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Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (24 May 1899 – 4 July 1938) was
a French tennis player who achieved much success in the French and British
women's game from 1919 to 1926, winning 25 Grand Slam titles. A flamboyant,
trend setting athlete, she was the first female tennis celebrity and one
of the first international female sport stars, named La Divine (the divine
one) by the French press.
Early life
A daughter of Charles Lenglen and his wife, Anais, Suzanne
Lenglen was born in Compiègne (in the department of the Oise), some
70 km north of Paris. During her youth, she suffered from numerous health
problems including chronic asthma, which also plagued her at a later age.
Because his daughter was so frail and sickly, Charles Lenglen, the owner
of a carriage company, decided that it would be good for her to compete in
tennis and gain strength. Her first try at the game was in 1910, when she
played on the tennis court at the family property in Marest-sur-Matz. The
young girl enjoyed the game, and her father decided to train her further
in the sport. His training methods included an exercise where he would lay
down a handkerchief at various places on the court, to which his daughter
had to direct the ball.
Only four years after her first tennis strokes, Lenglen played
in the final of the 1914 French Championships. (The tournament, a forerunner
of the French Open, was only open to members of French clubs until 1925.)
She lost to reigning champion Marguerite Broquedis in a closely fought three-set
match: 5–7, 6–4, 6–3. That same year she won the International
Clay Court Championships held at Sainte-Claude, turning 15 during the tournament.
The outbreak of World War I at the end of the year stopped most national
and international tennis competitions, and Lenglen's burgeoning career was
put on hold.
Dominance
The French championships were not held again until 1920,
but the Wimbledon Championships were again organized after a four year hiatus.
Lenglen entered the tournament — her first on grass — and met seven
time winner Dorothea Douglass Chambers in the final. The close match, later
noted to be one of the hallmarks in tennis history, saw Lenglen saving two
match points and winning in 10–8, 4–6, 9–7 to take her first
Grand Slam victory.
Not only her performances on the court were noted, however.
She garnered much attention in the media when she appeared at the Wimbledon
with her dress revealing bare forearms and cut just above the calf, while
all other players competed in outfits covering nearly all of the body. Staid
Brits also were in shock at the boldness of the French woman who also casually
sipped brandy between sets.
At the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp (Belgium), Lenglen
dominated the women's singles. On her path to the gold medal, she gave up
only four games, three of them in the final against Dorothy Holman of Britain.
She then teamed up with Max Décugis to win another gold medal in the
mixed doubles. She was eliminated in the women's doubles semi-final (playing
with Elisabeth d'Ayen), and won the bronze medal after their opponents withdrew.
From 1919 to 1925, Suzanne Lenglen won the Wimbledon singles
championship every year with the exception of 1924. Health problems due to
her asthma which had already taken her out of that year's French Championships,
forced her to withdraw after the fourth round. From 1920 to 1926 she won
the French Championships (French Open from 1925) six times.
Failed American debut
Lenglen's only tournament defeat in a singles match during
this period occurred in an unscheduled appearance in the 1921 US Open championships.
That year, to raise reconstruction funds for the regions of France that had
been devastated by the battles of World War I, she went to the United States
to play several exhibition matches against the Norwegian-born US Open champion,
Molla Bjurstedt-Mallory.
Arriving in New York City, Lenglen learned that, without
her permission, it had been announced by the US Open tournament officials
that she would be competing. The public pressure was such that she entered
the tournament despite being run down and suffering from what later was diagnosed
by doctors as whooping cough. To her surprise, there was no seeding for the
event and her name had been drawn to play against Bjurstedt-Mallory, the
reigning champion.
In their match, Lenglen lost the first set 6–2 and just
as the second set got underway, she began coughing and burst into tears,
unable to continue. The crowd jeered her as she walked off the court and
the American press severely criticized her. This worsened when, under doctor's
orders after it was confirmed that she was afflicted with whooping cough,
she cancelled her exhibition match. Unaccustomed to such treatment, a devastated
Lenglen went home.
Once healthy, she set about preparing herself for redemption.
In the singles final at Wimbledon the following year, she destroyed Bjurstedt-Mallory
in only 26 minutes, winning 6–2, 6–0. The two met again later that
year at a tournament in Nice where Bjurstedt-Mallory failed to win even one
game.
Final amateur year
In what would turn out to become her last year as an amateur
player, Suzanne Lenglen played what many consider to be her most memorable
match. In a February 1926 tournament at the Carlton Club in Cannes, she played
her only match against Helen Wills. The 20-year-old American was already
a two-time US Open winner, and would dominate the women's game in the late
1920s and early 1930s in the same way that Lenglen had dominated it since
1919.
Public attention for their meeting in the tournament final
was immense, and scalper ticket prices went through the roof. Roofs and windows
of nearby buildings were also crowded with spectators. The match itself saw
Lenglen clinging on to a 6–3, 8–6 victory after being close to
a collapse on several occasions.
Later in the year, Lenglen seemed to be on course for her
seventh Wimbledon singles title. However, Lenglen unknowingly kept Queen
Mary waiting in the Royal Box for her appearance in a preliminary match.
Lenglen, who had been told that her match would not start until much later,
fainted upon being informed of her error, which was seen by aristocratic
English attendees as an insult to the monarchy. Lenglen withdrew from the
tournament, which would be her last appearance at the courts of Wimbledon.
Professional career and later life
The first major female tennis star to turn professional,
Lenglen was paid $75,000 to tour the United States in a series of matches
against Mary K. Browne. Browne, winner of the US Open from 1912 to 1914,
was 35 and considered to be past her prime, although she had reached the
French Open final earlier that year (losing to Lenglen 6–1, 6–0).
For the first time in tennis history, the women's match was
the headline event of the tour (which also featured male players). In their
first match in New York City, Lenglen put on a performance that New York
Times writer Allison Danzig lauded as "one of the most masterly exhibitions
of court generalship that has been seen in this country." When the tour
ended in February of 1927, Lenglen had defeated Browne, 38 matches to 0.
She was exhausted from the lengthy tour, and a physician advised Lenglen
that she needed a lengthy period away from the game to recover.
Instead, Lenglen chose to retire from competitive tennis
to run a Paris tennis school, which she set up with the help and money of
her lover Jean Tillier. The school, located next to the courts of Roland
Garros, slowly expanded and was recognized as a federal training centre by
the French tennis federation in 1936. During this period, Lenglen also wrote
several books on tennis.
In June 1938, the French press announced that Lenglen had
been diagnosed with leukemia. Only three weeks later, she went blind. She
died of pernicious anemia on 4 July 1938. She is interred (buried) in the
Cimetière de Saint-Ouen at Saint-Ouen near Paris.
Achievements
During her career Suzanne Lenglen won 81 singles titles,
seven of which were achieved without losing a single game. In addition, she
won 73 doubles titles, and 8 mixed doubles titles. She remains the only player
to have won the Wimbledon Singles, doubles, and the mixed doubles championships
in the same year (in 1920, 1922 and 1925).
Lenglen's total number of Grand Slam wins is 25, although
the titles won in the French championships are not always counted because
the tournament was not open to all entrants until 1925. Hence some sources
credit her with 21 titles. A full listing of her Grand Slam titles:
singles doubles mixed doubles
French Open 1920–1923, 1925–1926 1925, 1926 1925,
1926
Wimbledon 1919–1923, 1925 1919–1923, 1925 1920,
1922, 1925
Legacy
Despite her flamboyant and sometimes controversial appearance
on the court, Suzanne Lenglen was also known as a very graceful player.Prior
to Lenglen, female tennis matches drew little fan interest, which quickly
changed as she became her sport's greatest drawing card. Tennis devotees
and new fans to the game began lining up in droves to buy tickets to her
matches. Temperamental, flamboyant, she was a passionate player whose intensity
on court could lead to an unabashed display of tears. But for all her flamboyance,
she was a gifted and brilliant player who used extremely agile footwork,
speed and a deadly accurate shot to dominate female tennis for seven straight
years. Her excellent play and introduction of glamour to the tennis court
increased the interest in women's tennis, and women's sport in general.
In 1997 the second court at the Roland Garros Stadium, site
of the French Open, was renamed Court Suzanne Lenglen in her honour. Four
years later, the French Tennis Federation organized the first Suzanne Lenglen
Cup for women in the over 35 age class. First played in France, the annual
event is now held in a different country each year.
Lenglen, who was elected to the International Tennis Hall
of Fame in 1978, continues to be held by many as one of the best players
in tennis history. For example, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club,
organizer of the Wimbledon Championships, ranks her among the five greatest
Wimbledon champions.
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