The amateur years
United States · born Akron, Ohio, 1927 · died 2021 · Wimbledon champion 1956
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6-3, 6-1
1956 Wimbledon final against Angela Buxton
3
Wimbledon doubles titles with Doris Hart, 1951 to 1953
4
Games lost in the 1953 Wimbledon doubles
10-2
Wightman Cup record, 1949 to 1956
16
Consecutive US Championships, from 1941
Born in Akron, Ohio, in 1927, the youngest of four children, Fry made the first of 16 consecutive appearances at the US Championships in 1941, aged 14, and reached the quarter-finals a year later. She graduated from Rollins College in 1949 and won the French Championships in 1951, beating Doris Hart in the final. Between 1946 and 1956 she finished in the world top ten nine times. After a brief retirement in early 1956 she came back to win Wimbledon and the US Championships and was ranked world No. 1. In 1957 she won the Australian Championships, becoming the third woman to hold all four major singles titles, then married Karl Irvin and retired. She entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970 and died in Naples, Florida, in 2021, aged 94.
| Major singles titles | 3: Wimbledon (1956); Australian (1957); US (1956) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 2: Wimbledon 1951, US 1951 |
| Other grass singles titles | 6: Eastern Grass Court Championships (1946); Northern Championships (1950); Pennsylvania Championships (1947); Queen's (1951); Seabright (1946); Victorian Championships (1956) |
| Major doubles titles | 8 doubles (Wimbledon 3, Australian 1, US 4), 1 mixed (Wimbledon 1) |
| Wimbledon doubles | 1951, 1952 and 1953 with Doris Hart |
| Wimbledon mixed | 1956 with Vic Seixas |
| Wimbledon 1956 | Seeded fifth: beat Louise Brough in the fourth round, Althea Gibson 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-final and Angela Buxton 6-3, 6-1 in the final, in about 50 minutes |
| Finals to remember | US Championships 1956 and Australian Championships 1957: beat Althea Gibson 6-3, 6-4 both times |
| Australian doubles | 1957 with Althea Gibson |
| Wightman Cup | 1949 and 1951 to 1956, a 10-2 record; the United States won every year she played |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1952 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1953 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1956 | Mixed doubles | with Vic Seixas |
| 1956 | Women's singles | |
| US Championships | ||
| 1951 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1952 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1953 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1954 | Women's doubles | with Doris Hart |
| 1956 | Women's singles | |
| Australian Championships | ||
| 1957 | Women's doubles | with Althea Gibson |
| 1957 | Women's singles | |
| Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange) | ||
| 1946 | Women's singles†| |
| Seabright Invitational | ||
| 1946 | Women's singles†| |
| Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion) | ||
| 1947 | Women's singles†| |
| Northern Championships | ||
| 1950 | Women's singles†| |
| Queen's Club | ||
| 1951 | Women's singles†| |
| Victorian Championships | ||
| 1956 | 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
"I wasn't a natural. I could run and I could concentrate."
The person behind the player.
Akron · 1936
At nine she took a train alone to Cleveland to visit the Exposition, stayed with people there and came home again. "My parents didn't have much money, and to be interested in sports you had to be independent, learn to go it alone," she said in the book Once A Champion.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameQueen Mary · 1948
In 1948 she sailed to Europe on the Queen Mary for the summer circuit. The crossing had one drawback: "The only trouble was that you got sea legs, and it took a while to get used to playing on land."
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameWimbledon 1953
Fry and Doris Hart won the Wimbledon women's doubles for the third year running in 1953, beating Maureen Connolly and Julia Sampson in the final. Connolly was the reigning singles champion. Across the whole event the pair lost four games, the end of a run of three Wimbledon doubles titles in three years.
Source: WikipediaAgainst Connolly · 1950s
Her chase-and-retrieve game did not please everyone. Before one match against Maureen Connolly, Connolly's coach, Teach Tennant, dismissed Fry's approach: "No one can win playing negative." Fry kept playing it, and won majors on clay and grass with it, starting in Paris in 1951.
Source: inklWimbledon 1956
Early in 1956 she retired and took a job as a copygirl at the St. Petersburg Times. An invitation to the Wightman Cup, expenses paid, brought her back to London, and she stayed on for Wimbledon. She won the final in about 50 minutes. At home St. Petersburg gave her a car, flowers and the key to the city.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameLater years
Billie Jean King named Fry as her idol. Fry's answer was typical of her: "That flatters me because I wasn't that good." After tennis she raised four children and took up golf, which she never mastered to her own satisfaction.
Source: inklFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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