Gigi Fernandez comes from a family of highly educated people.
Her grandmother, Dolores Pla, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was Puerto Rico’s first female dentist. His father, Tuto, was a renowned doctor and his two uncles earned their living as a neurosurgeon and urologist. Oh, and three of her siblings have master’s degrees.
Fernandez attended Clemson University for a year – earning All-American honors in tennis – before opting to play professional tennis.
“So the joke in my family when I was traveling around the world,” Fernandez said, “was that I was just another college dropout.”
Was she perhaps the underachiever in the family?
“Maybe,” Fernandez said with a laugh.
No chance.
Ultimately, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of South Florida and a Master of Business Administration from the Crummer School of Business at Rollins College. Fernandez looks ready to crush her budding career after playing tennis. She is a mother of twins, a registered stockbroker, and a financial advisor, among other things.
“You can’t teach tennis forever,” Fernandez said from his home in Tampa. “I’m definitely an entrepreneur.”
She is all about “experiential travel,” providing tennis fans with a variety of unique opportunities.
“People want experiences,” Fernandez said. “When you become older and accomplished, what do you want to do in life? Things you can’t normally do, that’s what I do.
“Come learn how to play doubles with a 17-time Grand Slam champion, attend the French Open, Wimbledon or Indian Wells, or come play tennis with Andy Roddick.”
The foundation of her life today – Beatriz “Gigi” Fernandez turns 60 next February – is a hugely successful tennis career. Frankly, his CV on the field is difficult to digest.
As she casually mentioned, Fernandez was a 17-time Grand Slam doubles champion from 1991 to 1997. She won 14 with Natasha Zvereva, making them the second most successful pair in the open era, after Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. She was, of course, the No. 1 doubles player – eight different times for a total of 80 weeks.
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Fernandez also won two Olympic gold medals for the United States while playing with Mary Joe Fernandez (no relation). She was also Puerto Rico’s first professional athlete, playing from 1983 to 1997. In singles, Fernandez rose to No. 17 and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1994. She was a member of the U.S. team winner of the Fed Cup in 1990 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010. She also coached Rennae Stubbs, Lisa Raymond and Sam Stosur.
But ask Fernandez which of those accomplishments she’s most proud of, and her answer isn’t a specific trophy or tournament.
“I am very proud of the legacy I left in Puerto Rico,” she said, emotion filling her voice. “We come from a very small island 100 by 35 miles in the middle of the Caribbean. There are two Tennis Hall of Famers who are Puerto Rican – Charlie Pasarell is the other. So when you look at China, with its billion people, it only has one: Li Na. Many tennis nations only have one person in the Hall of Fame, and Puerto Rico has two.
“I gave girls in Puerto Rico the opportunity to understand that they could become professional athletes. Because when I was little, girls weren’t professionals. They were raised to marry and have children. Look at Monica Puig, who won the Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. So yes, I’m proud of it.
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When pressed, she will say that it is these two gold medals – won in Barcelona and Atlanta – that mean the most to her. When she lived in Colorado and California, her license plate was DBL GLD.
“I used to joke that I was coming back from a summer where I would win the French Championships, Wimbledon, the US Open, Los Angeles, – and no one cared,” he said. she declared. “I came home with a gold medal and everyone was stopping me on the street when I lived in Aspen at the time. It was pretty special.
The first Grand Slam doubles title, with Robin White at the 1988 US Open, was another thrill.
“I mean, you’re going to try to win a Grand Slam,” she said, “but when you do, it’s like, ‘Holy shit!'”
Fernandez didn’t spend much time thinking about what her life after tennis would look like – until she retired. When this happened in 1997, she wanted nothing to do with tennis. She began a long journey, trying to understand the future. She became a real estate agent in California, buying and selling houses. There was a weight loss company in Puerto Rico and a universal shopping company, long before Amazon or Google.
After several more failed attempts, Fernandez gave in to the family favorite, education. She earned her master’s degree and moved to Stamford, Connecticut, with her wife, former LPGA and WWE executive Jane Geddes.
“I learned the basics of finance,” Fernandez said. “I don’t know any tennis player who has ever lived on a limited budget. Once you’ve done it, the word budget is no good. What budget? This doesn’t work in business – or in life.
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Fernandez has found his place – in tennis, among other things. Mollie Marcoux, currently commissioner of the LPGA, was then an executive at Chelsea Piers Connecticut, a 400,000 square foot sports facility. Marcoux hired Fernandez, retired for 15 years, as director of tennis.
“Finally, I just accepted the fact that I was going to be Gigi Fernandez the tennis player,” she said. There is a very high percentage in the United States, where adults play doubles and not singles. In the 90 percent range. No one was taking care of them and teaching them how to play good doubles or taking them to the experiments that I do… that’s how it evolved.
She was a teacher at heart and seeing her students improve gave her a feeling of joy. Wanting to expand her reach, Fernandez moved to Tampa, where she has family. She hosted learning camps at the Innisbrook Resort and gradually grew her Gigi Fernandez tennis business by visiting the French Open, Wimbledon, the US Open, Indian Wells and the Laver Cup.
Today, she typically hosts 10 to 15 learning camps each year at Innisbrook, Indian Wells and the U.S. Open. Some camps offer visits from legends like Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Andy Roddick. Fans have the opportunity to meet these Hall of Famers, take photos and perhaps have lunch or dinner with their heroes. Fernandez even took a handful of rabid fans on a cruise to St. Lucia for Bravo’s “Below Deck.”
“I try to find unique and fun things to do with people who love tennis,” she said. “The holy grail is getting them to Wimbledon. The most fun I have every year is walking through the gates of Wimbledon with people who have never been there. They’re so excited – I’m so excited.
In the future, a lot is happening.
Fernandez has made it his goal to teach tennis camps in all 50 states. There are still a few missing – Alaska, North and South Dakota, Idaho, Montana and Nebraska, among others – but after a meeting in Missouri, she is at 37 out of 50.
She is looking forward to an early December safari in the Serengeti with the McEnroe brothers, John and Patrick.
“I just got invited,” Fernandez said, with her characteristic enthusiasm. “I heard they were building a court. So I’m going to do that and bring a few people. How cool is that?”
