Wimbledon ladies infographic
Graphic shows special 100th Ladies' Championship logo, lists ladies' record holders and shows how dress code has changed over the years.
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TENNIS

Wimbledon: a history of the Ladies’ Championships

June 11, 1993 - This year sees the 100th Ladies’ Championships at Wimbledon. The first champion was a Miss Maud Watson, aged 19, who defeated her elder sister Lilian to take the title in 1884. As early as 1879, 2 years after the instigation of the Men’s Championship, an enlightened club member had offered a silver trophy for a Ladies’ event but Victorian sensibilities considered the idea of ladies competing in public unseemly and they were forced to wait a little longer.

American May Sutton captured the title in 1905, becoming the first non-Briton to win but otherwise the early years were predominantly home-grown contests, with four British women taking 23 titles between them before World War I stopped play. Of these, Lottie Dod still holds the record as the youngest-ever champion, winning the first of her five Championships in 1887 when only 15 years old. Lottie retired at the age of 22 to pursue other sporting successes in golf, hockey and archery, for which she won an Olympic silver medal in 1908.

The last pre-war champion was Mrs Dorothy Lambert Chambers, who won the title seven times – still the third highest total in the list of ladies’ champions. Her domination was finally ended when the Championships resumed in 1919 and she lost to the brilliant Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. Despite the four year gap since Mrs Lambert Chambers’ last win, the fact that at 40 she was twice the age of her opponent and hampered by traditional clothing while Suzanne created a stir in her loose, free-flowing dress, the match was remarkably close-fought, the final result 10-8 4-6 9-7.

The match aroused massive public interest, not least due to Mlle. Lenglen’s attire and when the following year she became the first player, male or female, to win singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles in the same Championships, the Wimbledon Committee agreed to move the tournament to the present, larger site to accomodate the ever growing number of eager spectators. Suzanne Lenglen was unbeatable for 6 years but following a misunderstanding over the timing of a second-round match in 1926, she left the Championships before their conclusion and was never to play there again.

Her place was swiftly assumed by Helen Wills-Moody, who held the record for the most singles wins – 8 – for over 50 years until Martina Navratilova won a 9th title in 1990. An astonishingly successful player, Helen Wills-Moody rarely dropped a set – and none at all between 1927 and 1933.

Alice Marble might have won more than her only title in 1939 had not war once again intervened, but she is remembered as the pioneer of the women’s serve and volley game – previously thought to be the preserve of the men as it required so much more physical strength. Once the war ended, a stream of American serve and volleyers made Wimbledon their own until baseliner Maureen Connolly – ‘Little Mo’ – swept all before her for three years from 1952-4. In 1953, she became the first woman, and only the second player, to win the Grand Slam – all four major tournaments in the same year. Had her career not been cut tragically short by a riding accident at the age of 20 shortly after her third success at Wimbledon, she too would probably have won the title many more times.

Next in the Wimbledon hall of fame is Billie-Jean King who, with 20 Championships to her credit – 6 singles, 10 doubles and 4 mixed doubles – holds the record for the greatest number of titles overall. She won the Ladies’ doubles at her first attempt, in 1961. Her great rival, Margaret Court, could not equal Billie Jean’s success at Wimbledon, winning the singles only three times but it was enough to help her to the second Grand Slam.

Mrs King’s Wimbledon domination was occasionally punctuated and in 1969 Ann Jones achieved a now rare British win, a feat repeated only once since when Virginia Wade won in 1977 and Britain erupted in patriotic pride in the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

To reach the final Virginia had had to beat Chris Evert, then one of Wimbledon’s most popular champions and who, with Martina Navratilova, dominated women’s tennis through the seventies and most of the eighties. Evert, the baseliner and Navratilova, the serve and volleyer, effectively prevented almost everyone else holding the famous gilt silver salver aloft until Steffi Graf’s extraordinary run in 1988 gave her not only the Grand Slam but also an Olympic gold medal. Steffi looked to be supreme but her loss of form in 1990 allowed Martina back to win her record 9th singles title. Steffi regained her title in 1991 and defeated her main rival Monica Seles to retain it in 1992. Following Seles’ enforced withdrawal, she is now favourite to take her fifth title.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 11/6/1993; STORY: Julie Mullins
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