[7] In January 1977, a month after turning fourteen, Austin won her first professional singles title, defeating Stacy Margolin at the Avon Futures event in Portland.

[12] That same month, she won her first professional singles title, defeating Betty Stöve in the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Filderstadt, West Germany.

[15] She defeated 35-year-old Billie Jean King in the quarterfinals of the 1979 Wimbledon Championships, then lost to eventual champion Navratilova in straight sets in the semifinals.

In September, Austin became the youngest-ever US Open champion, aged 16 years and 9 months, by defeating second-seeded Navratilova in the semifinals and top seed Chris Evert in the final.

[11] Earlier that year, Austin ended Evert's 125-match winning streak on clay by beating her in three sets in a semifinal of the Italian Open.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley, seeded fourth and the eventual champion, defeated Austin at the Wimbledon Championships.

As the top seed and defending champion at the US Open, Austin was expected to extend her five-match winning streak against third-ranked Evert.

At the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, Austin was seeded second but lost to sixth-seeded Shriver in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

[20] Austin was the first opponent of Steffi Graf when the German made her professional debut at the 1982 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

Back injuries and recurring sciatica then began to impair Austin's effectiveness and sidelined her for long stretches.

In 1993, Austin upset Rennae Stubbs and Katerina Maleeva at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California, then lost to Stephanie Rottier.

At the WTA Manhattan Beach event, she upset Gigi Fernández and Elena Likhovtseva, then lost to Gabriela Sabatini in the round of 16.

Austin is married to mortgage broker Scott Holt and is the mother of three sons: Sean, Brandon, and Dylan.

Austin's older sister Pam and her brothers Jeff, Doug and John were professional tennis players.

Chris Evert (1975/1985 – 260 w) Evonne Goolagong (1976 – 2 w) Martina Navratilova (1978/1987 – 331 w) Tracy Austin (1980 – 22 w) Steffi Graf (1987/1997 – 377 w) // Monica Seles (1991/1996 – 178 w) Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1995 – 12 w) Martina Hingis (1997/2001 – 209 w) Lindsay Davenport (1998/2006 – 98 w) Jennifer Capriati (2001/2002 – 17 w) Venus Williams (2002 – 11 w) Serena Williams (2002/2017 – 319 w) Kim Clijsters (2003/2011 – 20 w) Justine Henin (2003/2008 – 117 w) Amélie Mauresmo (2004/2006 – 39 w) Maria Sharapova (2005/2012 – 21 w) Ana Ivanovic (2008 – 12 w) Jelena Janković (2008/2009 – 18 w) Dinara Safina (2009 – 26 w) Caroline Wozniacki (2010/2018 – 71 w) Victoria Azarenka (2012/2013 – 51 w) Angelique Kerber (2016/2017 – 34 w) Karolína Plíšková (2017 – 8 w) Garbiñe Muguruza (2017 – 4 w) Simona Halep (2017/2019 – 64 w) Naomi Osaka (2019 – 25 w) Ashleigh Barty (2019/2022 – 121 w) Iga Świątek (2022/2024 – 125 w) Aryna Sabalenka (2023/2024 – 9 w)