The amateur years
United States · born Joseph, Oregon, 1918 · died 2012 · Wimbledon champion 1947 · 25 US titles
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1947
Wimbledon singles champion
5
Wimbledon doubles titles with Louise Brough
25
US Championships titles, the all-time record
15-13
Final set of the 1948 US final
44
Her age at the 1962 Wimbledon mixed title
Born in Joseph, Oregon, in 1918, Margaret Osborne grew up on a ranch and learned the game on the public courts of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The war, during which she worked at a shipbuilding plant in Sausalito, delayed her first major singles title until the 1946 French Championships, at 28. She won Wimbledon in 1947, married William duPont Jr. the same year, and took the US singles in 1948, 1949 and 1950. Lance Tingay and other British rankers placed her world No. 1 from 1947 to 1950. Of her 37 major titles, 31 came in doubles and mixed, 20 of them with Louise Brough. She won 25 US titles, never played in Australia, was unbeaten in the Wightman Cup and entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967.
| Major singles titles | 4: Wimbledon (1947); US (1948, 1949, 1950) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 4: Wimbledon 1949, Wimbledon 1950, US 1944, US 1947 |
| Other grass singles titles | 4: Eastern Grass Court Championships 2 (1943, 1947); Northern Championships (1946); Queen's (1948) |
| Major doubles titles | 18 doubles (Wimbledon 5, US 13), 10 mixed (Wimbledon 1, US 9) |
| Wimbledon singles finals | 1947: beat Doris Hart 6-2, 6-4. 1949: lost to Louise Brough 8-10, 6-1, 8-10. 1950: lost to Brough 1-6, 6-3, 1-6 |
| Wimbledon doubles | Won 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1954 with Louise Brough; runner-up 1947 and 1951 with Brough, 1958 with Margaret Varner |
| Wimbledon mixed | 1962 with Neale Fraser: beat Ann Haydon and Dennis Ralston 2-6, 6-3, 13-11 |
| US doubles and mixed | Doubles 1941 with Sarah Palfrey, then 1942 to 1950 and 1955 to 1957 with Brough. Mixed 1943 to 1946 with Bill Talbert, 1950 with Ken McGregor, 1956 with Ken Rosewall, 1958 to 1960 with Fraser |
| Final to remember | US Championships 1948: beat Brough 4-6, 6-4, 15-13, 48 games, still the most in a women's singles final there |
| Wightman Cup | Unbeaten in 10 singles and nine doubles, 1938 to 1958; US captain nine times, eight wins |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1947 | Women's singles | |
| 1948 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1949 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1950 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1954 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1962 | Mixed doubles | with Neale Fraser |
| US Championships | ||
| 1941 | Women's doubles | with Sarah Palfrey Cooke |
| 1942 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1943 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1943 | Mixed doubles | with Bill Talbert |
| 1944 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1944 | Mixed doubles | with Bill Talbert |
| 1945 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1945 | Mixed doubles | with Bill Talbert |
| 1946 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1946 | Mixed doubles | with Bill Talbert |
| 1947 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1948 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1948 | Women's singles | |
| 1949 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1949 | Women's singles | |
| 1950 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1950 | Mixed doubles | with Ken McGregor |
| 1950 | Women's singles | |
| 1955 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1956 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1956 | Mixed doubles | with Ken Rosewall |
| 1957 | Women's doubles | with Louise Brough |
| 1958 | Mixed doubles | with Neale Fraser |
| 1959 | Mixed doubles | with Neale Fraser |
| 1960 | Mixed doubles | with Neale Fraser |
| Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange) | ||
| 1943 | Women's singles†| |
| 1947 | Women's singles†| |
| Northern Championships | ||
| 1946 | 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
"She has all the strokes and they are men's strokes."
The person behind the player.
Forest Hills 1948
Two days before the US final against Brough she learned that her father had died after being hit by a car. Her mother urged her to play. She won 4-6, 6-4, 15-13, and some spectators chanted "Bring on the men!" She and her husband then caught the 8:30 train home to Wilmington.
Source: Tennis AbstractWimbledon 1949
In the final against Brough the two women played 43 games without a sit-down break. Osborne had four set points in the first set and stood two points from the title at 6-5 in the third, but lost 10-8, 1-6, 10-8. She later said she could not remember ever choking. Brough gently disputed it.
Source: Tennis AbstractEarly years
Hazel Wightman judged the young Osborne too gentle for a national champion: "She's too nice. She doesn't have the killer instinct." Osborne took no offence. "In a way it was a compliment," she said. "I considered her one of my very best friends in tennis."
Source: Tennis AbstractBellevue Hall, Delaware
Her husband, a horse breeder, turned his Delaware estate into a tennis venue with eight courts. Pauline Betz remembered up to 36 players living there during tournaments, laundry returned ironed and nightly raids on the ice cream. Of his own game, Osborne said: "He wasn't very good, but he sure loved to play."
Source: Tennis AbstractAustralian Championships
She never entered the Australian Championships. Her husband expected her to join his January holiday in California, and she recalled that he threatened divorce if she went to Australia, so she never went. Tennis Abstract judged that she would probably have completed a career Grand Slam had she gone.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon 1962
Fifteen years after her singles title she returned to Wimbledon as US Wightman Cup coach and won the mixed doubles with Neale Fraser, beating Ann Haydon and Dennis Ralston 2-6, 6-3, 13-11 over 41 games. It was her last major title. Asked about her success, she said: "I just enjoy tennis very much and play the game a lot."
Source: Tennis AbstractFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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