Renee Richards

Renée Richards (born Richard Raskind August 19,1934, in New York City) is a physician and professional tennis player.

In 1975 she underwent sex reassignment surgery.

In 1976 the United States Tennis Association denied her entrance into the U.S. Open. She disputed the ban, and the New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1977.

Early life
Richards moved to Forest Hills at age 6 and was ranked among the top-10 Eastern and national juniors in the late 1940s and early ‘50s. He was captain of his high school tennis team at the Horace Mann School in New York City, and at 15 he won the Eastern Private Schools Interscholastic singles title.

Richards went to Yale and played on the men's tennis team there as Richard Raskind, playing first singles and captaining the team in 1954.

After Yale, Richards went to medical school at the University of Rochester, then served in the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander. He pursued a career as an eye surgeon, specializing in strabismus (crossed-eyes in children).

He reached the final of the men's national 35-and-over championships in 1972. 

Becoming legally female
In the mid-1960s he traveled in Europe dressed as a woman, intending to see Dr. Georges Burou, a famous gynecological surgeon at Clinique Parc in Casablanca. However, Richards changed his mind and returned to New York, where he married and fathered one son. As stated earlier, however, a second attempt in 1975 (after being referred to surgeon Roberto C. Granato, Sr. by Harry Benjamin ) was successful and Richards went on to become legally female.

Tennis career as Renée Richards
As Renée Richards, she subsequently played from 1977 to 1981. She was ranked as high as 20th overall (in February 1979), and her highest ranking at the end of a year was 22nd (in 1977).

In her first professional event as a female, she was a finalist in women's doubles (with Betty Ann Stewart, in 1977), and continued to have a successful career afterwards.

Her greatest successes on court were reaching the doubles final at the U.S. Open in 1977 with Betty Ann Stuart--the pair lost a close match to Navratilova and Betty Stove, and winning the 35-and-over women's singles.

Richards was twice a semi-finalist in mixed doubles (with Ilie Nastase) at the U.S. Open.

In 1979 she defeated Nancy Richey for the Open’s 35s singles title. Richards posted wins over Hana Mandlikova, Sylvia Hanika, Virginia Ruzici, and Pam Shriver. “I think Pam was about 10,” she said.

She later coached Martina Navratilova to two Wimbledon wins.

She was inducted into the USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000.

Author
In 1986 she published her autobiography Second Serve, which was made into a TV-movie starring Vanessa Redgrave as Raskind/Richards.

In 2007 Richards published her second autobiography, No Way Renee: The Second Half of My Notorious Life.

Family
Richards is the daughter of Dr. David Raskind (an orthopedic surgeon), and her mother was one of the first female psychiatrists in the United States. Her sister, Josephine, is also an orthopedic surgeon. Richard's son Nicholas Raskin is a filmmaker and stockbroker. Nicholas has produced some interesting videos about Renee Richards for Youtube.