There's *one* historic match that hasn't been featured, though. And it never will be. Because it happened ninety-four years ago.
Before Martina faced off with Chrissie in the 1970s and '80s, Steffi and Monica met to decide slam titles in the '90s, the Belgians had their career-long push-and-pull tug-of-war relationship, or Serena and Venus moved the Williams Family Practice Session onto the grand slam stage, there was the thrilling notion of a clash between the flashy and dramatic Suzanne Lenglen, the French woman recognized as the greatest women's tennis player alive during the "Golden Age" of sports in the 1920s, and Helen Wills, the calm, big-hitting young Californian who would ultimately inherit her position as the best that women's tennis had to offer on the world stage.
The only problem with the idea of their "rivalry," though, was that they only faced off in singles once in their careers. That meeting, so anticipated at the time, was dubbed "The Match of the Century."
Sports Illustrated; "The Lady in the White Silk Dress," by Sarah Pileggi (Sept.13, 1982)
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Sports Illustrated Classic; "Tennis Everyone?," by Frank Lidz (Fall 1991)
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BleacherReport.com; "Queens of the Court: Helen Wills Moody, the Garbo of Tennis," by Marianne Bevis (October 22, 2009)
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Remezcla.com; "Meet Helen Wills, the Tennis Player who Inspired Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias," by Jessica Lopez (2016)
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Sports Illustrated; "The Incomparable Life and Mysterious Death of Suzanne Lenglen," by Jon Wertheim and Jacob Feldman (May 30, 2019)
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Suzanne Lenglen was the winner of eight slam singles titles from 1919-26, including six Wimbledon crowns. She compiled a 341-7 match record, and once won 181 matches in a row, combining grace and intelligent gameday tactics in a way that made her the most unique player in tennis, and, in fact, all of sport. In 1920, she won Olympic singles Gold, losing just four total games en route to the victory stand in Antwerp. Lenglen reached the final at Roland Garros (then a French-only event) in 1914 at age 14. At 15, she became the youngest winner of a major championship (it's still a record) when she won the World Hard Court Championships. World War I, though, caused her to miss five years of her career, as the sport didn't appear again in Europe until 1919.
If World War I interrupted Lenglen's rise to stardom, it also helped to bolster her popularity. After the brutality and massive casualties (1.3 million dead and more than four million wounded) that resulted from the fighting, France needed a symbol of national pride. It came in the form of a tennis player known as "Notre Suzanne," a national trust. ...The French media didn't really cover Lenglen; they served as her press agency. When she played unremarkably she was, inevitably, ill. When she played poorly in doubles it was, naturally, the fault of her partner.
A flamboyant, glamorous, fashion trendsetter, Lenglen was the first true female tennis celebrity. The sport's biggest star attraction in the late 1910's and early 1920's, she was dubbed "La Divine" (The Goddess) by the French press. Lenglen famously gained attention for (gasp) appearing at Wimbledon in a forearm-baring dress cut just above the calf (!!). Predictably, the Brits were shocked by the bold Pastry, who was also known for sipping brandy from her "emergency kit" between sets of play.
When a match began, she hit the hell out of the ball, mixing power and precision. Then she calmed her nerves by sneaking sips from a flask of brandy during changeovers. When tennis officials discovered what she was doing, she soaked sugar cubes in cognac, which were then added to her courtside water bottles.
An A-list international celebrity, she traveled in chauffeured cars and by private rail. In 1922, Wimbledon moved from Worple Road to its current location on Church Road, in part because the old venue could not accommodate the crush of fans who had come expressly to watch Lenglen. She was, as we would say today, pure box office, this marriage of graceful athleticism and irrepressible personality.
For Lenglen, tennis was as much performance as it was competition. She played with flair, leaping—sometimes completely unnecessarily—and gliding gracefully around the court. Lenglen would decline to compete if she didn't like the way she looked, and she cried, even while she was winning, if she didn't meet her own exacting standards.
Perhaps above all, Lenglen embodied tennis's contribution to the Roaring '20s and the flapper sensibilities of the Jazz Age. She took the court in full makeup and, sometimes, in ermine scarfs or even fur coats. She played in what she called "a headache band," a chic and crisply colored swath of silk that wrapped around her bob haircut. France's top designers competed to provide her outfits.
Bill Tilden, the contemporary American star, once remarked of Lenglen, "Her costume struck me as a cross between a prima donna and a streetwalker." Vogue, on the other hand, called her dress "extraordinarily chic in the freedom, the suitability, and the excellence of its simple lines."
Lenglen was "a bit of a mess, a baseline Zelda Fitzgerald (the high-spirited "first American flapper") who succumbed routinely to fits of depression and hysteria."
Asked about her method of play, Lenglen responded with a familiar Gallic pfft. "My method? I don't think I have any. I just throw dignity to the winds and think of nothing but the game. I try to hit the ball with all my force and send it where my opponent is not."
The American star Wills was six and a half years Lenglen's junior, and different from her (near)-contemporary in almost every way. Other than on-court dominance, that is. While Lenglen was flamboyant and craved attention, Wills was quiet and serious, and didn't overtly seek the spotlight. Statuesque and stronger than the French woman, by 1926 the 20 year-old Bannerette had already won three U.S. Open titles and Olympic Gold in 1924, doing so in Lenglen's Paris hometown.
She was a stark contrast to flappers of the era -- an independent woman with power, strength, intelligence, and beauty, and was thus dubbed a rebellious icon for American womanhood. It might come as a surprise to hear that Wills never considered the sport to be her career. Instead, she sought to perpetuate the myth that her true calling -- her real vocation -- was art. Tennis was a mere pastime, something that required minimal effort.
This was not the case, despite the fact that the art career that she so desired wasn’t completely out of her reach. Wills received a degree in fine arts from the University of California, illustrated her own articles for The Saturday Evening Post, published a book of poems (The Awakening), and painted throughout her life. She was a part of the New York World art staff, and a long-term contributor with The Newspaper Enterprise Association, where she wrote a series of articles on issues of interest to young women. But regular office hours quickly began to interfere with her practice time.
Wills is best known for winning 31 Grand Slam titles (including eight Wimbledon and seven U.S. singles crowns), holding the number one world ranking for eight years, and amassing a 180+ match winning streak from 1927 to 1933. She inspired awe in everyone who saw her grace a tennis court. In 1930, for example, Charlie Chaplin described “the movement of Helen Wills playing tennis” as the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.
Between 1923 and 1933, Wills won 17 of her 19 singles Slam titles and was runner up in two more. (And this was at a time when players did not take in the Australian championships because of the time and distances involved in reaching them.)
{from Wikipedia} "Wills was the first American woman athlete to become a global celebrity, making friends with royalty and film stars despite her preference to stay out of the limelight. She was admired for her graceful physique and for her fluid motion. She was part of a new tennis fashion, playing in knee-length pleated skirts rather than the longer ones of her predecessors. Unusually, she practiced against men to hone her craft, and she played a relentless game, wearing down her female opponents with power and accuracy."
In contrast to La Divine, Wills was described as introverted and detached. She rarely showed emotion. She was dubbed "Little Miss Poker Face" and the "Ice Queen," and was said to ignore both her opponents and the crowd during matches.
As a teenager, she was a quiet and reserved girl who admitted in later years that she found relief from an innate melancholy in her painting and her tennis.
Kitty McKane Godfree, the only player to ever defeat Wills at Wimbledon, said, "Helen was a very private person, and she didn't really make friends very much." Wills, especially as she became more successful (shocker), was considered an unpopular public figure, and was desparagingly called "Queen Helen" and "The Imperial Helen." Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman (a four-time U.S. Open champ) offered a reason, saying, "Helen was really an unconfident and [socially] awkward girl -— you have no idea how awkward.... I thought of Helen as an honestly shy person who was bewildered by how difficult it was to please most people."
In 1921, at just 16 years old and still only 5'0", Wills went to the east coast for more competition, and saw the most famous tennis player of the day, Suzanne Lenglen, for the first time. The sick Lenglen was jeered off court by the American crowd, having defaulted against home favorite Molla Mallory. The very next year, Wills was herself up against Mallory in the U.S. Open final, and recorded her last ever loss to her illustrious countrywoman. By the end of 1922, Wills was ranked third among American women. More importantly, she had grown a full seven inches and had gained 25 pounds. She was ready to embark on one of the finest decades of tennis success ever achieved by a man or a woman.
In December 1925 Wills (she did not marry Frederick Moody until 1929) was a 20-year old who had won the American championship three times and stood at the brink of what was to become a great career. Lenglen at that time was 26 and at the peak of her powers. She had won Wimbledon, the unofficial world championship, for the sixth time, and the most enjoyable season of her tennis year was about to begin -- the "spring circuit" on the Riviera, a series of weekly tournaments from Christmas to Easter. Her midday matches would be a fixture in the daily round of pleasure-seeking and hostesses would schedule their parties to avoid conflict with them. She was La Belle Lenglen, queen of the Cote de'Azur. Sportswriter Al Laney, in his book Covering the Court, described her in her prime: "She was far from beautiful. In fact, her face was homely in repose, with a long, crooked nose, irregular teeth, sallow complexion, and eyes that were so neutral that their color could hardly be determined. It was a face on which hardly anything was right. And yet, in a drawing room this homely girl could dominate everything, taking the attention away from dozens of women far prettier..."
When it was learned that month Wills was coming to France (in 1926) in the expectation of playing Lenglen, it was thought to be a bold, impertinent but very exciting challenge to Lenglen's total domination of the game. A fever of anticipation took hold in the sporting press. Tennis regulars such as John Tunis of The Boston Globe and Wallis Myers of London's Daily Telegraph, writers who often played in the same weekly Riviera tournaments they reported, were joined by an international press corps large enough to cover a medium-sized war. Grantland Rice arrived. So did James Thurber. So did the eminent Spanish novelist Blasco Ibanez, who had never so much as seen a tennis match.
The ballyhoo began on Jan. 15 when Wills stepped off the ocean liner De Grasse in the port of Le Havre. Dozens of local reports were waiting to pelt her with questions. The attitude of the French press was downright imperial. Americans were viewed as generally inferior and most laughable. Paris-Midi, in fact, had only recently described them as "degenerate and rotten, physically, intellectually and morally. They offend our eyes, our ears and our nostrils." With their noses quivering in anticipation, the assembled French reporters found Wills polite, demure and possibly fragrant. Wills explained that she had come to France not so much to play tennis but to paint. The Frenchmen were charmed by this straightforward Californian. Wills so enthralled the prestigious Eclaireur de Nice that it pronounced her "une petite jeune fille de province" -- a lovely little country girl.
On court, in her scandalously short skirts and jeweled bandeau, Lenglen was a zigzag of wicked zest, a demon who never gave in. Ernest Hemingway thought enough of her to say of a male character in The Sun Also Rises: "He loved to win at tennis. He probably loved to win as much as Lenglen, for instance." Lenglen treated Wills dismissively, calling her a "sweet child." She watched the young American play doubles in Nice but left midway through the match and said, clucking, "Isn't that comical."
(Sportswriter Grantland) Rice and his fellow Americans were mostly homers. The exception was Heywood Broun, a beefy, Brooklyn-born columnist for the New York World. Lenglen ws Broun's kind of woman: She smoked, she drank, she kept her training to a minimum, she was a nervous wreck. "She moves through one of the most exacting of all strenuous games and remains in appearance morbid," he wrote, "Suzanne is the finest of all champions...for she wins and wins and still avoids the reproach of being an ideal or a good example to anyone."
As with everything else, the playing styles of the two women were in direct opposition to one another. Wills was blessed with a natural physical presence, but was seen as being a more straightforward player whose game often lacked what we would now call a "Plan B" course of action. She employed an aggressive serve-and-volley game with powerful groundstrokes that drove opponents deep in the court and served to cover her vulnerable forward movement toward the net; while the light-footed and imaginative Lenglen played a more varied, stylish game, mastered the drop shot and was known for brilliant, elegant shot-making. She was at her best on grass courts. And then, of course, there were the sips of alcohol during matches, an act which, really, we could do worse than see some player attempt to employ today, am I right? (Wink, wink.)
The longer the meeting of Lenglen and Wills was postponed (in 1926's early weeks) -- one would enter a tournament, the other would withdraw -- the larger became the army of journalists camped out from San Remo to Cannes. Bookmakers who had at first made Lenglen a 1-10 favorite, dropped their odds to 1-4 when Suzanne appeared to be ducking the confrontation for fear of losing. In the midst of growing hysteria, only Wills remained calm. She recalls (today), at her home in Carmel, Calif., her first glimpse of Lenglen at Villa Ariem. "It's like a picture in my mind," she says. "She lived across the street, or very near, to the tennis courts. My mother and I went to the courts by taxi and when I got out, I saw her in an upstairs window. It was a wide French window, and she waved to me. She wore a bright yellow sweater. I can still see the palm trees around her house. It's like a postcard in my mind."
Ultimately, the day arrives. Feb.16, 1926, the singles final of the Carlton Club tournament in Cannes. Lenglen, always tightly strung at the best of times, was "empty, exhausted and frightened," according to her friend Florence Gould, wife of Frank Jay Gould, son of financier Jay Gould. With nothing to gain and her near-perfect seven-year record at stake, Lenglen was about to risk all over the challenge of a "little country girl."
Lenglen's lifelong friend, the French playboy Coco Gentien, would later write in his memoirs of Lenglen's apprehension about the match, brought on by the pressure to win: "For Suzanne every day was a torture... She hardly ate or slept. A few friends and I never left her side. Every day she seemed thinner. Her small face was drawn, and all you could see were two big eyes filled with dread."
Scalpers jacked up the price of tickets—from $12.50 to as much as $50, which would be about $700 today. Fans leaned out of the windows of neighboring buildings to watch.
Lenglen won the first set 6-3, but she was clearly not herself. Papa Lenglen was ill again, but (mother) Anais was present to shout to her daughter when things were going badly, "Oh, you're playing miserably, my dear!" To which her daughter sharply replied, "Merde, Maman!" Between games Lenglen resorted to her restorative silver flask, and dramatically underline her exhaustion by placing one hand on her hip, the other over her eyes.
(She was) perhaps sluggish from lack of sleep after a long night arguing with her overbearing father, who opposed her playing in the match. Or she may have been rattled by the incantations of spectators who shouted, shrieked and whistled during every rally. The London Daily Mail noted: "Miss Wills took no refreshments during the match, but Mlle. Lenglen drank several glasses of water." Actually, Lenglen was quaffing chilled cognac, a fact not lost on the TIME reporter, who wrote, "As her cells took up the liquor, courage spouted through her veins, empurpled her falcon face. And her strength and spring seemed to return. Her cat cunning footwork began to work again."
The best reportage of the clash itself was by Al Laney (Paris Herald). In his account, he remarked on the reluctance of Wills to backhand balls down the line to Lenglen's forehand. Lenglen's soft, sharply angled returns dragged Wills up to the net, leaving most of the court open.
"A thing that surprised me," she wrote in Fifteen-Thirty, "was that I found her balls not unusually difficult to hit, nor did they carry as much speed as the balls of several other of the leading women players whom I had met in matches. But her balls kept coming back, coming back, and each time to a spot on the court which was a little more difficult to get to."
In the second set, Wills began to anticipate her opponent's shrewdly played shots. She took three of the first four games. But her composure evaporated after one of Lenglen's shots that had clearly landed out was called in. Lenglen evened the set at 4-4. At double match point in the 12th game, Wills pasted a crosscourt forehand to Lenglen's forehand corner. "Out!" someone shouted. Lenglen skipped to the net and shook the hand of her rival. She was mobbed by hundreds of fans and showered with carnations, orchids and American beauty roses.
In the midst of this pandemonium a linesman, Lord Charles Hope, almost unnoticed, approached the umpire's chair to say that the ball had been good, that he had not called it out (the audible call had indeed been made by a spectator).
The umpire, one Commander George Hillyard, changed the score to 40-30. In a few minutes the court was cleared and the players returned to their positions, one drained, the other revivified.
Lenglen came unraveled, dropping the next three points and the game. Six-all. But Lenglen was nothing if not resilient. Within 15 minutes she was again serving at match point: 7-6, 40-15.
At that crucial moment she double-faulted, she who was said to have double-faulted only six times in seven years! The game went to deuce. But then, from deep within her well of experience, Lenglen drew two winners in a row and the match was hers, for the second time (taking the set 8-6).
Again the crowd pressed in to congratulate her. Standing within the wall of people, Lenglen sobbed convulsively.
Lenglen sank onto a bench, exhausted, and later, when she was led by friends to a small office near the dressing rooms, she collapsed onto a desk that was covered with neat stacks of bank notes, the proceeds from the sale of tickets. Hysterical now, she began to tear them into little pieces.
Later in the afternoon she met Wills again, this time in the doubles final (once again, the French woman was victorious).
News of the match swamped the front pages. SUZANNE WEEPS, WINS AND FAINTS, screamed the London Daily Herald. "One of the most grotesque and thrilling and momentous games on record," crowed James Thurber. The London Morning Post likened Lenglen's play to "the rhythmic silence of Bernhardt or an arabesque of Karsavina" and suggested that each of her conquests should be celebrated in verse "like the victorious swordplay of Cyrano de Bergerac."
But the unexpectedly close contest chastened the editor of L'Echo des Sports, who wrote, "We had grown to consider the French champion as a class apart; that short of accident her position could not be threatened by any rivals. Yesterday's match proves that Suzanne is not in a class of her own above all others; that her defeat can be classed among the possible if not the normal eventualities."
As John Tunis wrote in the Globe of Lenglen's having to replay match point: "Without a word, without a murmur, without any protest visible or otherwise, she returned to her task...There was the real champion of champions."
Unwittingly, Tunis was writing Lenglen's epitaph. To the world at large the Wills match was Lenglen's greatest triumph, but a few observers, like Tunis, looking past the bouquets to the shattered figure and then over to the taller opponent in the sun visor standing unnoticed and unperturbed amid the confusion, sensed the truth, that at long last Suzanne's successor has appeared. Lenglen surely knew it, too.
The London Evening News put the match in proper perspective: "It seemed as if the earth itself would pause in its rotation, as if all the international excitement would end in an appeal to the League of Nations. Anything might have happened, including a war between the United States and France." But with the match at last over the Evening News declared, "the universe can now go on as before."
It is believed by some that Lenglen purposely avoided Wills the rest of the 1926 season. Wills' emergency appendectomy during Roland Garros that spring sent her out of Paris and kept her from playing Wimbledon, as well. At SW19, in what would be her final appearance there, Lenglen unknowingly kept Queen Mary waiting in the Royal Box for her appearance in a match. The Frenchwoman had been told the match would start much later in the day, and fainted upon hearing of the error. The act was viewed as an "insult to the monarchy." Lenglen withdrew from the tournament, and never played there again.
Lenglen then turned professional after the '26 season, taking up U.S. entrepreneur Charles Pyle's offer of $50,000 to tour the U.S., where she played in a series of exhibition matches vs. U.S. Open champ Mary Browne. Criticized for her decision, and AELTC at Wimbledon revoked her honorary membership.
Lenglen, though, described her decision as "an escape from bondage and slavery" and said in the tour program, "In the twelve years I have been champion I have earned literally millions of francs for tennis and have paid thousands of francs in entrance fees to be allowed to do so... I have worked as hard at my career as any man or woman has worked at any career. And in my whole lifetime I have not earned $5,000 – not one cent of that by my specialty, my life study – tennis.... I am twenty-seven and not wealthy – should I embark on any other career and leave the one for which I have what people call genius? Or should I smile at the prospect of actual poverty and continue to earn a fortune – for whom?" Concerning the amateur tennis set-up of the day, Lenglen said, "Under these absurd and antiquated amateur rulings, only a wealthy person can compete, and the fact of the matter is that only wealthy people do compete. Is that fair? Does it advance the sport? Does it make tennis more popular – or does it tend to suppress and hinder an enormous amount of tennis talent lying dormant in the bodies of young men and women whose names are not in the social register?"
Lenglen won all 38 matches she played on the tour vs. Browne, and was exhausted by the time it was over. Rather than rest and return to the game later, she retired to run a Paris tennis school for children. Health issues were with Lenglen throughout her life and career (she was forced to withdraw from the '24 tournament in the QF due to health problems associated with jaundice). She suffered from chronic asthma as a child, and picked up tennis partly as a way to gain strength to combat her numerous health problems. In 1934, she barely survived a bout with acute appendicitis. In June of 1938, Lenglen was diagnosed with leukemia. She went quickly as three weeks later she went blind, and on July 4, just days after Wills won her a then-record eighth Wimbledon title, Lenglen died in Paris of pernicious anemia at age 39.
The true cause of Lenglen's death has since been questioned, for good reason.
Pernicious anemia stems from the lack of a specific protein made in the stomach that helps vitamin B12 become absorbed into the bloodstream. A B12 deficiency can cause a decrease in red blood cells, which are crucial in carrying oxygen to the heart, brain and other organs. In medical jargon pernicious means deadly. But in the 1920s, American physicians George Minot and William Murphy figured out that patients can simply be injected with B[12rich liver extracts, rendering pernicious anemia a misnomer. Within a decade, 20,000 lives were saved in the U.S. alone.
The cure was well-known around the world by 1939. In fact, Minot and Murphy had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine five years earlier "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia."
"There's no way they wouldn't know to give her liver or liver extracts," says Scott Dinehart, a dermatologist (and amateur tennis historian). "It would be like Beyoncé having pernicious anemia and not getting B12—that's not going to happen."
Pernicious anemia usually causes a slow decline marked by fatigue and trouble with balance over several years. Lenglen fell suddenly ill three weeks before dying. Just before that, she'd conducted a tennis clinic for more than 100 young Parisians.
Some have speculated that the true cause of Lenglen's death was one of the several other ailments she suffered from including sinutitis, "a ganglionic condition" and "a neglected case of the measles." And, of course, liver failure brought on by her many years of (over)consumption of alcohol, a character trait which to this day plays a large part in her legend. It is said that such a condition could have produced pernicious-anemia like symptoms, such as a lack of red blood cells and a susceptibility to infection.
Thus, after all these years (decades, actually), Lenglen still possesses the ability to confound and intrigue. In fact, somewhere where they're likely serving afterlife cocktails, she's probably elbowing the Tennis Gods and smiling as she raises her glass one more time to the entire notion... it was her life's work, after all.
Lenglen was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978. At Roland Garros, both a show court and the women's championship cup bear her name. And, rightly so, every new groundbreaking tennis persona that's popped up over the last century has inevitably been, and will continue to be, compared to La Divine.
By her return to tennis in 1927 (after her appendectomy), Wills was unbeatable. Not only did she win all three slams between Wimbledon that year and Wimbledon in 1930, she did so without conceding a set. The Wills game had become truly formidable. (Her practices against male players) helped to develop the powerful, athletic and unflagging play that dominated all-comers. Indeed as late as 1933, she played, and beat in straight sets, the eighth ranked American male player Phil Neer in an exhibition match, 6-3/6-4.
On both the forehand and backhand, she was able to drive the ball with speed, pace, and depth, and had a serve that could pull her opponent wide of the tramlines. Though she didn’t attack the net with any frequency, she was also a capable volleyer.
TIME magazine, which featured Wills Moody on its cover twice (in 1926 and '29), said: “There was nothing frivolous about Little Miss Poker Face. She stood her ground like a tank, drilling out bullet serves and powerful baseline drives." The lack of emotion on court at which this extract hints was interpreted by many as an aloof coolness, and neither endeared her to the media nor won great warmth from spectators. However, it did reflect Wills Moody’s naturally introspective personality, as well as her ability to channel herself with remarkable concentration into her tennis. In her autobiography, she said, "I had one thought and that was to put the ball across the net. I was simply myself, too deeply concentrated on the game for any extraneous thought."
In style, too, she had class. Not for her the bohemian bandanna and flowing coat sported by Lenglen. Wills Moody wore a pleated knee-length skirt, white open neck blouse, and a white visor—a trend-setter of her day. She had an effortless and unhurried walk, a wonderful bearing, and yes, looked remote.
Wills went on to dominate the sport more thoroughly after Lenglen's 1926 exit. She added sixteen additional slam singles titles after '26 to up her career total to nineteen, inheriting Lenglen's crown -- and replacing her in the minds of many -- as the greatest player in the sport's 20th century era. She won her record eighth Wimbledon title in 1938, a mark that wasn't surpassed until Martina Navratilova won her ninth crown fifty-two years later in 1990.
Wire Structure Tennis Player representation of Wills
(by Alexander Calder, 1927)
In retirement, Wills Moody set up her own art studio, wrote extensively, and played tennis into her 80s. She continued to follow the game in her later years and admired the tennis of Martina Navratilova. As well she might. It had taken more than half a century for a woman to win more Wimbledon singles titles than the multi-layered Wills Moody. Navratilova was that woman.
What more might burnish the Wills Moody reputation? That she reached the final of every Grand Slam singles event she played during her career? That she played in the Whiteman Cup ten times and lost only two matches? That she won twelve Grand Slam doubles titles? That she wrote and illustrated her own coaching manual (1928, example above)? Or that, when she died, she left her $10 million fortune to the University of California, where she is now remembered by the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute?
While Lenglen died young, Wills lived to be nearly 100. An International Tennis Hall of Famer since 1959, she died in 1998 at age 92 in Carmel, California.
So, who was better? Lenglen or Wills?
Movie legend Charlie Chaplin's beliefs about Wills notwithstanding, Elizabeth Ryan, who faced both in her career and played doubles with both women, said, "Suzanne, of course. She owned every kind of shot, plus was a genius for knowing how and when to use them."
The Goddess and the American Girl: The Story of Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills,
by Larry Englemann (1988)
There was an entire book devoted to the lives of the two tennis greats who played just once: The Goddess and the American Girl: The Story of Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills.
Below is an extended excerpt from the book from Tennis.Quickfound.net, where additional excerpts can be found. What I've pulled out focuses on the Lenglen/Wills match. I especially liked the mention of Lenglen's "emergency kit" and its immediately positive impact on her game in the heat of battle.
Further text from the book (along with some discussion) can be found on a forum thread on Tennis-Warehouse.com.
Lenglen won the 1st set 6-3. Between sets she had "two deep swallows" from her "emergency kit" -- said to be iced cognac. "There was a noticeably new spring in her walk when she returned to the baseline to receive Helen's serve."
Wills served the opening game of the second set. She sliced her first service wide to Lenglen's forehand, drew the Maid Marvel off the court, then moved in quickly and took the return with a winning volley to the backhand side. The crowd loved it. She took three more points in rapid succession and without much difficulty. The last point of the game was nearly unbelievable: a beautiful topped backhand shot straight down the line. The shot completely outwitted Lenglen and left her standing flatfooted in the backcourt. Wills had raised the level of play once again.
[After 7 games the score stood at Wills 4, Lenglen 3...] Before serving the eighth game, Suzanne Lenglen took another gulp from her emergency kit. Then she served and won the first point. But Helen Wills again came back and took two points and the lead. The fourth point of the game involved an exceptionally long rally. Then Lenglen returned one of Wills's long forehand shots with a powerful forehand angled return. Helen moved for the ball near the juncture of the service line and the sideline. But then she held back on her swing and watched the ball bound well outside. Newsman Don Skene, sitting near where the ball came down, watched it hit wide by "three inches at least." Associated Press correspondent Ferdinand Tuohy also had no doubt about the ball. "It struck far outside," he wrote.
Cyril Tolley, the line judge, remained silent. Helen Wills stood for a moment near where the ball went down, listening for the call. Then, in an extremely rare gesture, she abandoned her silence and her serenity and her poker-faced look. In a loud and clear voice, almost a desperate shout that betrayed her anger, she demanded of Tolley, "What did you call that ball?"
"Inside," he responded. "The shot was good!"
Fred Moody, Helen's regular Riviera escort, was sitting near the line too, and he knew that the ball was out. He had no doubts at all. "The ball was out and Helen was robbed..."
In the eleventh game Lenglen... broke Wills's service at 30 and appeared to be in control of the match. She now led 6-5 with her own service coming. Then, with renewed confidence she jumped out to a 40-15 lead and double match point in the twelfth game. She hit her first match point down the middle to Wills's backhand and then stayed back for the return. There were several long exchanges as Helen tried pull Suzanne into the forehand corner with some powerful crosscourt blasts. Eventually, Wills sent a sizzling drive deep into that corner. Lenglen moved over for the return, hesitated, and then stopped. Then she heard a wonderful wonderful wonderful sound as a loud and clear voice roared "Ouuuut!" Suzanne Lenglen flung the remaining two tennis balls she held high into the sky and skipped quickly to the net, a smile of relief on her face, her right hand extended. Helen Wills met her at the net and grasped her hand.
The tennis court was almost instantly engulfed by a mob.
Meanwhile, from the far end of the court Lord Charles Hope frantically fought his way through the crowd, swimming through the shouting celebrants to the umpire's chair. When he was within a few feet of Commander Hillyard, he shouted out a shocking statement. "The shot was good!" he said. "I didn't call it out!"
...once Hillyard was certain that he had heard Hope right, he turned apologetically to Suzanne. "The match is not over," he said cautiously. "That ball was good."
Suzanne Lenglen gave the umpire a stunned look as the remark registered. The she responded in a calm and deliberately measured tone, "Then we must go on."...
...Helen Wills... saved the second match point and brought the game to deuce. Then with her hard drives and sharp crisp angles she took two more points and the twelfth game. Six to six.
...Suzanne Lenglen [now leading 7-6] served cautiously in the fourteenth game, placing each service with meticulous care... Finally, with one of her pretty placements she arrived once more at match point. This was fifteen minutes after she believed she had won the match.
She served to Wills's backhand once again and took the strong return with her forehand, punching over a drop shot just to the left of the center line. Wills responded with a running desperate save that was high over the net. Too high... Lenglen... caught it near the service line, shoulder high and slapped it back at an angle across the court for a winner. The match was over.
24 - Margaret Smith-Court (11-5-3-5)
23 - Serena Williams (7-3-7-6)
22 - Steffi Graf (4-6-7-5)
19 - HELEN WILLS-MOODY (0-4-8-7)
18 - Martina Navratilova (3-2-9-4)
18 - Chris Evert (2-7-3-6)
12 - Billie Jean King (1-1-6-4)
12 - SUZANNE LENGLEN (0-6-6-0)
9 - Monica Seles (4-3-0-2)
9 - Maureen Connolly (1-2-3-3)
8 - Molla Bjurstedt Mallory (0-0-0-8)
*LENGLEN SLAM FINALS*
1919 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Dorothea Lambert Chambers 10–8/4–6/9–7
1920 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Dorothea Lambert Chambers 6–3/6–0
1921 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Elizabeth Ryan 6–2/6–0
1922 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Molla Mallory 6–2/6–0
1923 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Kitty McKane 6–2/6–2
1925 Roland Garros (clay) - def. Kitty McKane 6–1/6–2
1925 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Joan Fry 6–2/6–0
1926 Roland Garros (clay) - def. Mary Browne 6–1/6–0
*WILLS SLAM FINALS*
1922 U.S. (grass) - lost to Molla Bjurstedt Mallory 3–6/1–6
1923 U.S. (grass) - def. Molla Bjurstedt Mallory 6–2/6–1
1924 Wimbledon (grass) - lost to Kitty McKane 6–4/4–6/4–6
1924 U.S. (grass) - def. Molla Bjurstedt Mallory 6–1/6–3
1925 U.S. (grass) - def. Kitty McKane 3–6/6–0/6–2
1927 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Lilí de Álvarez 6–2/6–4
1927 U.S. (grass) - def. Betty Nuthall 6–1/6–4
1928 Roland Garros (clay) - Eileen Bennett 6–1/6–2
1928 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Lilí de Álvarez 6–2/6–3
1928 U.S. (grass) - def. Helen Jacobs 6–2/6–1
1929 Roland Garros (clay) - Simonne Mathieu 6–3/6–4
1929 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Helen Jacobs 6–1/6–2
1929 U.S. (grass) - def. Phoebe Holcroft Watson 6–4/6–2
1930 Roland Garros (clay) - Helen Jacobs 6–2/6–1
1930 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Elizabeth Ryan 6–2/6–2
1931 U.S. (grass) - def. Eileen Bennett Whittingstall 6–4/6–1
1932 Roland Garros (clay) - Simonne Mathieu 7–5/6–1
1932 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Helen Jacobs 6–3/6–1
1933 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Dorothy Round 6–4/6–8/6–3
1933 U.S. (grass) - lost to Helen Jacobs 6–8/6–3/0–3, ret.
1935 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Helen Jacobs 6–3/3–6/7–5
1938 Wimbledon (grass) - def. Helen Jacobs 6–4/6–0
BREAKING: The WTA has joined the six other governing bodies of world tennis to raise in excess of US $6 million to create a Player Relief Program to support players affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ---> https://t.co/l3FqBgoEBS pic.twitter.com/i9hukngBsA
— wta (@WTA) May 5, 2020
WTA's Steve Simon on poss merger with ATP: “You certainly can’t go in with those expectations that it [financial equality] is immediately there."
— Molly McElwee (@molly_mcelwee) May 6, 2020
...why not?! In tennis women are on 80% earnings already so why is equal pay an outlandish, 'not now' idea?https://t.co/9FCbVGollK
In my opinion, tennis should be the pioneers in sports and bring equal pay to both genders. As for the 5 sets debate, besides the GS men play 3 sets too yet GS are one of the only places they have equal pay. (besides Miami, IW etc)
— Tara Moore (@TaraMoore92) May 6, 2020
WTT has decided that due to COVID-19 it would be inappropriate for players, staff & fans to travel between cities & will now hold our 2020 season in one city. WTT will follow all CDC & state guidelines, as safety is our top priority, and will announce the city in the weeks ahead. pic.twitter.com/Be514wj8vl
— World TeamTennis (@WorldTeamTennis) May 4, 2020
Dear @the_LTA Thank you for honouring my darling Bally. Niño
— Elena B Foundation (@ElenaFoundation) May 4, 2020
SI-MO-NA ??
— TENNIS (@Tennis) May 4, 2020
Mary Carillo explains how @Simona_Halep's boldness on court has helped her reach the top of tennis. pic.twitter.com/1FMtJI9fZD
It’s Wallpaper Wednesday and today we are featuring our favorite Romanian, World #2 and reigning Wimbledon Champion @Simona_Halep !
— Wilson Tennis (@WilsonTennis) May 6, 2020
Screenshot or hold down the photo to save your favorites and update your phone wallpaper! pic.twitter.com/JuJCUSbf7Q
There’s no place like home ?? pic.twitter.com/9nAWmRIKHZ
— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) May 4, 2020
It’s not every night you get to chat to these legends! Great people and great fun ??@Eurosport pic.twitter.com/1I469Nc4XC
— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) May 4, 2020
What's one lesson @vika7 has learned while under #COVID_19 quarantine?
— TENNIS (@Tennis) May 5, 2020
Son Leo has the same competitive fire. ??????
“It's impossible to play with him if he doesn't win. That's been a little bit of challenge for me, because I like to win as well."https://t.co/EPrPWHtkT8
Araceli,
— victoria azarenka (@vika7) May 7, 2020
With all my heart, thank you. You selflessly gave your life fighting on the frontlines to keep our Miami communities safe, and for that we will be forever be grateful. You’re a hero to all of us women at
the @WTA. pic.twitter.com/mtk5BVaUIe
Grateful for Sundays spent outdoors close to nature ???? pic.twitter.com/8xh6W3IBn4
— Petra Kvitova (@Petra_Kvitova) May 3, 2020
@dasha_tofu Spending too much time with Tofu ##learningtodog
♬ original sound - dasha_tofu
Aryna Sabalenka wins Belarus Insurance Cup during #coronavirus outbreak https://t.co/jx5Mf6VrEo #tennis #Belarus pic.twitter.com/zqF8Wazk1B
— Women's Tennis Blog (@womenstennis) May 7, 2020
"I don't know what the future has to hold, but I will tell you that I'm going to give my best."@Bandreescu_ has her eyes fixed on the No.1️⃣ spot 🤩 --> https://t.co/OX9hh566jb pic.twitter.com/HYBZWK13Li
— wta (@WTA) May 7, 2020
.@D_Yastremska has been posting ?? photos for a while, and her birthday celebrations and outfits are must-see content. https://t.co/04PJF4fQDh
— TENNIS (@Tennis) May 5, 2020
The last few months have been a challenging time for everyone. Thank you to the wonderful doctors, nurses & healthcare heroes who keep us safe. A special thanks to Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital for the visit today. Hitting with 3 Aussie legends on a helipad was pretty special pic.twitter.com/EXbTnvQNCL
— Ash Barty (@ashbarty) May 5, 2020
Couple of ???? Grand Slam champions showing gratitude to healthcare workers.
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) May 5, 2020
Good on you, @ashbarty and Pat Rafter ?? ?? #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/mYrWifoioh
Trump is concerned about PPE. His own.https://t.co/bHgsPBwojP pic.twitter.com/Ud78urygSX
— Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) May 7, 2020
Love seeing this @AnnTelnaes piece for @PostOpinions in print today. https://t.co/T4fEY1MW3u pic.twitter.com/xlcPLxZZKQ
— Chris Rukan (@ChrisRukan) May 3, 2020
Congrats to the amazing ?@AnnTelnaes? and to ?@washingtonpost? for giving her work the space it deserves pic.twitter.com/xUIMNCWEx7
— Laffy (@GottaLaff) May 3, 2020
--->Justice Dept. moves to drop case against Michael Flynn, former Trump adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI https://t.co/okO1ZCavsO pic.twitter.com/xiW7lCkxjc
— Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) May 7, 2020
First outing into the public world in 6 weeks to buy a pot. 2/10 would not recommend. pic.twitter.com/TOWYTMVwlL
— Andrea Petkovic (@andreapetkovic) May 5, 2020
Remember when I said I went out to buy a pot and everyone thought I went out to buy pot. Well, this is me and my pot. And now I said pot too much. pic.twitter.com/QE70qKwDAc
— Andrea Petkovic (@andreapetkovic) May 6, 2020
Some public health experts outside government worry the CDC’s expertise is going to waste amid the pandemic. And now, @AP has revealed that the Trump administration shelved a CDC document with step-by-step advice on how and when to reopen public places. https://t.co/xKY2NhdoB4
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 8, 2020
just for the record: we all stayed home for two months and these dumb fucks in charge didn't use that time for anything other than to lie about shit and then open everything back up like things were gonna magically get better
— Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) May 7, 2020
We still want to be Like Mike. #TheLastDance pic.twitter.com/PG1YYFiyTP
— ESPN (@espn) May 4, 2020
In the mood for an ekphrastic Shakespearean sonnet? I've got you covered. I invite you to read "Doppelganger" in Sparks of Calliope https://t.co/wgnlfWRh8n #poetry #WritingCommunity #art
— Diane Elayne Dees (@WomenWhoServe) May 7, 2020
@NYGovCuomo talking about his daughter’s boyfriend @andrewcuomo pic.twitter.com/B2VyzMM87o
— Maria DeCotis (@MariaDeCotis) May 1, 2020
She went undefeated on clay from August 12, 1973 to May 12, 1979.
— TENNIS (@Tennis) May 4, 2020
And she dropped just EIGHT sets in those 125 matches.@ChrissieEvert's insane win streak? It's somehow underrated.
It's #UnderratedWeek. Here are the 5 Most Underrated Stats in Tennis: https://t.co/p3UPAxV9qj pic.twitter.com/wSljDPfeTY
How good is this? ??
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 4, 2020
Brother 1: @rogerfederer
Brother 2: @DjokerNole
(??: kosuke.o4o5 on Instagram)pic.twitter.com/QmaCKSqPhe
2 weeks of isolation and we're out here making picnic tables for squirrels because we're insane pic.twitter.com/8WfHwyJQA4
— Lucy Small (@lucyleid) March 31, 2020
Belinda after our our match at Roland Garros last year: “I’m so happy that the clay season is over” ?? https://t.co/5Xpp4aEez1
— Donna Vekic (@DonnaVekic) May 2, 2020
The most destructive American trend is the destigmatization of stupidity.
— Lila Byock (@LByock) May 3, 2020
Tennis is BACK in Wuhan! Our courts have been open since 1 May. Plenty of tennis, soccer and basketball being played. ?? pic.twitter.com/c7o3zaNgG7
— Wuhan Open (@wuhanopentennis) May 5, 2020
Is this the future of sports? Cardboard fans and plastic mannequins in the stands and "imagination training" in the dugout? Dispatch from Taiwan, where it's happening now https://t.co/ns05eV9Wl9 pic.twitter.com/Ely3HH6OB3
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) May 5, 2020
My cat just locked up my dog lmfaooooo???? pic.twitter.com/stHx7Pb7oy
— mango angelo (@DakotaLameHumor) May 2, 2020
My kid wrote a song called,
— Lisa Shmeesa ?????? (@LisaRieffel) May 2, 2020
“I Wonder What’s Inside your Butthole” Quite honestly, it slaps. pic.twitter.com/A65m6XeZ2r
That last part tho!! pic.twitter.com/yZCVjjeKnI
— aimeetoons (@aimeetoons) May 2, 2020
The Cure: Buttsong. pic.twitter.com/dzlkm6M3Ac
— Glenna Gill (@GlennaKGill) May 3, 2020
My friend gave it the soft piano treatment pic.twitter.com/NMY9EAM44C
— Matt DeGroot (@mattdegroot) May 3, 2020
Hi Lisa. Where do I send the royalties? pic.twitter.com/dnSdYWenzm
— Vance Gilbert (@vancegilbert) May 4, 2020
After a morning of singing...we made a country remix. pic.twitter.com/wiBpkPvkRq
— Rachel Lauren (@rachelbleemer) May 3, 2020
?? I remixed it ??
— Jonathan Mann (@songadaymann) May 2, 2020
My 6 year old and I watched the original like 50 times in a row. https://t.co/tKUhmLuVpw pic.twitter.com/BpGvSX9OIZ
the pandemic anthem we didn’t know we needed
— vkap (@VJKapur) May 2, 2020
Dad's Reaction... ?????????#whatsinsideyourbutthole #itslaps #jolee #iwonderwhatsinsideyourbutthole #covid19 pic.twitter.com/3KFgBv7A0b
— David Lautman (@davidlautman) May 5, 2020
All for now.
"The Match of the Century" (Feb.16, 1926)
