Between the wars
Australia · born Melbourne, 1916 · died 2001 · six times Australian champion
All playersBack to the rankings
6
Australian singles titles, 1937 to 1951
20
Australian titles in singles, doubles and mixed
10
Australian doubles titles with Thelma Coyne Long
3
Australian triples: 1940, 1947, 1948
No. 4
World ranking in 1947 and 1948
Born in Melbourne in 1916, Nancye Wynne grew to 1.78 m and reached her first Australian final at 19, losing to Joan Hartigan in 1936. She won the title a year later and in 1938 became the first Australian woman to play a major final abroad, losing to Alice Marble at Forest Hills. She married George Bolton, an RAAF pilot, in 1940; he was killed in 1942. She came back after the war under her married name and won twelve of her 20 Australian titles from 1946 onwards, the last singles in 1951 at 34. She was ranked fourth in the world in 1947 and 1948. She turned professional as a coach in 1952, later took up golf and bowls, and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.
| Major singles titles | 6: Australian (1937, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 3: Australian 1936, Australian 1949, US 1938 |
| Other grass singles titles | 13: NSW Championships 7 (1936, 1937, 1939, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950); Victorian Championships 5 (1939, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1949); Queensland Championships (1936) |
| Major doubles titles | 10 doubles (Australian 10), 4 mixed (Australian 4) |
| Australian doubles partners | All 10 women's doubles titles with Thelma Coyne Long (1936 to 1940, 1947 to 1949, 1951, 1952); all 4 mixed titles with Colin Long (1940, 1946, 1947, 1948) |
| Australian triple | Singles, doubles and mixed in the same year three times: 1940, 1947, 1948 |
| Wimbledon | Singles: fourth round 1938, quarter-final 1947 (seeded 5), third round 1951. Mixed finals lost: 1947 with Colin Long, 1951 with Mervyn Rose |
| US Championships | Final 1938, lost to Alice Marble 6-0, 6-3. Semi-final 1947, lost to Louise Brough 7-5 in the final set after holding match point |
| Finals to remember | 1940 Australian: beat Thelma Coyne Long 5-7, 6-4, 6-0. 1951 Australian: beat Coyne Long 6-1, 7-5, aged 34 |
| Australian Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1937 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1937 | Women's singles | |
| 1938 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1939 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1940 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1940 | Mixed doubles | with Colin Long |
| 1940 | Women's singles | |
| 1946 | Mixed doubles | with Colin Long |
| 1946 | Women's singles | |
| 1947 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1947 | Mixed doubles | with Colin Long |
| 1947 | Women's singles | |
| 1948 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1948 | Mixed doubles | with Colin Long |
| 1948 | Women's singles | |
| 1949 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1951 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| 1951 | Women's singles | |
| 1952 | Women's doubles | with Thelma Coyne Long |
| New South Wales Championships | ||
| 1936 | Women's singles†| |
| 1937 | Women's singles†| |
| 1939 | Women's singles†| |
| 1945 | Women's singles†| |
| 1946 | Women's singles†| |
| 1947 | Women's singles†| |
| 1950 | Women's singles†| |
| Victorian Championships | ||
| 1939 | Women's singles†| |
| 1940 | Women's singles†| |
| 1946 | Women's singles†| |
| 1947 | Women's singles†| |
| 1949 | Women's singles†| |
| Queensland Championships | ||
| 1936 | Women's singles†| |
| New Zealand Championships | ||
| 1940 | 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
"a brand of tennis which places her in a class of her own among women players in Australia"
The person behind the player.
Melbourne, early 1930s
Her parents paid for lessons in the city, where she trained with a professional on a bitumen court on the roof of an inner-city building, above the traffic. At 14, in 1932, she played her first tournament at Mentone Oval, a cricket ground marked into courts, and won the mixed doubles 6-5, 5-6, 6-0.
Source: Kingston Local HistoryForest Hills 1938
At 22 she reached the final of the US Championships, the first Australian woman to play a major final outside Australia. Alice Marble beat her 6-0, 6-3, but the run put her in the world's top ten that year, the first of three seasons she spent there.
Source: Tennis AustraliaAustralian Championships, 1936 to 1952
Thelma Coyne Long was her partner for all ten of her Australian doubles titles, from 1936 to 1952. The two also met in two singles finals, in 1940 and 1951, and Wynne Bolton won both. Colin Long partnered her to all four of her mixed titles.
Source: Wikipedia1942 to 1946
George Bolton, the RAAF pilot she married in 1940, was killed in 1942 on a bombing raid over Germany. Major tennis stopped during the war. When the Australian Championships resumed in 1946 she entered as Mrs Bolton, won the singles, and went on to take twelve of her 20 national titles after his death.
Source: Australian OpenForest Hills 1947
In the US semi-final against Louise Brough she led 5-2 in the final set and served for the match. A line call went against her on match point and Brough won the set 7-5. The Melbourne Sun's headline read: Mrs Bolton was "Robbed" of Singles.
Source: Kingston Local HistoryKew Golf Club, from 1955
After tennis she took up golf at Kew, brought her handicap down to 4 and won the club championship 17 times, the first in 1955. By 1970 she was playing lawn bowls as well. Friends remembered her on the back porch with a glass of sherry and a cigarette.
Source: Kingston Local HistoryFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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