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Maureen Catherine Connolly (Little Mo) was a professional tennis
player born on September 17, 1934, in San Diego, California, United States.
As a child, an athletic Maureen Connolly loved horseback
riding but her mother was unable to pay the cost for riding lessons and as
such she took up the game of tennis. A natural, with tremendous power and
accuracy from the baseline, at age 14 she won 56 straight matches and the
following year became the youngest ever to win the United States national
championship for girls eighteen and under.
In 1951 she entered her first US Open at Forest Hills, New
York and in the finals, the 16 year old Connolly defeated Shirley Fry, again
becoming the youngest ever to win America's most prestigious tennis tournament.
Her achievements made her the darling of the media, and one of the most popular
personalities in the United States. She was named Associated Press Female
Athlete of the Year for three straight years from 1951 through 1953.
Connolly successfully defended her U.S. title in 1952 and
won the Wimbledon championship. For the 1953 season she hired a new coach,
the Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman. Entered in all four of the
Grand Slam tournaments for the first time, she defeated Julia Sampson in
the Australian Open final and Doris Hart three consecutive times in the finals
of the French Open, the Wimbledon championships, and the U.S. Open to become
the first woman, and only the second person, to ever win the world's four
major titles in the same year.
In 1954 she did not defend her Australian Open title but
successfully defended her French Open and Wimbledon championships. On July
20, 1954, just two weeks after she won her third straight Wimbledon title,
she was out horseback riding when an accident with a truck crushed her right
leg, ending her brilliant tennis career at age 19.
Maureen Connolly accomplished more in her short career than
most achieve in a lifetime. She was able to compete in nine Grand Slam tournaments,
and won them all. As a result of her incredible accomplishments, she was
elected to both the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International
Women's Sports Hall of Fame.
Grand Slam in tennis results for Maureen Connolly's nine
appearances:
Australian Open - 1 time: Winner 1953
French Open - 2 times: Winner 1953, 1954
Wimbledon championships - 3 times: Winner 1952, 1953, 1954
US Open - 3 times: Winner 1951, 1952, 1953
In June of 1955, Maureen Connolly married Norman Brinker,
a member of the 1952 United States Olympic equestrian team who was able to
share her love of horses. They had two children while she remained partially
involved in tennis, acting as a correspondent for some U.S. and British newspapers
at major U.S. tennis tournaments and as a coach for the British Wightman
Cup team during its visits to the United States. In Texas, where the couple
lived, she and her husband established the "Maureen Connolly Brinker
Foundation" to promote junior tennis.
Tragedy struck again in 1966 when she was diagnosed with
cancer. After a long battle with the disease, Maureen Connolly Brinker passed
away at age 34 in Dallas, Texas on June 21, 1969 and was interred in the
Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas.
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