Detroit, 1981: Leslie Allen's breakthrough victory "was just what the WTA needed"

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At a young age, Leslie Allen received a valuable piece of wisdom from a tennis icon—the one and only Althea Gibson. As Allen recalled in a 2021 WTA.com story,

As a WTA rookie, I was part of a training cohort with Althea at the Sportsmen’s Tennis Club in Boston. Althea asked each of us—Zina Garrison, Andrea Buchanan, Kim Sands and me—about our individual tennis goals, and I said: ‘To be in the main draw of WTA Tour events.’ Althea, a two-time US Open and Wimbledon champion, and a Roland Garros champion as well, glared and said, ‘With your wingspan, you need to think about winning WTA Tournaments.’

That one sentence was life changing. I didn’t see Althea as my hero—she was before my time—but I knew whatever adversity I faced, she had it 10 times worse.

Allen had played tennis as a child. From the age of 11 to 14, though, she did not hit a single tennis ball. But a series of events that happened in Allen’s teens—the passage of Title IX in 1972, and the start of the WTA a year later—compelled her to thoroughly devote herself to tennis.

According to Allen, “Despite the naysayers who said I’d started too late and even pointed out that I was Black, my mother and I hatched a five-year plan for me to become a world-class player. That odyssey included playing No. 1 at Carnegie Mellon University & Fashion Institute of Technology, and training at Texas Southern University before landing the bottom spot on the University of Southern California’s team.”

Upon graduating from USC in 1977, Allen began to compete on the WTA tour. Year by year, her serve-and-volley game grew sharper. At the end of 1980, Allen was ranked 54th in the world.

In February 1981, she arrived in Detroit to compete at the Avon Championships of Detroit. The top four seeds were formidable—mercurial Hana Mandlikova, nimble Wendy Turnbull, imposing Pam Shriver, powerful Virginia Ruzici. But in the second round, Allen upset Ruzici, a past champion at Roland Garros. Allen followed that up with a win over another Roland Garros titlist, sixth-seeded Mima Jausovec. Taking on big-serving lefty Barbara Potter (who’d beaten Turnbull) in the semis, Allen continued to play excellent tennis, rallying from a deep deficit to emerge victorious, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4.

And so on February 8, 1981 came the final, Mandlikova versus Allen. Mandlikova at this point was in the middle of a hot streak, from late 1980 to the summer of ’81 reaching four straight Grand Slam singles finals, a run highlighted by wins at the Australian Open and Roland Garros.

But that didn’t intimidate Allen, who’d beaten Mandlikova in 1980 at an event in Tokyo played just after the US Open.

“She's quick getting to net,” said Mandlikova, “and once she's there, she's tough to pass because her height gives her such range.” As Allen said in a Sports Illustrated article published shortly after Detroit, “It's said that your style of tennis is a reflection of your personality,” says Allen. “At this point I would describe myself as calm and confident.”

Those twin factors—great skills at the net and poise under pressure—worked to perfection on the carpet of Detroit. In front of 6,323 people, Allen took 75 minutes to beat Mandlikova, 6-4, 6-4.

Allen had become the first Black woman to win a tour-level singles tournament since Gibson had ruled the world in 1958. Two years after that great week in Detroit, Allen reached a career high ranking of No. 21. Other highlights of Allen’s excellent career included a round-of-16 effort at the 1982 Australian Open, three straight round of 16 runs at Roland Garros from 1979-‘81, as well as a runner-up effort in the 1983 Roland Garros mixed doubles event.

Since her retirement in 1987, Allen has remained engaged in tennis, donating her time and expertise to a wide range of organizations and social causes. But for all Allen has done in her life, she’ll always have a place in her heart for what happened in Detroit 41 years ago.

“When I won Detroit,” said Allen, “it was akin to going viral today. Every news outlet reported about it. In 1981, the tour had to find ways to penetrate the male-dominated sports media; my victory was just what the WTA needed to increase visibility. It was a story that transcended sport.”