Born: May 24, 1899, Compiègne, France
Died: July 4, 1938, Paris
Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was a French tennis player, whose popularity in the 1920s helped establish women’s tennis as a spectator sport. In an era when female tennis players wore elaborate and concealing costumes on the court, Lenglen became celebrated for her tennis apparel, which exposed her forearms and calves.
Born in Compiègne, Lenglen was trained by her father. In 1914, at the age of 15, she won the world hard-court tennis title. During her amateur career Lenglen won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon six times (1919-1923, 1925). In 1920, 1922, and 1925 she also won both the women’s doubles and the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon. At the French championships she won the women’s singles title six times (1920-1923, 1925, 1926), the women’s doubles title twice (1925, 1926), and the mixed doubles title twice (1925, 1926). Lenglen was the dominant female player of her time, and between her first win at Wimbledon in 1919 and when she retired from amateur competition in 1926, her only loss was to Norwegian-born Molla Mallory at the 1921 United States championships. In 1926, Lenglen became one of the first tennis players to turn professional, touring North America in 1926 and 1927. She later opened a tennis school.
