Suzanne Lenglen

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, trendsetting 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.

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).

Related Topics:
$ - Mary K. Browne

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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.

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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 recognised as a federal training centre by the French tennis federation in 1936. During this period, Lenglen also wrote several books on tennis.

Related Topics:
Jean Tillier - Roland Garros

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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.

Related Topics:
Leukemia - Pernicious anemia - Cimetière de Saint-Ouen - Saint-Ouen

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