Kay Stammers Menzies

Playing career

Katherine Esther Stammers was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on 3 April 1914. Her parents taught her on the grass court at the family home, and she was later coached by Dan Maskell. A left-hander with a strong forehand and an attacking game, she first played Wimbledon in 1931, aged 17. With Freda James she won the Wimbledon doubles in 1935 and 1936, and with Peggy Scriven the 1935 French doubles. She played Wightman Cup for Great Britain from 1934 to 1939, beating Helen Jacobs in singles in 1935 and 1936.

In the singles she reached six Wimbledon quarter-finals and, in 1939, the final, which she lost to Alice Marble. She was a semi-finalist at the US Championships in 1935, 1936 and 1939 and reached the US doubles final in 1939. The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail rankings placed her in the world top ten in 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939 and 1946, and at No. 2 in 1939.

She married Michael Menzies, a Welsh Guards officer, in 1940. During the war she drove ambulances and played exhibition matches for the Red Cross; afterwards she played as Mrs Menzies, reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1946 and 1947, and captained the British Wightman Cup team. In 1949 the family moved to South Africa. After her divorce she married Thomas Bullitt, a Louisville lawyer, and lived at Oxmoor Farm in Kentucky, where she died on 23 December 2005.

On grass

Every grass title: 6

Show every title, tournament by tournament

Wimbledon
1935	Women's doubles	with Freda James
1936	Women's doubles	with Freda James
Surrey Championships (Surbiton)
1946	Women's singles†
1947	Women's singles†
Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange)
1934	Women's singles†
Kent Championships (Beckenham)
1947	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