Tracy Austin was born on 12 December 1962 on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in California into a tennis family: her siblings Pam, Jeff, Doug and John all played professionally. She was coached by Pancho Segura, Robert Lansdorp and Vic Braden, and she was a sensation from the start. She won her first professional title in January 1977 in Portland, played Wimbledon that summer at 14 and reached the third round, and turned professional in October 1978, aged 15.
In 1979 she beat Chris Evert in the semifinals of the Italian Open, ending Evert's 125-match winning streak on clay. At the US Open that year she beat Evert again, 6–4, 6–3 in the final, and at 16 years and nine months she became the youngest US Open women's champion, a record that still stands. She was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
In 1980 she reached world No. 1, holding the ranking for 21 weeks in two spells between April and November, and won the season-ending WTA championships. With her brother John she won the 1980 Wimbledon mixed doubles, the first brother and sister to win a Grand Slam title together. In 1981 she won the US Open for a second time, beating Martina Navratilova 1–6, 7–6, 7–6 in the final, and was again named AP Female Athlete of the Year.
Then her body gave way. From 1982 back injuries and sciatica kept her off the court for long periods. She tried to come back in 1988–89, but in August 1989 her car was hit by a van in New Jersey and she was badly injured, including a shattered knee. A second comeback in 1993–94 was brief, and she retired in 1994; Wikipedia gives both June and July for the date. She won 30 singles titles, two of them majors, with a 335–90 record.
In 1992, aged 29, she became the youngest person inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Her broadcasting career began with CBS in 1991; she has since worked for NBC, USA Network, the Seven Network and the BBC, and has been with Tennis Channel since 2010.