Helen Wills Moody

Helen Wills Moody
Helen Wills Moody
Nation:	United States
Birthday:	October 6, 1905
Date of death:	January 1, 1998
singles
Highest ranking:	1
Grand Slam record
Double
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Olympic games
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Helen Newington Wills Moody Roark (born October 6, 1905 Centerville , California , † January 1, 1998 Carmel , California) was an American tennis player. Together with the French Suzanne Lenglen , she dominated the 1920s and 1930s. Wills Moody is considered to be one of the best tennis players of all time.

Record of a career

Record Grand Slam winners in women's singles

rank	Tennis player	title
1.	Margaret Court	24
2.	Serena Williams	23
3.	Steffi Graf	22nd
4th	Helen Wills Moody	19th
5.	Chris Evert	18th
	/ Martina Navratilova
7th	Suzanne Lenglen	12
	Billie Jean King
As of January 28, 2017

Helen Wills Moody won a total of 31 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles and mixed. With 19 triumphs in the individual competitions, it is only surpassed by Margaret Smith Court (24), Serena Williams (23) and Steffi Graf (22) to this day. Wills triumphed seven times at the US championships (1923–1925, 1927–1929 and 1931), eight times at Wimbledon (1927–1930, 1932, 1933, 1935 and 1938) and four times at the French championships (1928–1930 , 1932). She also won two gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Between 1919 and 1938 she recorded an unbelievable record of 398 wins with only 35 defeats and between 1927 and 1932 she remained undefeated in 158 consecutive games without dropping a single set. Helen Wills was ranked number 1 in the world for eight years.

Helen Wills and Suzanne Lenglen - two dominators at the same time

Although the careers of the great French Suzanne Lenglen (1919–1926) and the great American Helen Wills (1922–1938) overlapped four years and both played in the same era, it is curious that both of them only happened once met each other.

This rare event, a high point in both careers, took place in 1926 - Lenglen's last year as an amateur. The French woman is 26, six-time Wimbledon champion and at the peak of her skills. Helen Wills is only 20 years old. The young American had won the national youth title in 1921 and 1922, but had not traveled to European tournaments until 1924. Her game still lacked the maturity that would make her an almost unbeatable player in the next decade. Despite this fact, Wills had already hinted at her potential dominance on the American stage: in 1923, 1924 and 1925 she won the US Open , which the Frenchwoman renounced after the negative experiences of 1921. Wills, on the other hand, had not played the French Open during this time , but on her first trip to Europe in 1924 she was immediately drawn into the final of Wimbledon . The Frenchwoman, winner of all other events between 1919 and 1925, had to finish that one Wimbledon tournament in the third round due to illness.

Both are legends and dominators of their time - but on separate stages. In Cannes in 1926 there was the only long-awaited and passionately longed-for exchange between the “Queen of Europe” and her young American challenger. It is also the battle between tennis’s glorious past and its future. The public's interest is so great that not only are the seats on the edge of the court sold out and the highest black market prices being paid. Even the regular ticket prices (50 US dollars) are - viewed in the time horizon - dizzying levels. Rather, all the balconies and roofs in the vicinity are covered by crowds. Among the numerous prominent spectators is the Swedish King Gustav , but also a group of French schoolboys who are dragged out of the eucalyptus bushes on the edge of the field where they are hiding shortly before the start of the game.

Lenglen, extravagant first world star of sport, famous for her tactically imaginative and variable game, her ballerinas-like light and nimble movements as well as surprising net attacks against the rather sluggishly moving athletic right-handed woman; their game is characterized above all by the brute force of their baseline strokes on the back and forehand side. But also, according to contemporaries, through an extraordinary ability to anticipate, which allows her to cover up her weaknesses in agility and speed. The legendary Donald Budge , a lifelong observer of international tennis and at times Wills' mixed partner, remarked surprisingly in the 1990s that "perhaps with the exception of Steffi Graf " no other player has had as hard a shot as Wills .

The dramatic game itself became a myth and is still considered to be a great moment in tennis: Lenglen, close to circulatory failure several times, succeeds in a great effort and with tactical finesse to wrestle the supposed successor with a score of 6: 3 and 8: 6 to defeat the youth.

The defeated Helen Wills will later describe this meeting with Suzanne Lenglen as the high point of her glamorous career and as an important turning point. In the dispute with the great French woman, Wills later realized that in the future she would have to concentrate entirely on a power game that was as straightforward as possible and, in particular, on improving her hard forehand.

The sporting event also has unexpected private consequences. After the end of the game, a certain Frederick Moody insists on expressing his admiration for the defeated. The marriage follows only a few years later.

1927–1938: 16 individual Grand Slam wins

The meeting in Cannes remains the only encounter between the two tennis legends. When the French woman announced her move to the professional camp a little later, the way is clear for Helen Wills Moody, who from 1927 onwards achieved the long-standing record of eight individual victories at Wimbledon and four victories at the French Open (1928-1932). With another four individual victories at the US Open after 1927, Moody triumphed in no fewer than 16 Grand Slam competitions during this period.

Between 1927 and 1932, Wills remains undefeated and does not lose a single set. During this period, the almost unbeatable American woman was given a special nickname. Because of her immobile and expressionless face, even in the most critical game situations, Helen Wills becomes "Little Miss Poker Face".

In addition to the great successes, 1927 brought other personal changes. Moody graduated from the University of Berkeley with a degree in art. A passion that will accompany the enthusiastic painter until the end of her life.

In 1928, the American achieved another novelty. Wills is the first ever player to win three Grand Slam tournaments in the same year. She triumphs in Paris, Wimbledon and the US Open. She is also the first American woman to win on the red ashes in Paris. A success that she is able to repeat three times in direct succession.

In 1929 Helen Wills married Frederick Moody and from then on played under the double name by which she is known to this day. Eight years later, in 1937, they divorce.

In 1935, Helen Wills Moody was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Associated Press .

In 1938, 33-year-old Wills won her last major title; she triumphs for the eighth and final time on the sacred turf at Wimbledon . A record - only apparently for eternity.

Helen Wills is at this time mostly a member of the victorious US team in the then legendary Wightman Cup (1923–1925, 1927–1932, 1938), the international team competition between the USA and England.

In October 1939, Wills finally gave Aidan Roark the word of consent. A year earlier she had announced her retirement from competitive sports.

After the sport

In 1959 the American was inducted into the Hall of Fame .

Her record number of 19 individual Grand Slam wins remains unmatched for 32 years. It was not until 1970 that the Australian Margaret Smith Court (24 titles in total) managed to outdo them. Helen Wills' overall record in the major tournaments remains an unmatched record to date: the American won 19 out of 22 Grand Slam tournaments in which she participated. Only three times did she fail in the final because of the eventual winner; she comes to an incredible career record of 126 wins in 129 games in total.

Wills' record of eight individual wins at Wimbledon from 1938 holds until 1990. She is already an elderly 85-year-old lady when Martina Navrátilová succeeds in surpassing the tennis legend's record with her ninth title win.

Wills remains extremely interested in developments in her sport throughout her life. Edward Chandler, a lifelong friend, told the New York Times in 1988 that Wills did not quit tennis until he was 82 years old - by force. But she has remained a competitive type all her life who loved and sought comparative combat. Even after retiring from competitive sports. In everything she did, she strived to always be the best. This trait was also revealed when Jeanne Cherry, an American sports historian, asked what the great old lady of tennis thought of Navrátilová's performance, now breaking her Wimbledon record after so long. Wills expressed her sincere and deep admiration for the dominator of the present. Then to add: "Well, she lifted all these weights, you know!"

Helen Wills died on January 1, 1998 at the age of 92.

Career record

French Open

• Individual: 1928–1930 and 1932
• Doubles: 1930 and 1932
• Mixed: 1928, 1929 and 1932

Wimbledon

• Individual: 1927–1930, 1932, 1933, 1935 and 1938 (also finals 1924)
• Doubles: 1924, 1927 and 1930
• Mixed: 1929

US Open

• Individual: 1923–1925, 1927–1929 and 1931 (final 1922)
• Doubles: 1922, 1924, 1925 and 1928 (1933 final)
• Mixed: 1924 and 1928 (final 1922)

Olympic games

• Single: 1924
• Double: 1924

Wightman Cup

• 1923-1925, 1927-1932 and 1938

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Robin Finn: Helen Wills Moody, Dominant Champion Who Won 8 Wimbledon Titles, Dies at 92. In: The New York Times . January 3, 1998, accessed January 4, 2013 . 

Web links

Commons : Helen Wills Moody  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• ITF profile Helen Wills (English)
• Helen Wills Moody in the "International Tennis Hall of Fame" (English; with picture)
• Helen Wills Moody in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )