Where is she now? Belinda Cordwell, New Zealand’s greatest singles tennis player ever

This story was originally published on Locker Room at Newsroom.co.nz, and is republished with permission.

Belinda Cordwell remains New Zealand’s top-ranked singles tennis player, rising to No. 17 in the world. But today you will see her chasing sheep instead of a fluffy green ball.

You may recall that Belinda Cordwell had two wins as the only female Grand Slam tennis champion in New Zealand.

But you may not know that she is also the highest ranked player New Zealand has produced, male or female. In the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a full-fledged touring professional, winning a singles title and two double crowns.

You certainly wouldn’t think so now if you met her on the rural estate outside Greytown in the Wairarapa, among the cows, pigs and dogs.

No great emphasis is placed on her past sporting life and you feel that Cordwell likes it so much.

As she puts it, “It doesn’t affect my life at all. It’s something I did, but there’s very little now to show that I did that then.”

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And if that sounds like it comes with a hint of regret, forget it.

Injuries to her back, and then an Achilles play, made her decide it was time to run away. She was 26 when she should have been in her best. She had many more years to her and had goals, like cracking the world’s top 10. But that’s life.

“There is absolutely no regret,” she says. “I’ve taken the attitude that I got a hand of cards and played them the best I could. I’ve given everything and that’s really all you can do.”

Cordwell, 54, and husband, Collier Isaacs, have three children, Rosie, Henry and Will. All three played tennis and for a time Cordwell traveled across the country to age group tournaments. A little memory about that too.

Growing up in Karori, Wellington, it just so happened that there was a tennis court at the back that the local children used for all kinds of sporting activities.

Her father picked up a pair of rackets and sawed the handle off a racket for his very small daughter.

At Erskine College she played netball and basketball (“I loved it” with an emphasis on the middle word), as well as tennis. But it inevitably got to the point, as so many students would recognize, where she had to choose: tennis or basketball.

She made her choice based on a preference for the individual sport rather than the team sport.

Her career opened when she won the national U17 title. Part of the prize was a flight to Whangarei for the New Zealand seniors.

“I came up with the idea to give it a try and see how I fared against adults, and I won it. It was a bit of a surprise and maybe at the time I thought I had a potential future in the game,” she says.

Cordwell’s parents insisted that she could not pursue her ambition until she graduated from college. She duly completed that and an invitation to Junior Wimbledon came in, so she immediately left school after a semester of what would have been her senior year.

In its sophomore year, Tennis New Zealand sent a group of players to live, train and play in the United States. Cordwell still vividly remembers the experience. Tough and determined teenage Americans everywhere, all armed with double fists, which were new to the young New Zealanders.

“It was really freaky. I only remember player after player, and how big the gap was between what they did and what we did,” she says.

Money was tight, and Cordwell remembers driving for 20 hours straight to get to the next tournament. Some call that character building; others only like a pain in the backswing.

“We did it pretty hard, but it was the way it should be if you wanted to give it a boost.”

After turning pro in 1985, Cordwell had good days and bad days for years, but her confidence was high around 1989, the year she jumped to number 17 on the charts.

People like Navratilova, Evert, Shriver and Sabatini were on the other side of the field, along with a pile of young wannabes.

Cordwell says she was in the dining room of Boca Raton, Florida when 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati, preparing for her first round at her first tournament, entered.

“Everyone was clapping, and I remember thinking, ‘Here’s this 14-year-old who hasn’t even hit a ball as a pro’. Just the immense pressure on her from day one,” she says.

“She had a really tough time, emotionally and mentally. A lot of players were ruined by the system. It was a pretty tough world to be in anyway, and if you were just 14, even harder.”

(Capriati fell off the track for a while before bouncing back to become world No. 1 and win three grand slam titles.)

It was Melbourne and the 1989 Australian Open, where Cordwell had her big shot. She made her way past five opponents and was among the last four.

“It all came together, not that I had played great tennis, but I think I was pretty well grounded and could stay in the moment, focus on one game at a time,” she says.

Czech player Helena Sukova Id always struggled to play her, was one step too far in the semi-final and won 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

One thing troubled Cordwell. Sukova, who won nine Grand Slam doubles titles, had eliminated Martina Navratilova in the quarterfinals.

Id played [Navratilova] in 1985 she had a really good game, had a few set points, and she was number 1 and I wanted another chance against her, ”said Cordwell.

Shed also made a few scornful comments in the media, to the point that Shed only had to play Cordwell in the semifinals.

Cordwell has one clear memory of that semifinal day. It was Australia Day and when the tiebreak got serious, the nearby cannon struck a 21-gun salute. “I remember counting the greeting and I looked around and Id lost about four points. I just lost concentration,” she says.

Later that year, Cordwell won her lone WTA singles crown in Singapore, but the injuries started to eat her away and that was that. She had raised $ 376,284 in prize money.

“Physically I was a bit of a mess. I would have liked to play for a few more years, but Id started to get badly injured and seemed to wash away all the gains Id made in rankings and credibility,” she says.

“My back gave me a lot of grief, then I had Achilles tendon and foot problems. When I stopped playing, it took 12 to 18 months to get it right.”

Cordwell has been playing full time since she was 16 and admits it was difficult to do anything else at first. “I didn’t choose to retire and it was hard to move on and think about life after tennis.”

She has provided tennis commentary and a few spells on the Tennis NZ board, and a little bit of coaching.

But she can think about the greats of the game she mixed and played with.

She remembers watching a “phenomenal” teenage Boris Becker making his way through the first rounds of the Wimbledon outdoor courts in 1985, on his way to becoming the first unseeded man to win the title, at just 17.

The same adjective applies to Serena Williams “with the best I’ve seen” and in terms of their influence on the game, no one gets past Billie Jean King and Navratilova.

“They were true pioneers and I really admire what they have done for the game,” said Cordwell.

Today, Cordwell is more involved in activities at Kuranui College in Greytown, where she chairs the school’s board of trustees, rather than dealing with tennis matters.

As she once put it after her retirement, “There is so much more to life. The most important thing is the lesson that you eventually pass on to your children.

“That’s cool to take with you, learning all those values ​​that sport can give you.”

This story was originally published on Locker Room at Newsroom.co.nz, and is republished with permission.