Maria Bueno
Three-times Wimbledon champion who was given a ticker-tape parade in her native Sao Paulo
MARIA BUENO, who has died aged 78, was among the most elegant and naturally gifted tennis players of her generation and a sporting idol in her native South America; she won 19 Grand Slam titles including three Wimbledon and four US Open singles crowns plus 12 doubles championships, becoming the darling of the international tennis circuit.
Through her dynamic, all-court game and uniquely graceful style she helped to put women’s tennis on the map. The British commentator and former international John Barrett summed up her appeal: “Here was poetry in motion, whose every movement combined the grace of a ballet dancer with the controlled power of a top gymnast.”
Maria Esther Andion Bueno was born on October 11 1939 into a closeknit and middle-class but impecunious family in Sao Paulo. Both parents loved tennis and they lived opposite the Clube de Regales Tiele, where Maria and her elder brother Pedro played most days using racquets passed down through the family.
The slightly built Maria’s talent rapidly emerged as she developed the timing and technique to hit the ball exquisitely with an adult-sized racquet. Without a regular coach, she developed her explosive service action from studying photographs of the American star “Big Bill” Tilden.
Practising mainly with men, including the Brazilian international Armando Vieira, her mentor, she won all the Brazilian age-group championships. At 17 she travelled to Florida, alone and unchaperoned on a one-way ticket donated by her club, to win the Orange Bowl Championships, considered the world championship of junior tennis.
She toured Europe, winning the 1958 Italian Championships at Foro Italico in Rome at her first attempt. At a time when women’s matches were usually relegated to the back courts, she was invariably centre stage, with crowds hanging from the rafters to watch her.
“She caused an absolute sensation”, recalled her fellow wunderkind and friend Christine Truman, another former Wimbledon finalist. “She had this extraordinary movie-star quality and the Italians went wild for her exotic looks and glamour. She was the most graceful player I ever saw, like a ballerina on court, with pace rather than power, and a serve like a rocket thanks to her wonderful timing.”
In Maria Bueno’s first appearance at Wimbledon in 1958, she and the black American player Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon doubles crown. She returned the following year to take the singles title, beating the American Darlene Hard in straight sets. She also beat Christine Truman in the US championship and became world No 1.
Nicknamed the Sao Paulo Swallow, she returned to a heroine’s welcome in Brazil, where the Post Office issued a stamp bearing her face. “They even laid on a ticker-tape parade for her in Sao Paulo,” remembered Ann Jones, another former top player.
Maria Bueno retained her Wimbledon title in 1960 and also toured Australia, where she and the big-hitting Christine Truman, then world No 2, won the Australian Open doubles. Despite British hopes that the brilliant young pairing would continue, Darlene Hard insisted that Maria Bueno play doubles with her. The pair forged a strong partnership on and off court, winning a string of titles including the French Open, two Wimbledons and two US Open championships.
Maria Bueno was also becoming a fashion icon. Her exquisitely sculpted outfits, designed by the maverick tennis couturier Teddy Tinling, proved controversial but made stars of both the designer and his muse.
In 1964 she appeared on Centre Court in a Tinling dress wearing a shocking pink underskirt and matching knickers that caused a sensation as she served. “There was a gasp from one end of the court,” she recalled, “and the people the other end didn’t know why, until I changed ends and served from there. Later I wore panties that resembled the club colours, which outraged the club committee and they brought in the all-white clothing rule.”
Although illness and injury had virtually ended her international career by the start of the Open era in 1968, Maria Bueno underwent a series of operations and returned briefly to the circuit, winning the Japan Open in 1974 which brought her biggest payday.
Despite her fame, competing in the amateur era meant that money had always been tight and she regretted missing out on the lucrative rewards enjoyed by her immediate successors. She was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978.
She had virulent Merkel cell carcinoma diagnosed in 2016 and underwent extensive radiotherapy, choosing to keep her cancer secret from all but close friends and family.
Last year she returned as usual to Wimbledon to commentate for Brazilian television, while still playing regularly on the outside courts at 6am. Lucid to the end, Maria Bueno enjoyed watching Novak Djokovic’s quarter-final against Marco Cecchinato in the French Open last week.
Maria Bueno was unmarried.