Leslie Allen joined the University of Southern California’s (USC) tennis team as a walk-on in her junior year and played No. 6 on its 1976 championship team. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech communications and an eye toward testing her athletic talent on the World Tennis Association (WTA) pro tour. Tennis great Billie Jean King helped her understand that playing was just one facet of being a pro. “She told me that I also had to interact with the fans, the media and the sponsors,” Allen said, “and I did that throughout my career.”

In 1977, Allen won the ATA National Women’s Singles Championship. Allen once told tennis great Althea Gibson that her goal was to play in the main draw of a WTA tour event. Gibson responded, “You need to be thinking about winning a WTA tournament.” Allen gained confidence from Gibson’s words, saying, “Althea gave me permission to believe I could do it.” Allen became the first Black player since Althea Gibson (in 1958) to win a regular WTA Tour event in 1981. The 5’10” righthander reached a career-high world ranking of No. 17 and captured her lone WTA Tour title at the Avon Championships of Detroit in 1981.

In addition to competing on the WTA Tour for ten years, Allen also competed at all four Grand Slam Championships. She became the first Black player to reach the Mixed Doubles final at the French Open in 1983.

After her retirement in 1987, Allen became a television broadcaster, member of the WTA Tour Board of Directors, and U.S. Fed Cup (now known as the Billie Jean King Cup) chairperson. In 1994, Allen became the first African American WTA Tour Tournament Director.

She established the Leslie Allen Foundation in 2002, which includes the Win4Life program that challenges students to use the 4Ds (Desire, Dedication, Determination, Discipline) to succeed in tennis and in life. It also informs them of additional career opportunities in tennis and other pro sports. In 2010, Allen was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame. In 2011, she received the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Tennis Educational Merit Award for her contributions to the sport. She was a 2016 inductee at the Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame.