(Editor’s note: This article comes from The Spun’s “Yesterday and Today” magazinefeaturing interviews with over 50 sports stars of yesteryear. Order your copy online todayor buy one at retail stores and newsstands nationwide.)
Tracy Austin is a lot like the others tennis Mom.
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Except she’s also an International Tennis Hall of Famer who won her first professional title at age 14, became the youngest US Open champion at age 16 and went on to rise to No. 1 in the world. During the tennis boom of the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Southern Californian was a child superstar, her suburban schoolgirl smile splashed across the covers of Sports Illustrated (“A Star Is Born”) and Seventeen, wooden racquet in hand.
If John McEnroe was the Super Brat and Chris Evert the girl next door, Austin was the assassin in Pigtails and Pinafore; a tireless baseliner who made up for his lack of power with steely stability and an uncanny field sense. Raised in a family of tennis players, she hated losing and it didn’t take long for her to start beating the established names of Evert, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova.
“I think about how different everything is now,” Austin said at this summer’s Cincinnati Open, where every player has a Cadillac Escalade throughout the tournament. “My mom had to drop me off at Forest Hills (stadium in Queens, New York, the former site of the U.S. Open) and go find a lawn to pay $20 to park. I mean, it’s crazy. Now these guys have a car when they arrive, and not just any car. They have no idea how good they have it.”
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Austin and her husband Scott Holt have three sons: Sean, Brandon and Dylan. Brandon Holt, a former USC star, was in the main draw in Cincinnati, although Austin didn’t catch him in action, at least in person. Given her fame, it can be difficult to watch her matches on the court, so she often ends up following them on a monitor in the players’ lounge.
“People come up to me in the middle of a match and ask me, ‘Are you nervous?’ They’re trying to talk to you, and it’s like I just want to watch the game,” Austin, now 62, said. “And I don’t want the camera on me. I don’t want to take it away from Brandon. I don’t want to be a distraction.”
A car accident in 1989 hastened the end of Austin’s playing career, a near-fatal collision that left him with a broken leg.
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“He ran a red light at 100 km/h and hit my wheel. I was half a second away from going. It changes your perspective – that everything else is a bonus,” she said. “On the one hand, you feel like it stopped your career, but on the other hand, you’re not here at all. I’m very lucky to be here.”
She eventually made the transition to broadcasting and has since become one of the most insightful voices in sports.
“I like to stay busy,” said Austin, who has been an on-air analyst for everyone from the BBC to Channel Seven Australia to the Tennis Channel, whose Santa Monica, Calif., studios are just a 45-minute drive from his home in Rolling Hills. “At the same time, when I was raising my three children, I wasn’t away all the time. I was home a lot. I think I found a good balance, always working, keeping my foot in the door. I feel lucky; I love what I do, I love tennis, I love analyzing the game.”
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Tennis great Tracy Austin attends the premiere of the film “Challengers” in Los Angeles on April 16, 2024. MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
Brandon, 27, would lose his first round match in Cincinnati to fellow Californian Tristan Boyer 6-3, 7-6(3). But Austin, the proud tennis mom, couldn’t hide her smile.
“I know the work he did,” she said. “Of course I get nervous. You want more for your kids than you want for yourself. But he’s worked really hard. He started the year around 200, then got into the Top 100 at Wimbledon. He’s found a balance, probably better than ever. He gets upset if he loses, but he gets over it and bounces back the next day. He’s got a really good outlook.”
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On the same subject: Magazine “yesterday and today”: catch up with 50 sports stars of yesteryear
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This story was originally published by The yarn on December 31, 2025, where he first appeared in the Tennis section. Add The Spun as Favorite source by clicking here.
