Garrison and McNeil from Houston to Center Court
A few years later, Wilkerson phoned the tennis writer at the Houston Post and invited him to visit the courts to take a look, saying, “I promise I’ve got a future Wimbledon champion out here.” Neither Garrison, who toured professionally from 1982 through 1997, nor McNeil (1983-2002) would conquer Centre Court, but the former did play for the Wimbledon championship in 1990 and the latter was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 1994.
The sisters were watching on television when Garrison took the court against Martina Navratilova on Wimbledon’s final Saturday 26 years ago, and, while it made them sad to see her lose 6-4, 6-1, it didn’t deter them.
Within two years, she had won the girls 18s national title, earning an audience with the great Gibson herself, who invited Garrison to a 10-day clinic in which she got to play with a number of pros, including Leslie Allen and Kim Sands, African-African women who had established themselves on the WTA Tour.
Instead of attending her Ross Sterling High School graduation in May 1982, Garrison debuted in the main draw of the French Open.
She won her first Tour title in 1984 and advanced to the Wimbledon semis in 1985, losing to Navratilova in a far tighter match than their final five years down the road would be.
Although Garrison played for seven more years, she never again advanced beyond the quarterfinals in a major.
It would instead be McNeil who delivered a last hurrah on behalf of the Houston “sisters” when she scored a stunning – and historically unprecedented – upset of the defending champion, Graf, in the first round at Wimbledon in 1994, then roared into the semifinals, dropping just a single set.
At 30, McNeil was playing the best tennis of her life and Conchita Martinez, a journeywoman pro known for her clay-court skill, was all that stood between McNeil and a Wimbledon final of her own.
Today, the Zina Garrison Tennis Academy in southwest Houston, with McNeil as the director, is thriving (Garrison commutes from her home in Virginia).