Candy Reynolds grew up in Knoxville, TN. At age 10, she was introduced to tennis and started competing. She had a successful junior career, winning State and Southern tournaments, as well as, the National Amateur Grass Court Championship in 1973. Reynolds played for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for two years before graduating from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Reynolds’ tennis resume is impressive. In 1975, she competed in her first U.S. Open as an amateur. She won two national amateur titles and was ranked #1 in the South in singles and doubles during her amateur days.
Reynolds’ first professional win was in the 1980 U.S. Indoor Doubles Championships. She won 28 professional doubles titles, four with Martina Navratilova. She also won the 1983 French Open doubles title with Rosalyn Fairbank. Reynolds reached at least the semi-finals of all four Grand Slam Tournaments in doubles, earning her membership in the prestigious Last 8 Club for each Grand Slam event. She has been ranked as high as #2 in the world in doubles and #22 in the world in singles, reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open with a win over Evonne Goolagong. In 1983, she represented the United States in the Wightman Cup and the Federation Cup competitions.
Reynolds served as a player representative on the Women’s International Professional Tennis Council from 1985 – 1991 and on the Women’s Tennis Association Board of Directors for six years. In 1988, she was awarded the Player Service Award by the Women’s Tennis Association. In 1989, she was 1 of 5 players on the tour, who worked with financial and business advisors to create the first pension plan for the players.
Reynolds has been inducted into the MOC Sports Hall of Fame at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame, the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Tennis Hall of Fame, and now the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
After retiring from the tour, Reynolds earned her M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Since graduating, she has spent the last 25 years in retail. She currently resides in Atlanta where she is a District Manager for Kohl’s Department Stores, but she still calls Knoxville home.