Tennis great Christine "Chrissie" Evert was tough. But it took more than toughness to be the best.

She made winning look easy after she burst onto the tennis scene in 1970 at the age of 15. That's when she defeated the No. 1 player in the world, Margaret Court, at a tournament in North Carolina. Court had recently completed her singles Grand Slam.

Evert impressed peers and fans with her calm, steely demeanor on court and her metronomelike ground strokes.

She credits her mind-set for her winning ways.

"I don't have the raw talent to fall back on. I've needed the mental toughness. It makes my game," Evert told the Washington Post in 1979.

Her ability to improvise also aided her efforts. As a youngster, she was too small and weak to hit backhand shots with one hand, so she developed a two-handed style. It became a trademark of her game and inspired future generations of players.

Evert, who retired in 1989, never conceded a point. She often fought back to win come-from-behind thrillers.

She'd focus on winning one point at a time and not think about the match as a whole. She was good at blocking out distractions.

That discipline and consistency helped her become one of the greatest tennis players of the 20th century.

Evert holds 157 singles titles. She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, including three at Wimbledon, seven French Opens, two Australian Opens and six U.S. Opens. She was the No. 1 ranked player for seven years.

Playing For Points

All told, she won 1,309 matches in her career. She chalked up a .900 winning average across her 20-year career.

"One thing that makes Chris such a great champion is that she doesn't play games or sets. She plays points," fellow tennis great Billie Jean King said.

Take the way Evert handled falling behind during a match. She started fresh by convincing herself to play like it was the start of a new match.

She hit the first rough patch of her career when teenager Tracy Austin ended Evert's six-year, 125-match, clay-court winning streak in 1979.

"Actually, it was a relief to have the streak end," Evert said after the match. "I was upset, naturally, but it was like a burden lifted from my shoulders. It took a lot of pressure off me."

Her optimistic outlook helped Evert bounce back to win 72 straight matches on clay before losing in 1981 in the semifinals of the French Open to Hana Mandlikova.

Yet Austin made Evert rethink her game. In 1980, after a series of dispiriting losses to Austin, Evert left the tour. Austin had beaten Evert in five straight matches, including three in 10 days.

Evert took time to relax and analyze her actions on the court, looking for ways to improve. Three months later, she returned with a new focus and energy. She won the French Open, reached the Wimbledon final and won the U.S. Open.

Austin provided Evert with her first major professional challenge. The Californian was a mirror image of the Floridian. They both had "extraordinary mental toughness, immense discipline and unrelenting consistency," author Steve Flink told fan Web site ChrisEvert.net.

Evert was more excited about beating Austin in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in 1980 than winning the final that year, Flink said.

Tennis Hall of Famer Virginia Wade once said, "The worst thing you can do to yourself is to beat Chris, because the next time she plays you she goes out of her way to make it her business to really show you who's boss."

Taking time off was "one of the best decisions she ever made," Flink said. "She recovered her enthusiasm for the game and gave herself time to deal with the special challenge of Austin."

Austin matched Evert in her backcourt game and in her consistency, depth, discipline and concentration, Flink said. What Evert needed to get back was her hunger to win, and she did, he said.

But Evert faced her greatest rival in Martina Navratilova. The two battled for the No. 1 ranking for more than 10 years.

Concentrating And Training

To compete with Navratilova, Evert had to adjust her game. For one, she traded her wood racket for a graphite one. Evert also embarked on a physical training program and diet regimen to keep up with the more athletic Navratilova.

Evert improved her game in the 1980s. She pumped up her second serve, added a topspin lob off the forehand, picked up the pace of her ground game, approached the net more and developed a sounder volley and stronger overhead, Flink said. At the same time, she kept her backcourt game remarkably consistent.

"Losing hurts me," Evert said. "I was always determined to be the best."

Evert earned "Ice Maiden" nickname for being so cool under fire. She didn't argue line calls and remained composed when she fell behind in the scoring. Her calm, emotionless style on the court was based on concentration and training.

She learned from her father, tennis coach Jimmy Evert, not to let opponents know what she was thinking or feeling. Emotions can be used as ammunition for the opponent, he said.

"It's a psychological advantage to always seem unfazed and to remain cool and in control," he told her.

Evert was gracious in victory and defeat. She didn't bad-mouth her opponents or the officials.

"I always give the other person credit rather than dwelling on how I wasn't 100% or how I didn't do this or didn't do that," she told the New York Times in 1981. "If you do that, it takes away from the other person's happiness."

In 1995, she was elected unanimously into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.

"Being No. 1 and being a winner were always very important to me," Evert said in an interview with ChrisEvert.net. "I'm not the most versatile natural athlete in the world, so I had to make up for it mentally and put all my eggs in one basket as far as concentrating and really being determined."

Evert said she always strived to reach her potential. "I always knew that I had weaknesses and areas to work on in my game, whether it be my serve and volley or my movement around the court. I always felt that I could be better."

BY PATRICK SEITZ