1930's Sports | Moody, Helen Wills 1905-

TENNIS CHAMPION

Golden Age Carryover.

Even when she was not playing tennis or playing hurt, Helen Wills Moody was America's greatest female tennis player in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1923 and 1938 she won eight Wimbledon titles (a record until 1990), seven U.S. National titles, and four French titles. Though an aggressive baseline player, she won numerous doubles and mixed-doubles matches. Many of her great victories came in the 1920s, but she also suffered her toughest defeat in 1926, losing to Suzanne Lenglen in Cannes. It is still a hotly debated issue as to who was the better player of the era—Lenglen or Moody. Between 1927 and 1933 she won 180 consecutive singles matches, without having lost a set in any of them. She had, after all, vowed after her loss to Lenglen never to lose again.

Little Miss Poker Face.

Wills played with cold, hard determination. Bill Tilden found her an emotionless,...