Ex-Wimbledon player Beverley Billington (nee Vercoe) and husband Murray, president of Tennis New Zealand Seniors, will play together in mixed doubles tennis at the World Masters Games in Auckland.
The Warkworth couple will compete in the 70-plus category, and they have previously won two golds in mixed doubles at senior nationals in 2004 and earlier this year.
Beverley was born in Maungaturoto, but grew up in Auckland. She started playing tennis at the Mount Eden Tennis Club when she was eight.
“At 15, I won my first big junior competition in Brisbane, which is what really sparked my tennis career,” she says.
From there she won an U17 national singles title and a doubles title, making her the number one female player for her age group in New Zealand. She then took two U19 national singles titles in consecutive years and a doubles title to continue her run of dominance in junior tennis.
At 19, she moved into open tennis and played in the Benson & Hedges tournament at Stanley Street, now known as the ASB Classic. She won the title that year and again two years later when she also took out the doubles and mixed doubles titles.
Some of her more memorable moments in the competition include beating seven time grand slam champion Maria Bueno and playing against female greats Evonne Goolagong and Margaret Court in doubles.
Beverley was also training to be a teacher at the time, as tennis was only on the verge of turning professional in the early 1970s.
“I always said I would choose teaching over tennis because you can’t make a living playing tennis,” she sa
When she was 20, tennis superstar Billie Jean King, who was promoting women’s tennis at the time, offered Beverley $400 to assist her career. However, she decided to turn the offer down for fear of how long it would take to pay the money back.
In 1972, she travelled alone to South Africa, to play in Johannesburg and Durban, after her planned Federation Cup team trip was cancelled due to the political situation around apartheid.
“I was amazed at how everyone had guns under their pillows at night,” she recalls.
A highlight of her career was a first round appearance at Wimbledon in 1969 when she played in the doubles with Welsh player Elizabeth James.
She was forced to stop playing tennis after the 1974 season when allergies made breathing difficult on court. She didn’t start playing seriously again until she was 50.
Meanwhile, Murray started playing tennis at the Ellerslie Tennis Club when he was 14 and played for Penrose High School.
He became a teacher and got his first job up north at Okaihau School, winning the Bay of Islands Tennis Championship while he was there.
He then made the Northland tennis team, but after moving to Tongariro District School and then Tolaga Bay, where there were no dedicated courts, he had few opportunities to play the game.
His main success has come at senior level, winning 12 national age group titles and becoming president of Tennis New Zealand Seniors.
Prior to his four years in that role, he was president of both Lower North and Rodney Tennis.
He also won the Warkworth Tennis and Squash Club Singles Championship in 1981 and 1982, and was part of the team that won the Bedggood Cup in 1981.
Murray and Beverley married in 2000 and started playing tennis together in 2001, and they have played in a number of senior events together since then.
Auckland will mark their first World Masters Games, where they are looking forward to playing against international players, as they have competed against most New Zealanders in their age category already.
