Mary Joe's favorite moment was the doubles match in Barcelona in which she and Gigi Fernandez won Olympic gold.  This victory meant a lot to her.   To win the gold, the pair had to defeat the Spanish doubles pair—Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martínez—in front of the king and queen of Spain.   It was a sweet victory for Mary Joe because she had been asked to play for Spain but had refused.  "I'm an American," she said.  "I could play for Spain, where my father was born, or the Dominican Republic, where I was born.   But...it would be difficult to play for another country.  I am very patriotic."  In fact, she had been asked to play in the 1988 Olympics for the Dominican Republic but had said no.  She said she would rather represent the United States someday.

(Excerpt from first paragraph, pages 23-24 of Mary Joe Fernández:  A Real-Life Reader Biography by Melanie Cole)

Reproduced by permission of Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc.

Author List | Bibliography by Sport

Other Tennis Titles of Possible Interest:

Gonzales, Doreen. Richard "Pancho" Gonzales, tennis champion. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1998.
LATINO JUVENILE Biography Gonzales