The early years
Great Britain · born Bebington, Cheshire, 1871 · died 1960 · five times Wimbledon champion
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5
Wimbledon singles titles, 1887 to 1893
15
Age at her 1887 title, still the youngest
1
Set lost in her five Wimbledon championships
1904
British Ladies Amateur golf champion
1908
Olympic archery silver medal, London
Charlotte Dod was born in Bebington, Cheshire, in 1871, the youngest of four children of a Liverpool cotton fortune large enough that she never had to work. Two courts were built near the family estate when she was nine, and at 11 she played her first tournament, the 1883 Northern Championships, with her sister Annie. The press called her the Little Wonder. She won Wimbledon five times between 1887 and 1893, then gave up competitive tennis at 21. She passed the men's skating test at St Moritz, rode the Cresta Run, played hockey for England in 1899 and 1900, won the British Ladies Amateur golf championship in 1904 and took Olympic archery silver in 1908. She served with the British Red Cross in the First World War and died in Sway, Hampshire, in 1960, aged 88.
| Major singles titles | 5: Wimbledon (1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1893) |
|---|---|
| Other grass singles titles | 6: Northern Championships 5 (1887, 1888, 1889, 1892, 1893); Irish Championships (1887) |
| Other grass doubles titles | 2: Irish Championships 2 (1887, 1892) |
| Titles kept in a challenge round | 3: Wimbledon (1888, 1892, 1893). Scored as a final won, not a full draw (-12 points). |
| Wimbledon finals | All five against Blanche Bingley Hillyard: 1887 6-2, 6-0; 1888 6-3, 6-3; 1891 6-2, 6-1; 1892 6-1, 6-1; 1893 6-8, 6-1, 6-4 |
| Sets dropped at Wimbledon | One, the first set of the 1893 final. In her first four title wins she lost 13 games |
| Career defeats | Five in all; the last, to Louisa Martin at the 1892 Irish Championships, was her only defeat after the age of 15 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1887 | Women's singles | |
| 1888 | Women's singles | |
| 1891 | Women's singles | |
| 1892 | Women's singles | |
| 1893 | Women's singles | |
| Northern Championships | ||
| 1887 | Women's singles†| |
| 1888 | Women's singles†| |
| 1889 | Women's singles†| |
| 1892 | Women's singles†| |
| 1893 | Women's singles†| |
| Irish Championships | ||
| 1887 | Mixed doubles†| with Ernest Renshaw |
| 1887 | Women's singles†| |
| 1892 | Women's doubles†| with Bertha Steedman |
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
"As a rule, ladies are too lazy at tennis. They should learn to run and run their hardest, too, not merely stride."
The person behind the player.
Manchester 1883
At 11 she entered her first tournament, the Northern Championships, in the doubles with her sister Annie. They lost in the second round but won the consolation event. The journalist Sydney Brown wrote that "Miss L. Dod should be heard of in the future", noting that she served well and showed tactics worthy of much older players.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 1887
Because she was 15, she was allowed to play in clothes like a school uniform: black stockings, a calf-length dress and a white flannel cricket cap. In the challenge round she beat the holder, Blanche Bingley, 6-2, 6-0, taking the last ten games; the second set lasted ten minutes. The Sheffield Independent said she had simply cantered through.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameBath 1888
The West of England Championships were billed as an open event, but officials handicapped Dod by 15 for the final against Blanche Hillyard, her Wimbledon opponent. She won anyway. Two years earlier, in the same event, she had beaten Maud Watson and ended Watson's run of 55 consecutive wins.
Source: WikipediaScotland 1889
As double champion she was expected back at Wimbledon, but she was on a sailing trip off the Scottish coast with Annie and friends and did not want to return in time. Her absence disappointed her followers, and she did not play at all in 1890. She came back in 1891 and won three titles in a row.
Source: WikipediaTroon 1904
Eleven years after her last Wimbledon she reached the final of the British Ladies Amateur golf championship against May Hezlet, champion in 1899 and 1902. They were level after 17 holes. Hezlet narrowly missed her putt on the last and Dod won, the first and still the only woman to win British championships in tennis and golf.
Source: WikipediaSway 1960
She attended the Championships every year until her late 80s. In June 1960, unmarried and aged 88, she died in bed at a nursing home in Sway, Hampshire, while listening to the Wimbledon radio broadcasts, 67 years after her last title there.
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