The amateur years
United States · born St Paul, Minnesota, 1935 · Wimbledon and twice US doubles champion with Darlene Hard
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3
Major doubles titles with Darlene Hard: US 1958 and 1959, Wimbledon 1959
1959
Her only Wimbledon: ladies' doubles champions as top seeds
1958
Unseeded US champions, beating the top seeds Althea Gibson and Maria Bueno
No. 1
US doubles ranking in 1958 and 1959
37
Years as a teacher and counsellor in Minnesota, retiring in 1993
Jeanne Arth was born in St Paul, Minnesota, on 21 July 1935 and grew up a few doors from the St Paul Tennis Club, where she and her sister Shirley learned the game. She was ranked fourth in the United States in junior singles and second in doubles when she entered the College of St Catherine in 1952; there she won three straight National College Girls' doubles titles and was singles runner-up three times. She graduated in 1956 with a teaching degree.
From 1957 she played the major summer events while teaching full time, and was ranked No. 7 in the United States in singles that year. In 1958 she and Darlene Hard, both without partners, entered the US women's doubles at the Longwood Cricket Club unseeded and beat the top seeds, Althea Gibson and Maria Bueno, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. She reached the US singles semi-finals at Forest Hills the same summer and finished the year No. 6 in singles and No. 1 in doubles.
In 1959 she left her teaching job in early May to play Wimbledon, where she and Hard, the top seeds, won the ladies' doubles. She played doubles with Hard in the United States' 4-3 Wightman Cup win over Great Britain, and the pair kept their US title, beating Bueno and Sally Moore 6-2, 6-3. She stopped competing in the autumn of 1959 and taught physical education and then worked as a counsellor until 1993. She is in the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame (1986) and the ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.
| Wimbledon ladies' doubles, 1959 | With Darlene Hard, seeded one: a bye, then beat Deidre Catt and Jenny Trewby 6-1, 6-1; Carole Levy and McCamley 6-2, 6-0; Sue Chatrier and Anne Shilcock 6-0, 6-1; Sandra Reynolds and Renee Schuurman 6-0, 6-2; and in the final Beverly Baker Fleitz and Christine Truman 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Centre Court. The first set of the final was the only one they lost |
|---|---|
| US Championships finals | 1958: unseeded, beat Althea Gibson and Maria Bueno 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Longwood. 1959: beat Maria Bueno and Sally Moore 6-2, 6-3 |
| Singles | US Championships semi-finalist at Forest Hills in 1958. At Wimbledon in 1959, after a bye, she lost to Rosie Reyes of Mexico 6-1, 6-4. At Forest Hills in 1959 she took a set from Maria Bueno |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Women's doubles | with Darlene Hard |
| US Championships | ||
| 1958 | Women's doubles | with Darlene Hard |
| 1959 | Women's doubles | with Darlene Hard |
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
The person behind the player.
St Paul, 1940s
Club membership was out of the family's reach. The caretaker and coach Louis Soukup saw Jeanne and Shirley walking past with dimestore rackets and let them use the courts before the club's ladies arrived at 9 a.m. By eight or nine the ladies were inviting the sisters to make up social doubles.
Source: Saint Paul Tennis Club, Jeanne Arth memoirSt Paul, winter
In the early 1940s the club became the Olympic Skating Rink in winter. Her father, Leonard, a draftsman for the state highway department, flooded the rink, worked the counter and kept order, and the sisters skated.
Source: Saint Paul Tennis Club, Jeanne Arth memoirLongwood, 1958
She and Darlene Hard teamed up at the 1958 US doubles only because neither had a partner. Unseeded, they beat Althea Gibson and Maria Bueno, who had just won the Wimbledon doubles together, in three sets, and Arth hit the winning volley. She called it her biggest thrill.
Source: Saint Paul Tennis Club memoir; St Catherine University AthleticsWimbledon, 1959
She left her classroom in early May to go to Wimbledon. With no indoor courts in the Twin Cities her preparation was limited, but she and Hard won the title and received the trophy from the Duchess of Kent on Centre Court.
Source: Saint Paul Tennis Club, Jeanne Arth memoirWimbledon, 1989
She went back to Wimbledon only once, in 1989, and found her name among the champions on the club's wall: "1959 J Arth-D Hard."
Source: Saint Paul Tennis Club, Jeanne Arth memoirMinnesota
She won nine women's singles titles in the USTA Northern Section between 1949 and 1962 and was its No. 1 in singles every year from 1951 to 1969. The Star Tribune calls her the first Minnesotan to play tennis internationally.
Source: Star Tribune, Minnesota Sports Hall of FameFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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