The early years

Maud Barger-Wallach

United States · born New York, 1870 · died 1954 · right-handed · US champion at 38, having taken up the game at about 30

Hall of Fame 1958

Maud Barger-Wallach — George Grantham Bain, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

All players

Her age when she won the 1908 US Championships

US singles finals: 1906, 1908 and 1909

Her age when she reached the 1916 US quarter-finals

No. 5

Best ranking, recorded by the Hall of Fame for 1915

Playing career

Maud Barger was born in New York in 1870, the daughter of Samuel F. Barger, a lawyer and director of the New York Central Railroad, and in 1890 married the sportsman Richard Wallach. She took up tennis at about 30.

She reached her first US Championships final in 1906, losing to Helen Homans 6-4, 6-3. In 1908, at 38, she won the All Comers' final against Marie Wagner and then beat the holder, Evelyn Sears, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 on the grass of the Philadelphia Cricket Club. No older woman won the title until Molla Mallory in 1926. She lost the 1909 challenge round to Hazel Hotchkiss and won the Longwood Bowl in 1908 and 1909 and the Pennsylvania championships at Merion in 1912.

In 1912 she reached the US doubles final with Mrs Frederick Schmitz, and at 46 she was a US quarter-finalist in 1916. She campaigned for women to be included in the national rankings, which happened in 1913. A lifelong summer resident of Newport, she died in Baltimore in 1954 and was buried in Newport. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1958.

On grass

US Championships 1908	Beat Marie Wagner 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the All Comers' final and the holder Evelyn Sears 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in the challenge round, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club
Finals lost	1906: lost to Helen Homans 6-4, 6-3. 1909: lost the challenge round to Hazel Hotchkiss 6-0, 6-1. 1912 doubles, with Mrs Frederick Schmitz: lost to Mary Browne and Dorothy Green 6-2, 5-7, 6-0
Age records	The oldest US women's champion until Molla Mallory won at 42 in 1926; still a US quarter-finalist at 46 in 1916, losing to Louise Hammond Raymond

Every grass title: 4

Show every title, tournament by tournament

Longwood Bowl
1908	Women's singles†
1909	Women's singles†
US Championships
1908	Women's singles
Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion)
1912	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

Anecdotes

The person behind the player.

About 1900

A late start

She did not begin playing tennis until she was about 30, and did not reach the top until she was 38, when she became the oldest US women's champion.

Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame

Style

Underhand

She was a right-handed baseliner who served underhand. Her forehand was accurate but soft and her backhand weak, so she ran round it whenever she could.

Source: Biographical Dictionary of American Sports, via Wikipedia

Wimbledon 1931 to Queen's 1934

Keeper of the trophy

Travelling with the American men's team in 1931, aged 61, she was handed Sidney Wood's Wimbledon trophy after he won the final by walkover from the injured Frank Shields. Wood asked her to keep it until he and Shields next met on grass and to give it to the winner. Three years later Wood beat Shields at Queen's Club, and she gave him the trophy.

Source: Wikipedia, citing The Daily Telegraph's obituary of Sidney Wood

Newport, 1939 to 1967

A cup for the Casino

She gave the Newport Casino a sterling silver challenge cup, presented to the winners of the Newport Casino Invitational from 1939 to 1967. Nineteen champions received it, several of them later Hall of Famers.

Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame collections

1913