Brazil mourns passing of women’s tennis icon Bueno
BRAZILIAN tennis star Maria Bueno, who won three Wimbledon singles titles and four US Opens in the 1950s and 1960s, helping usher in the modern women’s game, has died at the age of 78 after suffering from mouth cancer.
On Tuesday, Bueno was admitted to the Nove de Julho hospital in Sao Paulo, where a statement was released on Friday saying she had passed away.
“A very sad day for sports,” tweeted the International Olympic Committee, one of several sports groups and tennis players to praise Bueno’s contribution. “Brazil and the world lost a true tennis legend,” it added.
Nicknamed the “Tennis Ballerina” due to her graceful style, Bueno spent most of her career playing before the professional era.
She won 19 Grand Slam titles overall, seven in singles, 11 in doubles and one in mixed doubles, between 1959 and 1966. She also reached the singles final at both the Australian and French Open.
Bueno was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978 and, more recently, contributed to Brazilian TV coverage of Wimbledon, the US Open and other tennis events.
She won her first major at Wimbledon in 1959, aged 19. In Tennis Encyclopedia, Bud Collins described her as “the incomparably balletic and flamboyant Bueno”.
Collins wrote: “Volleying beautifully, playing with breathtaking boldness and panache, the lithe Brazilian became the first South American woman to win the Wimbledon singles”.
Adored in Brazil after winning the title, Bueno became a symbol of the country’s modernisation. She was ranked No 1 in the world in 1959, 1960, 1964 and 1966 and was the first non-american woman to win Wimbledon and the US Open in the same season.
Billie Jean King, who beat Bueno in the 1966 Wimbledon final and later helped start a women’s professional tennis tour, said the Brazilian was one of the players that made tennis less of a men’s game.
“Maria was a big star who caught the interest of the fans at a time when the men took centre stage,” said Mrs King in 2009. “She helped lay the groundwork for what was to come.”