Between the wars
United States · born Beckwourth, California, 1913 · died 1990 · Wimbledon champion 1939
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3
Wimbledon titles in 1939: singles, doubles, mixed
6-2, 6-0
1939 Wimbledon final against Kay Stammers
18
Major titles: 5 singles, 13 doubles and mixed
5
Wimbledon doubles and mixed titles, 1937 to 1939
Born in Beckwourth, California, on 28 September 1913, Marble played baseball, basketball and boxed as a girl before settling on tennis at 15. Coached from 1932 by Eleanor Tennant, she collapsed on court in Paris in 1934 and spent two years recovering before winning the US Championships in 1936. She won the US singles four times, in 1936 and from 1938 to 1940, and Wimbledon in 1939, and was ranked world No. 1 that year. She was Associated Press Athlete of the Year in 1939 and 1940. She turned professional after the 1940 season and toured with Don Budge and Bill Tilden. She later taught tennis, counted Billie Jean King among her pupils, and entered the Hall of Fame in 1964. She died in Palm Springs in 1990.
| Major singles titles | 5: Wimbledon (1939); US (1936, 1938, 1939, 1940) |
|---|---|
| Other grass singles titles | 9: Seabright 4 (1936, 1937, 1938, 1940); Eastern Grass Court Championships 3 (1938, 1939, 1940); Irish Championships (1939); Kent (1939) |
| Major doubles titles | 6 doubles (Wimbledon 2, US 4), 7 mixed (Wimbledon 3, US 4) |
| Wimbledon 1939 | Won the singles, beating Kay Stammers 6-2, 6-0, the doubles and the mixed: all three events she entered |
| Wimbledon doubles | 1938 and 1939 with Sarah Palfrey Fabyan, winning the finals 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-0 |
| Wimbledon mixed | 1937 and 1938 with Don Budge; 1939 with Bobby Riggs |
| Wimbledon singles | Semi-finals in 1937 and 1938 before the 1939 title |
| US final 1936 | Beat the four-time holder Helen Jacobs 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 at Forest Hills for her first national title |
| Wightman Cup | On the winning United States team in 1933, 1937, 1938 and 1939 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Mixed doubles | with Don Budge |
| 1938 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1938 | Mixed doubles | with Don Budge |
| 1939 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1939 | Mixed doubles | with Bobby Riggs |
| 1939 | Women's singles | |
| US Championships | ||
| 1936 | Mixed doubles | with Gene Mako |
| 1936 | Women's singles | |
| 1937 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1938 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1938 | Mixed doubles | with Don Budge |
| 1938 | Women's singles | |
| 1939 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1939 | Mixed doubles | with Harry Hopman |
| 1939 | Women's singles | |
| 1940 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1940 | Mixed doubles | with Bobby Riggs |
| 1940 | Women's singles | |
| Seabright Invitational | ||
| 1936 | Women's singles†| |
| 1937 | Women's singles†| |
| 1938 | Women's singles†| |
| 1940 | Women's singles†| |
| Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange) | ||
| 1938 | Women's singles†| |
| 1939 | Women's singles†| |
| 1940 | Women's singles†| |
| Longwood Bowl | ||
| 1933 | Women's singles†| |
| 1936 | Women's singles†| |
| Irish Championships | ||
| 1939 | Women's singles†| |
| Kent Championships (Beckenham) | ||
| 1939 | Women's singles†| |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"Alice Marble was a picture of unrestrained athleticism."
The person behind the player.
San Francisco, 1920s
Baseball was her first love, and as a girl she was good enough to work out with the minor league San Francisco Seals. Joe DiMaggio, who played for the Seals, said of her: "She had a pretty good arm." As a junior tennis player she was known as the Queen of Swat.
Source: Tennis AbstractParis 1934
After a day of 108 games in 100-degree heat at East Hampton in 1933 ended her season, she collapsed on court in Paris the next spring and spent months in a sanatorium, paid for by her coach Eleanor Tennant. Doctors told her to stop playing. Two years after that advice she was world No. 1.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameForest Hills 1936
Few expected her to be ready for the 1936 US Championships. She nearly gave away the first set of the final to Helen Jacobs, who was playing with a strapped right thumb, then won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 with the Forest Hills gallery behind her. It ended Jacobs's run of four titles.
Source: Tennis AbstractWimbledon 1939
Marble won all three events she entered at Wimbledon in 1939: the singles, the doubles with Sarah Palfrey Fabyan and the mixed with Bobby Riggs. In the singles final she beat Kay Stammers 6-2, 6-0. Stammers later said she would rather have faced Helen Wills Moody.
Source: Tennis AbstractPalm Springs, 1940s
In the desert heat of Palm Springs, where she lived with Tennant above a drugstore, Marble often wore shorts, and she kept wearing them as a professional. She drew criticism for choosing them over the tennis skirt that women were expected to wear.
Source: Palm Springs LifeNew York 1950
In the 1 July 1950 issue of American Lawn Tennis she wrote an editorial attacking the exclusion of Althea Gibson: "If tennis is a game for ladies and gentlemen, it's also time we acted a little more like gentle-people." Gibson was admitted to the US Championships that summer, the first Black player at a major.
Source: WikipediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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