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"The Goddess of Tennis" is
the heading of a chapter on Suzanne Lenglen in the sport's
leading reference work, The Ultimate Book of Tennis.
Although some way short of being beautiful, Lenglen
fulfilled every other requirement of a sporting goddess
- ethereal, all-conquering and a leader in setting trends
and fashions. However, she was not just tennis' first
prima ballerina, she was it first prima donna too.
Lenglen won six Wimbledons and was never beaten in competition
at the All England Club. She also won six championships
of her native France and was such a magical attraction
in her revealing dresses and flowing tulle headbands
that she revitalised and reformed the game in the seven
years of her dominance until turning professional, disappearing
from the then strictly amateur scene before dying of
leukaemia, aged only 39, in 1938.
Suzanne was relentlessly coached by her father Charles,
a Paris bus company owner and thanks to hours of such
rigorous practice as learning to hit a handkerchief
laid on court time after time, had already become a
champion when hardly into her teens.
Lenglen was only 20 when she made her initial visit
to Wimbledon for the 1919 Championships, the first to
be held after the Great War. Despite making her acquaintance
with grass court tennis, she swept to the final, or
the Challenge Round as it was then known, without dropping
a set. Her opponent, Dorothea Lambert Chambers, the
defending champion and a seven-time Wimbledon winner,
was, at 40, exactly twice her age.
It was a stark contrast, not only in terms of years
but also in playing style and clothing. While Mrs Chambers
went on court in the sort of constricting dress regarded
as the norm in those days, Suzanne wore lightweight,
diaphanous clothing which allowed her the sort of athletic
movement she had learned early at ballet classes.
Aided by another first in women's tennis, sips from
a brandy flask provided by her father between sets,
Lenglen outlasted Chambers 10-8 4-6 9-7. The measure
of Lengeln's subsequent advance to the stage of invincibility
was shown at Wimbledon a year later, when against the
same opponent she won 6-3 6-0.
In 1925, she won Wimbledon for the loss of a mere five
games, this coming after she had been forced to miss
the 1924 Championships because of illness, early signs
of the stress which was undermining her health. Someone
who could not bear to be beaten, she had consequently
lost the ability to enjoy winning. It had instead become
a draining necessity.
Lenglen's only tournamernt defeat occurred in her one
bid for the US title in 1921. She travelled to New York,
intending not to play tennis but to raise funds for
the regions of France devastated by the war.
After a crossing in which she suffered severely from
sea sickness and chronic asthma, Lenglen arrived in
New York to find she had not only been entered for the
tournament without her knowledge but was drawn against
the champion, the Norwegian-American Mona Mallory in
the second round because of an absence of seeding.
Having lost the first set 6-2 Lenglen collapsed with
a coughing fit and defaulted, jeered off court. She
was later diagnosed as having whooping cough.
Lenglen's last Wimbledon in 1926 ended in similar turmoil,
but just prior to that she played perhaps her most famous
match, in the Cannes tournament against Helen Wills,
who would become her rival for the crown of greatest
player between the wars. Lenglen won that one 6-3 8-6.
It was the only time they met.
At Wimbledon Lenglen progressed serenely into the third
round, when Queen Mary turned up to watch. Due to a
mix-up, Lenglen was not informed of her starting time
and kept the Queen waiting for an hour.
The All England Club wanted to default her, but other
players managed to persuade them to allow her to remain
in the draw. However, when she was booed for a perceived
insult to the monarchy, Lenglen decided to withdraw.
It was her farewell, and a wretched one, from a tournament
she had dominated so effortlessly.
SUZANNE LENGLEN
Singles Champion: 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925
Doubles Champion: 1919, 1920. 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925
Mixed Doubles Champion: 1920, 1922, 1925
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