137 Facts About Suzanne Lenglen

Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was a French tennis player.

Suzanne Lenglen was the inaugural world No 1 from 1921 to 1926, winning eight Grand Slam titles in singles and twenty-one in total.

Suzanne Lenglen was a four-time World Hard Court Champion in singles, and ten times in total.

Suzanne Lenglen was the first leading amateur to turn professional, and was ranked as the greatest women's tennis player from the amateur era in the 100 Greatest of All Time series.

Suzanne Lenglen won her Wimbledon debut in 1919 in the second-longest final in history, the only one of her major singles finals she did not win by a lopsided scoreline.

Suzanne Lenglen incorporated fashion into her matches, highlighted by her signature bandeau headwear.

Suzanne Lenglen is recognised as the first female athlete to become a global sport celebrity and her popularity led Wimbledon to move to its larger modern-day venue.

Suzanne Lenglen was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978, and the second show court at the site of the French Open is named in her honour.

Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen was born in the 16th arrondissement of Paris on 24 May 1899 to Charles and Anais Lenglen.

Suzanne Lenglen had a younger brother who did not live past the age of three.

Suzanne Lenglen's father was a pharmacist who became wealthy by inheriting a horse-drawn omnibus company from his father.

Several years after Suzanne Lenglen was born, her father sold the omnibus business, after which he relocated the family to Marest-sur-Matz near Compiegne in northern France in 1904.

Suzanne Lenglen's father credited her confidence to play tennis in large stadiums to her experience as a diabolo performer.

Suzanne Lenglen's father attended tennis tournaments on the Riviera circuit, where the world's best players competed in the first half of the year.

Suzanne Lenglen quickly showed enough skill to convince her father to get her a proper racket from a tennis manufacturer within a month.

Suzanne Lenglen then developed training exercises and played against his daughter.

Three months later, Suzanne Lenglen travelled to Paris to play on a proper clay court owned by her father's friend, Dr Cizelly.

Suzanne Lenglen studied the leading male and female players and decided to teach Lenglen the tactics from the men's game, which were more aggressive than the women's style of slowly constructing points from the baseline.

Suzanne Lenglen began training with Joseph Negro, the club's teaching professional.

Suzanne Lenglen entered her first non-handicap singles event in July 1912 at the Compiegne Championships near her hometown, her only regular event of the year.

Suzanne Lenglen won her debut match in the quarterfinals before losing her semifinal to Jeanne Matthey.

Suzanne Lenglen played in the singles and mixed doubles handicap events, winning both of them.

When Suzanne Lenglen returned to Nice in 1913, she entered a handicap doubles event in Monte Carlo with Elizabeth Ryan, an American who had moved to England a year earlier.

Nonetheless, when Suzanne Lenglen returned to Compiegne, she won her first two regular singles titles, both within a few weeks of her 14th birthday.

Back on the Riviera in 1914, Suzanne Lenglen focused on regular events.

However, Suzanne Lenglen still struggled at larger tournaments early in the year, losing to Ryan in the quarterfinals at Monte Carlo and six-time Wimbledon champion Dorothea Lambert Chambers in the semifinals at the South of France Championships.

Suzanne Lenglen won the All Comers' singles draw of six players to make it to the challenge round against Marguerite Broquedis.

Suzanne Lenglen won the singles final against Germaine Golding for her first major title.

Suzanne Lenglen won the doubles title with Ryan over the Amblard sisters without dropping a game in the final.

Suzanne Lenglen finished runner-up in mixed doubles to Ryan and Decugis.

Suzanne Lenglen did not like her chances of defeating Lambert Chambers on grass, a surface on which she had never competed, given that she had already lost to her earlier in the year on clay.

Suzanne Lenglen participated and had the opportunity to play singles matches against male players.

Many tournaments resumed in 1919, following the end of World War I Lenglen won nine singles titles in ten events, all four of her doubles events, and eight mixed doubles titles in ten events.

Suzanne Lenglen won the six-round All Comers' bracket, losing only six games in the first four rounds.

Suzanne Lenglen defeated Lambert Chambers and Ethel Larcombe again in the doubles final with Ryan.

Suzanne Lenglen already lost to Ryan and Randolph Lycett in the her mixed doubles quarterfinal, her only loss of the year in any discipline aside from defaults.

Suzanne Lenglen began 1920 with five singles titles on the Riviera, three of which she won in lopsided finals against Ryan.

Suzanne Lenglen recovered in time for the French Championships two weeks later and won the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles to complete a triple crown.

Suzanne Lenglen easily made it to the challenge round in singles, where she defeated Broquedis in a rematch of the 1914 final.

Suzanne Lenglen won the doubles event with Elisabeth d'Ayen and defended her mixed doubles title with Decugis, only needing to play the challenge round.

Suzanne Lenglen won the triple crown, taking the doubles with Ryan and the mixed doubles with Australian Gerald Patterson.

At the Olympics, Suzanne Lenglen won two gold medals and one bronze medal for France.

Suzanne Lenglen won the singles title over British player Dorothy Holman, losing only four games in the entire event.

Suzanne Lenglen won mixed doubles with Decugis, overcoming an opening set loss in their quarterfinal.

Suzanne Lenglen again dominated the tournaments on the Riviera in 1921, winning eight titles in singles, six in doubles, and seven in mixed doubles.

Suzanne Lenglen won all of her matches against Ryan, four in singles and five in mixed doubles.

Suzanne Lenglen won the triple crown at the tournament, partnering with Golding in doubles and Jacques Brugnon in mixed doubles.

Suzanne Lenglen then won her third consecutive Wimbledon titles in both singles and doubles, defeating her doubles partner Ryan in a lopsided singles final.

Suzanne Lenglen withdrew from the mixed doubles event after her partner suffered an ankle injury.

Suzanne Lenglen did not play the singles event and did not play singles again until a month later at the Beausoleil Championships in Monte Carlo, where she won the title without dropping a game.

However, Suzanne Lenglen rebounded and won the next twelve games for the title.

Suzanne Lenglen entered more events and won more titles in 1923 than any other year.

Suzanne Lenglen won all 16 of the singles events she entered, as well as 13 of 14 doubles events, and 16 of 18 mixed doubles events.

At what was to be the last edition of the World Hard Court Championships, Suzanne Lenglen faced McKane in the final in each event, all three of which were held in the same afternoon.

Suzanne Lenglen defeated McKane in singles and mixed doubles, the latter of which was with Henri Cochet as her partner for the second consecutive year.

At the French Championships, Suzanne Lenglen defended her triple crown without losing a set in spite of the challenge round format being abandoned.

Suzanne Lenglen partnered with Brugnon in mixed doubles for the third straight year, and paired with Julie Vlasto for the first time in doubles.

At Wimbledon, Suzanne Lenglen won the singles and doubles titles with ease, never dropping more than three games in a set.

Suzanne Lenglen played doubles more regularly, winning eight titles in both doubles and mixed doubles.

Suzanne Lenglen did not play another event the rest of the year, and in particular missed the Olympic Games in Paris, where Helen Wills won the women's singles event.

Suzanne Lenglen returned to tennis at the Beau Site New Year Meeting in Cannes the first week of the year, winning in doubles with Ryan in her only event.

Suzanne Lenglen played singles at only two tournaments on the Riviera, including the South of France Championships.

Suzanne Lenglen won the triple crown and was not challenged in singles or mixed doubles.

Suzanne Lenglen won the singles final over McKane, losing only three games.

Suzanne Lenglen won the mixed doubles final with Brugnon against her doubles partner Julie Vlasto and Cochet.

Suzanne Lenglen followed her performance at the French Championships with another triple crown at Wimbledon.

Suzanne Lenglen played five singles matches and did not lose a game in the second set of any of them.

Suzanne Lenglen's opponents included Ryan in her opening match, the defending champion McKane in the semifinals, and Joan Fry in the final.

Later in the year, Suzanne Lenglen won the doubles and mixed doubles events at the Cromer Covered Courts, the only time she played in England other than Wimbledon and her only indoor wood tournament.

In what was called the Match of the Century, Suzanne Lenglen defeated Wills in straight sets.

In Wills's absence, Suzanne Lenglen defended all three of her titles at the French Championships with ease, defeating Mary Browne in the singles final.

Suzanne Lenglen again won the doubles with Vlasto and the mixed doubles with Brugnon.

Suzanne Lenglen was concerned with her family's finances as her father's health was worsening, and she was not content with the FFLT wanting her to enter the doubles event with a French partner instead of her usual partner Ryan.

Suzanne Lenglen opened the singles event with an uncharacteristic win against Browne in which she lost five games, the same number she had lost in the entire 1925 singles event.

Suzanne Lenglen had previously turned down an offer of 200,000 francs to turn professional in the United States following her last victory over Molla Mallory in 1923, declining in large part to keep her amateur status.

Suzanne Lenglen became less concerned with that after the crowd turned against her at Wimbledon.

Suzanne Lenglen was more interested in keeping her social status, and was convinced by Pyle that turning professional would not hurt her stardom or damage her reputation.

Suzanne Lenglen dominated Browne on the tour, winning all 33 of the best-of-three-set matches played to completion.

The only other set she won was the only set they played at the 36th stop, where Suzanne Lenglen had decided to play just a one-set match while ill to avoid disappointing the fans.

Suzanne Lenglen earned the most money, receiving half of the revenue from ticket sales and $100,000 in total, more than the $70,000 that Babe Ruth earned in 1927 as the highest-paid player in Major League Baseball.

Suzanne Lenglen won all seven of her singles matches, never losing more than five games in any of them.

Suzanne Lenglen was widely criticised for her decision to turn professional.

Suzanne Lenglen in turn criticised amateur tennis for her nearing poverty.

Suzanne Lenglen had asked about the possibility in 1932 after Feret was reinstated, but was told to wait another three years and decided against it.

Whereas Suzanne Lenglen regularly came to the net and had an all-court game built around control rather than power, the much older Mallory played almost exclusively from the baseline.

Suzanne Lenglen won both of their doubles and mixed doubles encounters.

Nonetheless, Suzanne Lenglen proceeded to win by following her plan to play defensively and wait for Mallory to make unforced errors on attempted winners.

Suzanne Lenglen was able to easily win their last two meetings in 1922 and 1923 by playing more aggressively and employing Mallory's strategy of hitting well-placed winners from the baseline.

Suzanne Lenglen won her first mixed doubles match against Ryan at the 1920 Beaulieu tournament, starting a win streak that ended with a loss to Ryan and Lycett at the 1923 South of France Championships.

Suzanne Lenglen succeeded Lenglen as world No 1 in 1927 and kept that ranking for the next six years and nine of the next twelve overall until 1938.

Suzanne Lenglen withdrew from Wimbledon and the Olympics due to jaundice in 1924, and Wills withdrew from the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1926 due to appendicitis, preventing a longer rivalry between tennis's two biggest female stars of the 1920s from emerging.

Suzanne Lenglen never gave an opponent the same kind of shot twice in a row.

Suzanne Lenglen just sent back at me whatever I sent at her and waited for me to make a fault.

Suzanne Lenglen's volley is not a timid push, but an arrow from the bow.

Suzanne Lenglen aimed to come to the net to finish points quickly whenever possible.

Kathleen McKane specifically noted that "Suzanne Lenglen volleyed like a man" when describing her influence on women's tennis.

Suzanne Lenglen used a continental grip and strived to hit balls early on the rise.

Suzanne Lenglen wrote in her book Lawn Tennis for Girls: "A favorite shot of mine is the backhand down the line".

Suzanne Lenglen was regarded as having a graceful style of play.

Suzanne Lenglen developed a reputation for drinking cognac to help her play at pivotal points of her biggest matches.

Suzanne Lenglen travelled to the US National Championships in 1921 only after the USLTA agreed to supply her with alcohol during her stay even though its sale was illegal under the laws of Prohibition at the time.

Suzanne Lenglen was ranked as the 24th greatest player in history in the 100 Greatest of All Time television series.

Suzanne Lenglen was the ninth-highest ranked woman overall, and the highest-ranked woman to play exclusively in the amateur era.

Suzanne Lenglen won a total of 250 titles consisting of 83 in singles, 74 in doubles, and 93 in mixed doubles.

Suzanne Lenglen ended her career on a 250-match win streak on clay.

Suzanne Lenglen won a total of 17 titles at Wimbledon, 19 at the French Championships, and 10 at the World Hard Court Championships across all disciplines.

Suzanne Lenglen won two triple crowns at the World Hard Court Championships in 1921 and 1922, and six at the French Championships, the first four of which came consecutively from 1920 through 1923 when the tournament was invitation-only to French nationals and the last two of which came in 1925 and 1926 when the tournament was open to internationals.

Journalists who criticised Suzanne Lenglen were condemned and refuted by the rest of the press.

Suzanne Lenglen was the first female athlete to be acknowledged as a celebrity outside of her sport.

Suzanne Lenglen was well known by the general public, and her matches were well-attended by people not otherwise interested in tennis.

The popularity of Suzanne Lenglen's matches at Wimbledon was a large factor in the club moving the tournament from Worple Road to its modern site at Church Road.

Suzanne Lenglen was known for a story about her father training her to improve her shot precision as a child by placing a handkerchief at different locations on the court and instructing her to hit it as a target.

Suzanne Lenglen was said to be able to hit the handkerchief with ease regardless of the type of incoming shot.

Suzanne Lenglen was the first leading tennis player to leave amateur tennis to play professionally, thereby launching playing tennis as a professional career.

Suzanne Lenglen began organising the first major professional tournaments to feature players who had been top amateurs, beginning with the US Pro Tennis Championships first held later in 1927.

Suzanne Lenglen redefined traditional women's tennis attire early in her career.

Suzanne Lenglen had Jean Patou design her outfits that were not only intended to be stylish, but allowed her to perform her signature leaping ballet motion in points and did not restrict her movement on the court.

Suzanne Lenglen replaced the bonnet with a bandeau, which became known as the "Suzanne Lenglen bandeau" and was her signature piece of attire throughout the rest of her career.

Suzanne Lenglen is honoured in a variety of ways at the French Open.

Outside the court, there is a bronze relief statue of Suzanne Lenglen that was erected in 1994.

Additionally, one of the main entrances to the ground is Porte Suzanne Lenglen, which leads to Allee Suzanne Lenglen.

In spite of her success at the French Championships, Suzanne Lenglen never competed at Stade Roland Garros as it did not become the site for the tournament until 1928, after her retirement from amateur tennis.

Suzanne Lenglen was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978.

Suzanne Lenglen has been honoured in a Google Doodle twice, once on her 117th birthday on 24 May 2016, and again on International Women's Day on 8 March 2017.

Suzanne Lenglen was in a long-term relationship with Baldwin Baldwin from 1927 to 1932.

Suzanne Lenglen met Baldwin during her professional tour in the United States.

Suzanne Lenglen was the author of several books on tennis, the first two of which she wrote during her amateur career.

Suzanne Lenglen wrote Lawn Tennis: The Game of Nations and a romantic novel, The Love Game: Being the Life Story of Marcelle Penrose.

Suzanne Lenglen finished her last book Tennis by Simple Exercises with Margaret Morris in 1937.

The book featured a section by Suzanne Lenglen on what was needed to become an all-around tennis player and a section by Morris, a choreographer and dancer, on exercises designed for tennis players.

Suzanne Lenglen played a role as an actress in the 1935 British musical comedy film Things Are Looking Up, in which she contests a tennis match against the lead character portrayed by Cicely Courtneidge.

Suzanne Lenglen opened her own tennis school for girls in 1936 at the Tennis Mirabeau in Paris with the support of the FFLT.

Suzanne Lenglen began instructing adults the following year as well.

Shortly after this appointment Suzanne Lenglen became severely fatigued while teaching at the school and needed to receive a blood transfusion.

Suzanne Lenglen previously had other health issues following her retirement, most notably suffering from appendicitis and having an appendectomy in October 1934.

Suzanne Lenglen died on 4 July 1938 at the age of 39, three weeks after she became ill, and was reported to have died from pernicious anemia.

Suzanne Lenglen was buried at the Cimetiere de Saint-Ouen just outside Paris.