Dorothy Knode

Dorothy Head Knode (* 4. July 1925 in Richmond , California as Dorothy Head ) is an American tennis player . She achieved her greatest successes in the 1950s, when she twice stood in the individual finals of the French tennis championships and played four other semifinals in Grand Slam tournaments.

biography

Training and first successes in tennis

Dorothy Knode was born Dorothy Head in California in 1925 . She started playing tennis at the age of eleven. Knode's aunt finished school so she could learn to play tennis in Alameda County's public places . After about a year she was already taking part in competitions in which she always measured herself against older children.

After graduating from high school , Knode worked for a year at a United States Navy supply warehouse to help finance her upcoming college . She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and then worked as a secretary. At the beginning of the 1940s Knode took part in the US tennis championships several times and reached the quarter-finals in 1943, 1946 and 1947. In 1948 she won the Cincinnati tennis tournament in singles and in women's doubles with the Romanian Magda Rurac . In 1951 another victory in women's doubles should follow in Cincinnati.

Participation in European tournaments

In 1950 Knode decided to start an international tennis career and went to Europe. In the same year she took part for the first time in the French tennis championships and the British Wimbledon Championships , where she reached the third and fourth round. At the Open German Tennis Championships in Hamburg , she won the single and double title. In 1952 further titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles should follow. Knode achieved a first major success in 1952 when she made it to the semi-finals at the French championships, where she was number three seeded with 2: 6 and 6: 8 and was defeated by her compatriot of the same age and later tournament winner Doris Hart , who was number two on the seeding list . The following year Knode moved back to France in the semi-finals of the tennis championships, where she had to admit defeat in two sets (3: 6, 3: 6) as number five to the later American winner and top seed Maureen Connolly . In the same year she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon Championships for the first time as number four on the seed list, where she again lost to Doris Hart (2: 6, 2: 6).

In 1954 Knode had a daughter and started only at the US championships, where she did not get past the first round. 1955 was her most successful year to date. The number four seeded American, who should never take part in the Australian Championships , achieved after victories over the Briton Shirley Bloomer (6: 3, 6: 3) and her top seeded compatriot Beverly Fleitz (6: 2, 6: 3) the final of the French tennis championships. There she met the number two seeded British Angela Mortimer . Knode won the first set 6-2. The second set went 5: 7 to the six years younger opponent. The decisive third set was so fiercely contested that Knode, like the legendary French world-class player Suzanne Lenglen, was exhausted and served a cognac during the game . According to his own information, Knode was only two points missing from her first Grand Slam title. Since there was no tie-break at the time (this was only introduced for women in 1973), Mortimer won the third set with 10: 8. With 38 games, it was the longest final at the French tennis championships to date. This record was only surpassed in 1996 by Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario , who needed 40 games and more than three hours.

In 1956 Knode reached the women's doubles final of the French tennis championships together with Darlene Hard , where both were defeated by the American-British duo Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton in three sets (8: 6, 6: 8, 1: 6). On the other hand, she could not build on the successful individual results before in 1956 (France: 3rd round, Wimbledon: 2nd round, US Championships: quarter-finals). In the following year Knode achieved the best season in terms of placements. At the French championships in 1957 she reached the final again as number two on the seeding list, where she met the top seeded Shirley Bloomer and lost in two sets with 1: 6 and 3: 6. At Wimbledon, she finished fourth in the seeding list and reached the semifinals, where she lost 2: 6 and 3: 6 to her lower-ranking compatriot Darlene Hard. At the US Championships Knode was also eliminated in the semi-finals against the eventual winner Althea Gibson.

End of career and private life

After the 1957 season, Knode was no longer able to build on previous performances in Grand Slam tournaments and until the end of the 1960s only appeared sporadically in the three major tennis tournaments in France (including 3rd round in 1966), Wimbledon (including 3rd round 1960 and 1963) and the United States (4th round 1962) in appearance. In 1958 she won the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships in three sets against Shirley Bloomer (4: 6, 7: 5, 7: 5). Four years later she won the Central Japan Women's Open against Reiko Miyagi (6-3, 6-0). Knode's highest ranking was fifth in the world (1955, 1957) and third in the US and national rankings (1957 and 1959). She also won six national titles in singles (1955, 1958, 1962) and doubles (1955, 1956, 1958) and was a member of the victorious American Wightman Cup team in 1955 and 1957 .

Knode remained connected to tennis well into old age. She trained two to three times a week when she was over 70 and appeared regularly in senior tournaments in the United States such as the Queen's Cup (2004). In 2005 she won the top seeded player at the 25th ITF Super Seniors World Individual Championships in Manavgat, Turkey, the single final of the over 80s against Ingeborg Knuth from Germany and reached the double final together with Carmen Christlieb from Mexico. Most recently, Knode signed up for the USTA National Senior Women's Clay Court Championships in 2010 at the age of 84 .

As an amateur player, Dorothy Knode, who compared her style of play and talent in 1999 to that of her compatriot Mary Joe Fernández (long baseline balls on either side and stop balls at important moments of the game), was unable to make big financial gains. She lived in Panama , Turkey (where she met her ex-husband), and the United States and raised two daughters. Knode toured Egypt , Pakistan , among others , and also stated that he played tennis doubles with the Japanese Empress Michiko . She learned French, Spanish, German and Japanese, trained as a teacher and also worked as a tennis teacher. Today she lives in Huntington Beach, California .

Individual results at Grand Slam tournaments

competition	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969	Career
Australian tennis championships	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0/0
French tennis championships	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3r	-	VF	VF	-	F.	3r	F.	VF	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3r	1r	-	1r	0/10
Wimbledon Championships	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4r	-	4r	HF	-	VF	2r	HF	2r	-	3r	-	-	3r	-	-	2r	1r	-	-	0/11
American tennis championships	VF	2r	1r	VF	VF	3r	2r	-	3r	-	-	1r	HF	VF	HF	VF	VF	-	-	4r	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0/15

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Knode, Dorothy Head . In: Official encyclopedia of tennis . New York: Harper & Row, [1972] (accessed via WBIS Online ).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Clarke, Elizabeth: She's Forever Playing Tennis . In: Palm Beach Post (Florida) Jan 15, 1999, p. 5C.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Bryant, Bill: Have racket, will travel . In: Huntsville Times (Alabama) April 18, 2007, p. 1C.
4. ^ AFP : French Open records . May 27, 2006, 12:37 AM GMT, Paris (accessed via LexisNexis Economy ).
5. ^ Vecsey, George: Sisters of the World United 50 Years After Gibson . In: The New York Times , September 9, 2007, Sports Desk, p. 3.
6. ↑ Mrs. Knode Wins Irish Tennis Title . In: The Washington Post , July 13, 1958, p. C6.
7. ↑ Mrs. Knode Victor in Tokyo . In: The New York Times, June 28, 1962, p. 25.
8. ^ Collins, Bud: The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book . New York, NY: New Chapter Press, 2008.- ISBN 0-942257-41-3 . Pp. 695, 702-703.
9. ↑ US Captures 19th Wightman Cup . In: The Washington Post, Aug. 16, 1955, p. 15.
10. ↑ US Women KeeP Wightman Cup, 6-1 . In: The New York Times, Aug 12, 1957, p. 25.
11. ↑ Orange County Register (California): Local Connection: OC Crush schedules tryouts . September 10, 2004 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
12. ↑ Individual results at 92computing.com.au (English; accessed on May 29, 2011).
13. ↑ Double results at 92computing.com.au (English; accessed on May 29, 2011).
14. ↑ Robertson, Dale: Tennis Notebook: Clay Courts' field of 28 finalized No. 12 Haas, No. 19 Gonzalez among entrants . In: The Houston Chronicle , Feb.25, 2010, p. 13.

Web links

• ITF profile Dorothy Knode (English)
• Fed Cup stats by Dorothy Knode (English)