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World Maureen

Connolly Gazette A Postage Stamp Honors a Determined Teen Seen by SEPTEMBER 2019 Vol 12, No 4 Some as the Best of All Time

(This article is adapted wrote of Connolly, “She from the writer’s story pub- may have been the finest lished by The New York of all female players.” Times on Sept. 8, 2013) That view is not shared by By JOHN MARTIN those who argue that the was strength, power rackets not yet 19 when she won and serving speeds of to- the women’s day’s players would prevail. singles championship in “My serve has always 1953 at the West Side been the major weakness Tennis Club in Forest Hills, in my game,” Connolly Queens. acknowledged in her 1954 With her 6-2, 6-4 victory book, “Championship Ten- over , Connolly nis.” Switched from left- became the second player hander to right-hander by after in 1938 an early coach, she was and the first woman to win working the Australian, French, with Les Wimbledon and United Stoefen, a States championships in a 1930s calendar year. ( doubles COMMEMORATING A CHAMPION: in 1962 and 1969, Marga- champi- Issued in 2019, U.S. Postal Ser- ret Court in 1970 and Steffi on, striv- vice stamp depicts Maureen Con- Graf in 1988 followed.) ing to hit nolly reaching for low backhand Connolly, a “a hard on a grass court. She was nick- native known as Little Mo, flat ball named “Little Mo” by a San Diego stood 5 feet 4 inches and and a Union sportswriter, Nelson Fish- weighed 120 pounds. She good reli- er, after the Battleship Missouri. captured nine consecutive able Flink tennis history events in 1954, ending her and historian, “but spin,” which she participated playing career few got more done she said. starting in 1951, winning when she was 19. in many more , 89, a San 50 straight matches while She died15 years years.” Diego teaching profession- losing only one set. later. “It was the In profiling the al and one of Connolly’s Then Connolly’s leg shortest of great 40 greatest play- closest friends, said, “Her was shattered in a horse- careers,” said Bud ers from 1946 to serve was weak by com- back riding accident in Collins, a writer 1996, Collins parison with today’s girls,

Page 2 World Tennis Gazette SEPTEMBER 2019 ‘Who Could Say Who Would Have Beaten Whom?’ Said but the other girls respect and ad- would have just as miration. hard a time holding “Do me a fa- serve.” vor,” he said. Connolly once “Speak very fa- faced Pancho Gon- vorably of zalez, the world’s Maureen Connol- top men’s player in ly, because I the , in a think she was a mixed doubles exhi- terrific champion. bition on a hard- She was a terrific wood tennis court in lady and did a San Diego. Connol- wonderful job.” ly insisted Gonzalez Trabert spent

“not hold back,” World Tennis Gazette/John Martin 31 years as the Press said. lead CBS Sports “When Pancho tennis analyst at served — which the United States was the best serve Open, beginning in the world at that in 1971. time — on the “Who can say boards,” Press said, who would have Connolly “handled beaten whom?” Pancho’s serve a he said. “I think majority of the time.” giving them a lev- Tony Trabert, el playing field, who won five Grand let them be the Slam titles in the same age, fit, 1950s, praised Con- and the same nolly’s skills and kind of equip- competitive instincts ment, and in but questioned her THE BRIEFEST OF GREAT CAREERS: As a winner many cases, the ability to prevail to- of all four major international tennis champion- top player of any day. ships by age 19, Maureen Connolly held the era would have ad- “I think these girls throne in women’s tennis for only an instant com- justed and done would overpower pared to her successors in the current century. very nicely.” her,” he said in a tel- One Connolly ephone interview. trait shared by top “They’d jump all over World Tennis Gazette players today is a her serve. I think of a Vol 12, No 4 SEPTEMBER 2019 fierce hostility on

Serena Williams or A magazine for players, coaches, fans, the court, said Ste- someone like that.” and friends of tennis throughout the world. ve Flink, a tennis Even so, Trabert, Each issue contains a story and photo- analyst and histori- 83, said Connolly, graphs on a single subject. All are the re- an. sponsibility of the editor. To subscribe, like champions from In “Forehand comment, or make suggestions, email: Richard Osborn other eras, deserved [email protected]. Editor: John Martin Drive,” her 1957

Page 3 World Tennis Gazette SEPTEMBER 2019 At the in 1954, An English Adversary Saw Her As ‘Ice’ autobiography, Con- Danzig wrote, “resorted to nolly wrote: “I hated every device, including my opponents. This changes of spin, length and was no passing dis- pace, in an effort to slow like, but a powerful down her opponent.” and consuming hate. Hart, 88, laughed as she I believed I could not recalled the match. win without hatred.” “She aimed for the lines, Emphasizing that and she hit them most of he was speaking of the time,” Hart said of Con- Williams’s behavior nolly, adding: “She just ex- on the court, Flink uded confidence, you know. said: “I think Serena Everybody felt it. No matter definitely has it. I what the score was, you felt think the others do like she was always ahead.” too, the Navratilovas, in 1953, Hart showed the Grafs, the Everts, determination in defeating Billie Jean. That’s Connolly in the final of the while they’re out Italian Championships, 4-6, there. Nothing is go- 9-7, 6-3. ing to get in their Then, at Wimbledon, way. Nothing’s going Connolly defeated Hart, 8- to stop them.” 6, 7-5, in the final, a match Doris Hart in photo on International , an praised by Flink in his 2012 Tennis Hall of Fame website. She was Englishwoman who book, “The Greatest Tennis reached the Wimbledon inducted in 1969. Below, San Diego Matches of All Time.” Union-Tribune salute to Connolly on final in 1956, was beat- “When I came off the court, I en by Connolly in the Sept.17, 2019, the 85th anniversary felt like I had won,” Hart said. 1954 French Champi- of her birth. It reprinted a 1952 col- “I couldn’t play any better. I onships quarterfinals. umn she wrote s a Cathedral High felt that, deep down. She was “She was ice, all I School student, copy girl and writer. better in every way. can tell you, ice,” Bux- “I always thought that. Her ton, 79, said. “She’d strut record, they never mention it backwards and forwards today. Never. She won every- from the right court to the thing by the age of 19.” left.” This year, the U.S. Postal After the 1953 United Service issued a stamp States women’s final, honoring “Lil Mo.” On Oct. Allison Danzig wrote in 20, the Balboa Tennis Club and the Greater San Diego that the match between City Tennis Council will Connolly and Hart had honor Connolly and Press been fierce. in a special tribute, includ- “Miss Hart, a finalist ing the dedication of a five times and a strong Press Family Tennis Pavil- hitter in her own right,” ion for tournament play.