10 player without a doubt.

Did all of the teams in WTT have courts with such unusual colour combinations?

Man, the $$$ were enticing but Team Tennis ultimately flopped, meant zilch to tennis history and cost Evert 3 virtually guaranteed French Opens. I expect the teams were hungover half the time. That court is ridiculous, btw. The conditions look insane. But I bet they had a blast. Gotta love the wacky 1970s.

Chris was super cute at this time. Not sure how old she was in 78.

@kikass2020 It was an indoor carpet - notorious for 'soft spots' that produce bad bounces, especially back then! Not at all the same as a hard court, though that is the general effect of those courts.

I liked JoAnne's commentary, but she was always biased towards Steffi Graf (she played doubles with Steffi). I believe the last straw for NBC was when Russell completely and utterly dogged Martina Navratilova while calling Martina's match at the Family Circle Cup when Martina lost to Natalia Zvereva. It's been said that JoAnn didn't know she was replaced by Chrissie until Chrissie was in the booth!!.

@Vapor419 They are playing with wood rackets, which takes a great deal more skill than contemporary rackets... If you can find a wood racket & then play with that w/ your team, it would be interesting to see how hard you hit then!! (Or if you can really keep it in play, as you expect!) :)

I wish Chris had not wasted her time with stupid ass world team tennis when she could’ve been racking up grand slam wins

They don't shake hands at the end. Weird. Also, it looks like Chris is hitting her forehand in the famous "Lansdorp reverse forehand" method a few times. So odd. She only does it a few times, like around 6:25, but still the earliest I've seen anyone hit it that way.

Evert was the first hotties! Yes, I know there may have been before her. But I don't care.

He was saying that there was a bad bounce. On hard court! Come on!!!!

And who is the idiot that made the court look like a rambow!

Stupidest looking court ever. How the lines are gonna call!

Tennis court 4 clowns

The most dang ugliess court I ever saw. Why.... I'm just baside my damn seff

That's the ugliest and most annoyingly busy coloured court I've ever seen. Also the lines are so hard to see.

Goes to show how much more fast paced tennis is today. My high school team plays faster tennis than this haha