Pauline Betz
Pauline Betz Addie (née Pauline May Betz, August 6, 1919 – May 31, 2011) 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]
![]() Betz in 1949 | |
Full name | Pauline Betz Addie |
---|---|
ITF name | Pauline Addie |
Country (sports) | ![]() |
Born | Pauline May Betz August 6, 1919 Dayton, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | May 31, 2011 91) Potomac, Maryland, U.S. | (aged
Height | 5 ft 5 in (1.66 m) |
Turned pro | 1947 |
Retired | 1960[1] |
Int. Tennis HoF | 1965 (member page) |
Singles | |
Career record | 0–0 |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (1946) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
French Open | F (1946) |
Wimbledon | W (1946) |
US Open | W (1942, 1943, 1944, 1946) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 0–0 |
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) |
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, 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]
Death
Pauline died of complications linked to her contraction of Parkinson's disease on 31 May 2011. She is buried with her husband, Bob Addie, in a double plot in St Gabriel Cemetery in Potomac, Maryland.[15]
Awards and Honors
On September 2, 1946 Betz appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.[16][17] 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.[18]
Grand Slam finals
Singles (5 titles, 3 runners-up)
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Loss | 1941 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | 5–7, 2–6 |
Win | 1942 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | 4–6, 6–1, 6–4 |
Win | 1943 | U.S. Championships (2) | Grass | ![]() | 6–3, 5–7, 6–3 |
Win | 1944 | U.S. Championships (3) | Grass | ![]() | 6–3, 8–6 |
Loss | 1945 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | 6–3, 6–8, 4–6 |
Win | 1946 | Wimbledon | Grass | ![]() | 6–2, 6–4 |
Loss | 1946 | French Championships | Clay | ![]() | 6–2, 6–8, 5–7 |
Win | 1946 | U.S. Championships (4) | Grass | ![]() | 11–9, 6–3 |
Doubles: 7 (7 runner-ups)
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Loss | 1941 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 6–3, 1–6, 4–6 |
Loss | 1942 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 6–2, 5–7, 0–6 |
Loss | 1943 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 4–6, 3–6 |
Loss | 1944 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 6–4, 4–6, 3–6 |
Loss | 1945 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 3–6, 3–6 |
Loss | 1946 | Wimbledon | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 3–6, 6–2, 3–6 |
Loss | 1946 | French Championships | Clay | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 4–6, 6–0, 1–6 |
Mixed Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Loss | 1941 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 6–4, 4–6, 4–6 |
Loss | 1943 | U.S. Championships | Grass | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 8–10, 4–6 |
Win | 1946 | French Championships | Clay | ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 7–5, 9–7 |
Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | A | NH |
Tournament | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 19461 | Career 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.[19][17] 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. Betz died in her sleep on May 31, 2011, aged 91.[1]
Records
Tournament | Year | Record accomplished | Player tied |
---|---|---|---|
Tri-State tournament | 1943 | Achieved a Golden Set[20] | Tine Scheuer-Larsen (1995) Yaroslava Shvedova (2012) |
See also
References
- Robin Finn (June 2, 2011). "Pauline Betz Addie, a Dominant Tennis Champion, Dies at 91". The New York Times.
- Female players & the 1950–51 Pauline Betz-Gussy Moran tour
- "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.
- "Rollins College Athletics Hall of Fame". Rollins College Athletics Department. Archived from the original on May 28, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
- "Rollins College Women's Tennis: Small School With A Big Tradition". Sports Then and Now. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
- "Tennis-Women's: Tradition". Rollins College Athletics Department. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
- "Pauline Betz Addie". Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
- Harold Parrott (September 7, 1943). "Hunt, blocked by Riggs, emulates dad as champion". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
- Pauline May Betz profile (Addie), tennisfame.com; accessed November 25, 2016.
- Collins, Bud (2008). The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book. New York: New Chapter Press. pp. 695, 702. ISBN 978-0-942257-41-0.
- "Pauline Betz". The Telegraph. June 5, 2011.
- Richard Evans (20 June 2011). "Pauline Betz obituary". The Guardian.
- "Betz undecided on future plans". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. AP. April 10, 1947. p. 13.
- United States Tennis Association (1988). 1988 Official USTA Tennis Yearbook. Lynn, Massachusetts: H.O. Zimman, Inc. pp. 260–1.
- Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More than 14000 Famous Persons, Scott Wilson
- "Pauline Betz". TIME.
- Martin Childs (June 17, 2011). "Pauline Betz: Grand slam-winning tennis player banned for merely considering turning professional". The Independent.
- "Pauline Betz Addie". Sidwell Friends School. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
- Wings on my tennis shoes. Worldcat. OCLC 717317192.
- Politiken, 10 May 1995, 1st Section, p.10