Tennis great won big at Wimbledon
Tennis great Doris Hart, who won each Grand Slam tournament at least once, and once won three Wimbledon titles in a single day, died Friday at her home in Coral Gables, Fla. She was 89.
Her death was announced by the International Tennis Hall of Fame. A cause was not disclosed.
Hart, known for her drop shot mastery, won titles in 1954-55 at the U.S. Championships, which later became the U.S. Open.
She won the French Open twice and Wimbledon and the Australian Open once each. She also totaled 29 major doubles titles and was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1951.
That year, Hart had her finest tournament at Wimbledon, when she won three titles. She defeated friend Shirley Fry in singles before they joined forces to win women’s doubles. She then teamed with Frank Sedgman to win mixed doubles.
All three matches were on the same day because of rain delays.
Hart suffered an infection as a child that was serious enough for doctors to consider amputating her right leg. However, she started playing tennis at 6 and won 35 professional titles.
“Everybody thought she had polio, because she was a little bowlegged,” Fry told the Associated Press in 2004. “For her to do what she did was special because she couldn’t run as well as other people. And yet she had the smarts.”
Hart was born June 20, 1925, in St. Louis and grew up in Coral Gables. She attended the University of Miami.
Her best weapon as a player was the drop shot, which she practiced endlessly as a youngster. She would hit it even from behind the baseline, f loating winners just over the net.
“I’d be criticized,” she told the Associated Press in 2004. “I can remember losing matches, and people would come up to me and say, ‘Girl, do you know how many times you missed that drop shot? If you hadn’t done that, blah blah blah.’ And I’d say, ‘Thank you.’ But I knew I had to do it. That’s what would win for me.”
After she retired in 1955, she worked as a teaching pro for 28 years at a club in Pompano Beach. Later in life, she shunned the pro tennis scene, though she did watch matches on television. Hart said she disliked the way most players try to hit everything so hard. “There’s really not much strategy involved,” she says. “It’s not that appealing to watch, I don’t think.”