Between the wars
United States · born Sharon, Massachusetts, 1912 · died 1996 · twice US champion · twice Wimbledon doubles champion
All playersBack to the rankings
2
US singles titles, 1941 and 1945
11
Major women's doubles titles, 1930 to 1941
2
Wimbledon doubles titles with Alice Marble
9
Wightman Cup wins in a row, 1931 to 1939
No. 4
World ranking in 1934
Born in Sharon, Massachusetts, in 1912, Sarah Palfrey came from a family in which she, her brother and her sisters all played tournaments. She won the US junior title three years running, 1928 to 1930, and with coaching at the net from Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman became one of the best doubles players of her day. She was ranked in the world's top ten six times between 1933 and 1939, reaching No. 4 in 1934, and played on ten Wightman Cup teams. Her singles breakthrough came late, with the US title in 1941 and again in 1945, the second as a mother. She turned professional in 1947 for a tour with Pauline Betz, worked in radio, television and publishing, and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1963. She died in New York in 1996.
| Major singles titles | 2: US (1941, 1945) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 2: US 1934, US 1935 |
| Other grass singles titles | 4: Eastern Grass Court Championships 2 (1929, 1945); Seabright 2 (1933, 1941) |
| Major doubles titles | 11 doubles (Wimbledon 2, US 9), 4 mixed (US 4) |
| Wimbledon doubles | Champion 1938 and 1939 with Alice Marble |
| Wimbledon singles | Semi-final 1939 |
| US singles finals | 1934: lost to Helen Jacobs 1-6, 4-6. 1935: lost to Jacobs 2-6, 4-6. 1941: beat Pauline Betz 7-5, 6-2. 1945: beat Betz 3-6, 8-6, 6-4 |
| US doubles partners | Betty Nuthall 1930; Helen Jacobs 1932, 1934, 1935; Alice Marble 1937 to 1940; Margaret Osborne 1941 |
| US mixed partners | Fred Perry 1932; Enrique Maier 1935; Don Budge 1937; Jack Kramer 1941 |
| Wightman Cup | US team every year from 1930 to 1939; on the winning side nine times in a row, 1931 to 1939 |
| Match to remember | 1938 US semi-final: led Alice Marble by a set and 5-2 and held two match points, lost 7-5, 5-7, 5-7 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Women's doubles | with Alice Marble |
| 1939 | Women's doubles | with Alice Marble |
| US Championships | ||
| 1930 | Women's doubles | with Betty Nuthall |
| 1932 | Women's doubles | with Helen Jacobs |
| 1932 | Mixed doubles | with Fred Perry |
| 1934 | Women's doubles | with Helen Jacobs |
| 1935 | Women's doubles | with Helen Jacobs |
| 1935 | Mixed doubles | with Enrique Maier |
| 1937 | Women's doubles | with Alice Marble |
| 1937 | Mixed doubles | with Don Budge |
| 1938 | Women's doubles | with Alice Marble |
| 1939 | Women's doubles | with Alice Marble |
| 1940 | Women's doubles | with Alice Marble |
| 1941 | Women's doubles | with Margaret Osborne duPont |
| 1941 | Mixed doubles | with Jack Kramer |
| 1941 | Women's singles | |
| 1945 | Women's singles | |
| Longwood Bowl | ||
| 1927 | Women's singles†| |
| 1934 | Women's singles†| |
| Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange) | ||
| 1929 | Women's singles†| |
| 1945 | Women's singles†| |
| Seabright Invitational | ||
| 1933 | Women's singles†| |
| 1941 | 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
"Her forecourt game was equal to any one of the greatest, including Elizabeth Ryan's."
The person behind the player.
Forest Hills, 1930s
She entered the US Championships every year from 1928 and lost her first match four times, three of them as a top-five seed. In 1937 she went out in the first round to Dorothy Andrus 12-10, 0-6, 7-5. She was nicknamed Little Miss Almost. She finally won the title in 1941, beating Pauline Betz 7-5, 6-2.
Source: Tennis AbstractForest Hills 1938
In the semi-final Alice Marble led 5-1 in the first set before Palfrey won nine games in a row. She led 5-2 in the second and had two match points at 15-40 on Marble's serve, then lost 5-7, 7-5, 7-5. Marble went on to win the title. Allison Danzig of the New York Times wrote that she lost under heart-breaking circumstances.
Source: Tennis AbstractWimbledon 1938 and 1939
She and Alice Marble won the Wimbledon doubles twice and the US doubles four years running, and were not beaten as a pair for three years. The run ended only when Marble turned professional in 1940. Looking back decades later, Palfrey said, "Our games and temperaments were completely in sync."
Source: Tennis AbstractCincinnati 1945
She and her husband Elwood Cooke, a Wimbledon finalist in 1939, entered the men's doubles at the Tri-State Championships. Nothing in the rules forbade it. They reached the final and lost 6-2, 6-2 to Bill Talbert and Hal Surface, and the same day she won the women's doubles. The Cincinnati Enquirer called her one of the best doubles players of either sex in the nation.
Source: Tennis AbstractForest Hills 1945
With a two-year-old daughter at home, she played a full season in 1945 and beat Pauline Betz 3-6, 8-6, 6-4 in the US final. At 33 years, 11 months and 16 days she was the third oldest women's champion, and only the second mother to win the title, after her coach Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameForest Hills 1950
With Alice Marble she lobbied the USLTA to let Althea Gibson enter the US Championships, then closed to Black players. When Gibson made her debut at Forest Hills in 1950, Palfrey escorted her to the grounds and warmed her up before the match.
Source: Tennis AbstractFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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