Tennis legend, ESPN broadcaster gets back the trophies she lost in California fires

Pam Shriver was forced to evacuate her house in Southern California when wildfires threatened to burn her neighborhood to the ground. The legendary tennis champion turned commentator was among approximately 200,000 Los Angeles-area residents reportedly under evacuation orders as the Palisades and Eaton fires ripped through the region.

The fires reached 100 percent containment Friday after a three-week battle that claimed the lives of at least 29 people and destroyed nearly 16,000 structures. Against this backdrop, what's a couple tennis trophies?

To Shriver — a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, 22-time major doubles champion, and ESPN commentator — the trophies meant enough for her to stash in her car when she was forced to evacuate.

While Shriver was staying at a local hotel, a car that contained some of her personal belongings were stolen.

Shriver told USA Today that 11 of her major trophies — five U.S. Open trophies, five French open plates, one Australian Open trophy — were left in the back of the vehicle after her family fled to a hotel in Marina Del Rey.

“The trophies were buried in the back of the car," Shriver told the Associated Press. "You couldn’t look in the window and see them. I don’t think they were of any good to the people who took the car so they ended up returning them.”

The car still has not been recovered, Shriver told the AP, but the trophies were dropped off in boxes placed outside the hotel about 10 days later. She finally got them back this week.

Highlights of Shriver's playing career include 21 Grand Slam doubles championships, a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and 111 doubles titles.

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