By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
With much chatter in tennis centered around Serena Williams pursuing the Grand Slam at the U.S. Open, and her “GOAT” status (Greatest Of All Time) in potentially winning her 22nd major singles title, it’s easy to forget about some of the predeceasing champions in tennis.
For example, Helen Wills Moody.
While Maureen Connolly in 1953, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988 are the only three women to win the Grand Slam, one should not forget that Helen Wills Moody won the three major championship she played in 1928 and 1929, as documented below in the August 24 entry in the book and mobile app “This Day In Tennis History” (www.TennisHistoryApp.com). Travel conditions at the time prevented Wills Moody from traveling to the Australian Championships in this pre-“Grand Slam” era (The term “Grand Slam” was still four years away from even being coined in tennis, and two years away from the concept being branded – and executed – in the golf with the Bobby Jones achievement in 1930.).
The following is the “This Day In Tennis” mobile app and book excerpt for August 24, 1929…
With a crowd of 9,000 fans watching on, Helen Wills wins her sixth U.S. women’s singles title and her 11th major singles title, defeating Britain’s Phoebe Watson 6-4, 6-2 in the final at the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills. Wills, who earlier in the year wins at Wimbledon and the French Championships, gives her the distinction of winning three major championships in one season for the second straight year after sweeping all three titles in 1928. Wills devastates the women’s field at Forest Hills, losing only eight games in six matches en route to the title. The fact that Watson wins six of those eight games in the final, provides an indication of Wills’ dominance. The previous day in the semifinals, the Berkeley, Calif., native destroys Molla Mallory in the women’s semifinals, handing the eight-time champion a 6-0, 6-0 loss in just 21 minutes (eight minutes for the first set, and 13 for the second set.)
The following is biography of Wills Moody, as excerpted from “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” which is scheduled to be re-released later this year. Pre-order here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1937559386/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_6SY2vb1DFHSJC
Helen Wills Moody
United States (1905–1998)
Hall of Fame—1959
It scarcely seems possible that two players of the transcendent ability of Helen Newington Wills Moody Roark and Suzanne Lenglen could have been contemporaries. They were ranked for close to half a century as the two best female tennis players of all time. Their records are unmatched and hardly have been approached.
While indeed contemporaries, they were rivals in only one match, played with international fanfare in 1926 and won by Lenglen, 6-3, 8-6, at Cannes, France. Lenglen, not yet 27, was at the crest of her game, with six Wimbledon championships in her possession. Wills’ game at 20 had not quite attained full maturity, though she had been in the Wimbledon final of 1924, and would win eight times. Their rivalry was limited to the single meeting, for later that same year, Wills was stricken with appendicitis and Lenglen turned pro.
It would be difficult to imagine two players of more different personalities and types of game. Between 1919 and 1938, Wills won 52 of 92 tournaments on a 398-35 match record, a .919 average, and had a 158-match winning streak (27 tournaments to the 1933 U.S. final, the only time she lost to Helen Jacobs in 11 meetings). Her 50 straight match wins at Wimbledon and 46 at the U.S. are tournament records. She didn’t play the French often enough to hold the record, undefeated but winning only 20 in a row. Quiet, reserved, and never changing expression, Wills, known as Little Miss Poker Face, played with unruffled poise and never exhibited the style, flair or emotional outbursts that Lenglen did. From her first appearance in the East in 1921, when she was national junior champion, Wills’ typical garb on the court was a white sailor suit, white eyeshade and white shoes and stockings.
The game she played right-handed was one of sheer power, which she had developed in practice against men on the West Coast. From both forehand and backhand, she hammered the ball almost the full length of the court regularly, and the speed, pace and depth of her drives, in conjunction with her tactical moves, sufficed to subdue her opponents. She could hit winners as spectacularly from the baseline on the backhand as on the forehand.
She went to the net occasionally, not nearly as often as Lenglen, and Wills was sound in her volleying and decisive overhead with her smash. Her slice service, breaking wide and pulling the receiver beyond the alley, was as good as any female player has commanded. Her footwork was not so good. She did not move with the grace and quickness of Lenglen, and opponents fared best against her by using the drop shot or changes of length to draw her forward and send her running back. Anchored to the baseline, she could run any opponent into the ground. Because of her sense of anticipation, she seemed to be in the right spot, and it was not often that she appeared to be hurried in her stroking.
She was born Oct. 6, 1905, in Centreville, Calif., and the facts of her invincibility are stark. She won the Wimbledon title a record eight times (surpassed by Martina Navratilova’s nine in 1990) in nine tries, her only loss coming in her first appearance in 1924. From 1927 to 1932, she did not lose a set in singles anywhere. She won seven U.S., five Wimbledon and four French titles without loss of a set until Dorothy Round of Britain extended her to 6-4, 6-8, 6-3 in the 1933 Wimbledon final.
In Wightman Cup play from 1923 to 1938, she won 18 singles matches and lost two, both in 1924. She won the Olympic singles and doubles in Paris in 1924, beating Didi Vlasto of France, 6-2, 6-2, and abetting a mentor, Hazel Wightman to defeat Brits McKane and Phyllis Covell, 7-5, 8-6. When she scored her first Wimbledon victory in 1927, she was the first American woman to be crowned there since May Sutton in 1905.
Two of her three most remarkable matches were her clash with Lenglen in 1926 and her default because of back pain to rival Helen Jacobs when trailing 0-3 in the third set of the 1933 U.S. final. The third remarkable match was in the 1935 Wimbledon final in which Jacobs led, 5-2, in the third set and stood at match point, only to see the-then Mrs. Moody rally and add one more victory to her astounding record.
In 1928, she became the first player to win three majors in the same year—French, Wimbledon and U.S.—and the first American to rule at Stade Roland Garros, where she was unbeaten while winning four titles (1928-29-30, 32). Her total of 19 major singles titles was the record for 32 years, until Margaret Smith Court (24) passed her in 1970. But her success was the most phenomenal ever, considering that she won 19 of 22 entered, winning 126 of 129 matches (.977), never worse than finalist. Nobody has come close to her being involved in 22 major finals in a row—losing the title matches to Jacobs, Molla Mallory in the 1922 U.S. final and Kitty Godfree in the 1924 Wimbledon final—but she was an irregular entrant between 1922 and 1938.
She became Mrs. Aidan Roark in 1939, was considered a fine painter, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969. She died Jan. 1, 1998 at Carmel, Calif.
MAJOR TITLES (31)—French singles, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932; Wimbledon singles, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1938: U.S. singles, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1931; French doubles, 1930, 1932; Wimbledon doubles, 1924, 1927, 1930; U.S. doubles, 1922, 1924, 1925, 1928; Wimbledon mixed 1929; U.S. mixed, 1921, 1928. WIGHTMAN CUP—1923, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1938. 18-2 singles, 3-7 doubles. SINGLES RECORD IN THE MAJORS—French (20-0), Wimbledon (55-1), U.S (51-2).
