Pauline Betz

Pauline Betz Addie
Betz in 1949
Full name Pauline May Betz Addie
ITF name Pauline Addie
Country (sports)  United States
Born (1919-08-06)August 6, 1919
Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
Died May 31, 2011(2011-05-31) (aged 91)
Potomac, Maryland, U.S.
Height 1.66 m (5 ft 5 in)
Turned pro 1947
Retired 1960[1]
Int. Tennis HoF 1965 (member page)
Singles
Highest ranking No. 1 (1946)
Grand Slam Singles results
French Open F (1946)
Wimbledon W (1946)
US Open W (1942, 1943, 1944, 1946)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
French Open F (1946)
Wimbledon F (1946)
US Open F (1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
French Open W (1946)
US Open F (1941, 1943)
Team competitions
Wightman Cup W (1946)

Pauline Betz Addie (née Pauline May Betz, August 6, 1919 – May 31, 2011[1]) was an American professional tennis player. She won five Grand Slam singles titles and was the runner-up on three other occasions. Jack Kramer has called her the second best female tennis player he ever saw, behind Helen Wills Moody.[2]

Early life

Betz attended Los Angeles High School and learned her tennis from Dick Skeen. She continued her tennis and education at Rollins College (graduating in 1943),[3][4][5][6] where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Betz earned an MA in economics from Columbia University.[7][8]

Career

Betz won the first of her four singles titles at the U.S. Championships in 1942, saving a match point in the semifinals against Margaret Osborne while trailing 3–5 in the final set.[9] The following year, she won the Tri-State tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio, defeating Catherine Wolf in the final 6–0, 6–2 without losing a point in the first set,[9] a "golden set". She won the Wimbledon singles title in 1946, the only time she entered the tournament, without losing a set.[9] At the 1946 French Championships, held that year after Wimbledon, she lost the final in three sets to Margaret Osborne after failing to convert two match points.[10]

Her amateur career ended in 1947 when the USLTA revoked her amateur status for exploring the possibilities of turning professional.[9][11][12][13] Betz played two professional tours of matches against Sarah Palfrey Cooke (1947) and Gussie Moran (1951).[10]

According to John Olliff of The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail, Addie was ranked World No. 1 in 1946 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945).[10] She was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association from 1939 through 1946. She was the top ranked U.S. player from 1942 through 1944 and in 1946.[14]

Awards and honors

On September 2, 1946 Betz appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.[15][16] Betz was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1965.[9] In 1995 she was inducted in the ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.[7] The Pauline Betz Addie Tennis Center at Cabin John Regional Park in Potomac, Maryland was renamed in her honor on May 1, 2008. Addie, Albert Ritzenberg, and Stanly Hoffberger founded the center in 1972.[17]

Grand Slam finals

Singles (5 titles, 3 runners-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up1941U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Sarah Palfrey Cooke5–7, 2–6
Winner1942U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Louise Brough4–6, 6–1, 6–4
Winner1943U.S. Championships (2) GrassUnited States Louise Brough6–3, 5–7, 6–3
Winner1944U.S. Championships (3) GrassUnited States Margaret Osborne6–3, 8–6
Runner-up1945U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Sarah Palfrey Cooke6–3, 6–8, 4–6
Winner1946WimbledonGrassUnited States Louise Brough6–2, 6–4
Runner-up1946French ChampionshipsClayUnited States Margaret Osborne6–2, 6–8, 5–7
Winner1946U.S. Championships (4) GrassUnited States Doris Hart11–9, 6–3

Doubles: 7 (7 runner-ups)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up1941U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Dorothy BundyUnited States Sarah Palfrey
United States Margaret Osborne		6–3, 1–6, 4–6
Runner-up1942U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Doris HartUnited States Louise Brough
United States Margaret Osborne		6–2, 5–7, 0–6
Runner-up1943U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Doris HartUnited States Louise Brough
United States Margaret Osborne		4–6, 3–6
Runner-up1944U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Doris HartUnited States Louise Brough
United States Margaret Osborne		6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Runner-up1945U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Doris HartUnited States Louise Brough
United States Margaret Osborne		3–6, 3–6
Runner-up1946WimbledonGrassUnited States Doris HartUnited States Louise Brough
United States Margaret Osborne		3–6, 6–2, 3–6
Runner-up1946French ChampionshipsClayUnited States Doris HartUnited States Louise Brough
United States Margaret Osborne		4–6, 6–0, 1–6

Mixed Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up1941U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Bobby RiggsUnited States Sarah Palfrey
United States Jack Kramer		6–4, 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up1943U.S. ChampionshipsGrassEcuador Pancho SeguraUnited States Margaret Osborne
United States Bill Talbert		8–10, 4–6
Winner1946French ChampionshipsClayUnited States Budge PattyUnited States Dorothy Bundy
United States Tom Brown		7–5, 9–7

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# A NH

(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)
Tournament193919401941194219431944194519461Career SR
Australian Championships A A NH NH NH NH NH A 0 / 0
French Championships A NH R R R R A F 0 / 1
Wimbledon A NH NH NH NH NH NH W 1 / 1
U.S. Championships 1R QF F W W W F W 4 / 8
SR 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 1 1 / 1 1 / 1 1 / 1 0 / 1 2 / 3 5 / 10

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation. SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

1In 1946, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.

Personal life

In 1949 Betz published an autobiography titled Wings on my Tennis Shoes.[18][16] That same year she married Bob Addie, a sportswriter for the Washington Times-Herald and Washington Post.[1][9] The couple had five children, including poet and novelist Kim Addonizio, Rusty, Gary, Jon and Rick.[1][12] Her granddaughter Aya Cash is an actress. Pauline Betz Addie died in her sleep on May 31, 2011, aged 91.[1]

Records

Tournament Year Record accomplished Player tied
Tri-State tournament1943Achieved a Golden Set[19]Tine Scheuer-Larsen (1995)
Yaroslava Shvedova (2012)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Robin Finn (June 2, 2011). "Pauline Betz Addie, a Dominant Tennis Champion, Dies at 91". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ Female players & the 1950–51 Pauline Betz-Gussy Moran tour
  3. ↑ "ITA Women's Hall of Fame..." ITA Women's Hall of Fame McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center, William & Mary College. Archived from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Rollins College Athletics Hall of Fame". Rollins College Athletics Department. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Rollins College Women's Tennis: Small School With A Big Tradition". Sports Then and Now. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Tennis-Women's: Tradition". Rollins College Athletics Department. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  7. 1 2 "Pauline Betz Addie". Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
  8. ↑ Harold Parrott (September 7, 1943). "Hunt, blocked by Riggs, emulates dad as champion". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com. (Subscription required (help)).
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pauline May Betz profile (Addie), tennisfame.com; accessed November 25, 2016.
  10. 1 2 3 Collins, Bud (2008). The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book. New York: New Chapter Press. pp. 695, 702. ISBN 0-942257-41-3.
  11. ↑ "Pauline Betz". The Telegraph. June 5, 2011.
  12. 1 2 Richard Evans (20 June 2011). "Pauline Betz obituary". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ "Betz undecided on future plans". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. AP. April 10, 1947. p. 13.
  14. ↑ United States Tennis Association (1988). 1988 Official USTA Tennis Yearbook. Lynn, Massachusetts: H.O. Zimman, Inc. pp. 260–1.
  15. ↑ "Pauline Betz". TIME.
  16. 1 2 Martin Childs (June 17, 2011). "Pauline Betz: Grand slam-winning tennis player banned for merely considering turning professional". The Independent.
  17. ↑ "Pauline Betz Addie". Sidwell Friends School. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Wings on my tennis shoes". www.worldcat.org. Worldcat.
  19. ↑ Politiken, 10 May 1995, 1st Section, p.10
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