[trivfun]

Originally Posted by preacherfan

I think Jan was injured only once at Wimbledon and that against Hard in 1963. Her 1960 injured happed in a warm-up event and she only played doubles that year.

Interesting, did anyone else use a two-handed backhand prior to Jan? She may be forever remember if she was the first.

Men's side was Australian John Bromwich who actually used a two-handed serve as well as a backhanded and Vivian McGrath around the 30's and 40's. Of course Pancho Seguara used the two-handed forehand. They came before Jan.

[GeeTee]

Here are some early newspaper results/quotes about Jan:

Nov 1958: SA Championships: Runner-up to Sandra Reynolds (RSA) 46 26

Jan 1959: Australian Champpinoships: Lehane cuased the biggest shock when she defeated top-seeded Sandra Reynolds 63 64. She came into tennis two seasons ago and learned the game on a dirt court around her hometown of Grenfell, about 200 miles from Sydney.

Her coach Vic Edwards described her as a "female John Bromwich" and does not think she should go overseas for at least another year. he believes she must prove herself the best in Australian before tackling overseas events.

She shocked Reynolds today with a steady flow of winners from both sides, playing mostly from the baseline but showing good control and scoring with well hit volleys on her occasional ventures to the net.

Apr 1959: Ranked #2 Australian and #1 junior at age 17.

Nov 1959:

NSW Championships - 18 year old Jan Lehane, the star performer of the series, defeated Mary Reitano 63 36 61, winning simply because she refused to lose. At times she looked second rate against Mrs Reitano's adroitly placed dropshots and beautifully angled backhands. But she never stopped fighting and doggedly kept plugging the ball back. Undoubtably she is the most unorthodox player I have ever seen in top-class women's tennis. She had to cover a great deal of territory today because her ground strokes are played from a cramped position near her body. This means she has a restricted reach and must run well to get into position and hit her drives. (Adrian Quist)

Despite winning the Queensland and NSW titles, Lehane has been seeded third for the Victorian championships, despite beating world stars Truman and Bueno in recent tournaments.

Dec 1959

I cannot recall any other girl with her amazing ability to keep the ball in play or to create such a mental complex against her opponents (Adrian Quist)

Victorian SF - Lehane lost to Truman 75 57 06. Truman moved in on Lehane's service, punching it either down the line or across court and gradually the Australian lost confidence. She then started to bustle her shots and created her own errors.

Feb 1960 - AO Final - Lehane held a point in the first set for a 5/2 lead but Smith won with a great passing shot and from that stage she had a definite edge. Unless Lehane can learn to volley and play short balls, she will have great difficulty keeping level with Smith.

Nov 1960 - NSW Championhips - Jan Lehane scored her first victory over Margaret Smith in more than a year, winning the NSW Championships in straight sets. Smith was definitely the better shot maker but could not match the tenacity of her little opponent who swung the ball about the court and picked up match points on Smith's errors.


and later...



Oct 1964 - The LTAA has lifted the ban on Jan Lehane, one of a number of Australian players who were banned in March this year.


Jan 1965 - Jan Lehane left hospital last Friday after a second serious knee operation. Doctors have advised that her chance of coming back to international competitions rests on extensive treatment in the next six months and she has been advised not to play tennis in this time. The 23 year old missed part of an overseas tour last year when she suffered a recurrence of a knee injury at Wimbledon. She cut short her tour and returned to Australian in August for an operation to remove a cartilage in her left knee.

Miss Lehane defied doctor's advice and returned to tennis in the recent Manly seaside event. She severely damaged the cartilage in her injured knee and also damaged ligaments.

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by trivfun

Men's side was Australian John Bromwich who actually used a two-handed serve as well as a backhanded and Vivian McGrath around the 30's and 40's. Of course Pancho Seguara used the two-handed forehand. They came before Jan.

Wasnt there an Australian player before Bromwich who was double handed on the forehand? Not sure about it though, I could be wrong. Segura had a great reputation didnt he? What a pity he never got the chance to show his skills properly at the GS events.

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by GeeTee

Here are some early newspaper results/quotes about Jan:

Nov 1958: SA Championships: Runner-up to Sandra Reynolds (RSA) 46 26

Jan 1959: Australian Champpinoships: Lehane cuased the biggest shock when she defeated top-seeded Sandra Reynolds 63 64. She came into tennis two seasons ago and learned the game on a dirt court around her hometown of Grenfell, about 200 miles from Sydney.

Her coach Vic Edwards described her as a "female John Bromwich" and does not think she should go overseas for at least another year. he believes she must prove herself the best in Australian before tackling overseas events.

She shocked Reynolds today with a steady flow of winners from both sides, playing mostly from the baseline but showing good control and scoring with well hit volleys on her occasional ventures to the net.

Apr 1959: Ranked #2 Australian and #1 junior at age 17.

Nov 1959:

NSW Championships - 18 year old Jan Lehane, the star performer of the series, defeated Mary Reitano 63 36 61, winning simply because she refused to lose. At times she looked second rate against Mrs Reitano's adroitly placed dropshots and beautifully angled backhands. But she never stopped fighting and doggedly kept plugging the ball back. Undoubtably she is the most unorthodox player I have ever seen in top-class women's tennis. She had to cover a great deal of territory today because her ground strokes are played from a cramped position near her body. This means she has a restricted reach and must run well to get into position and hit her drives. (Adrian Quist)

Despite winning the Queensland and NSW titles, Lehane has been seeded third for the Victorian championships, despite beating world stars Truman and Bueno in recent tournaments.

Dec 1959

I cannot recall any other girl with her amazing ability to keep the ball in play or to create such a mental complex against her opponents (Adrian Quist)

Victorian SF - Lehane lost to Truman 75 57 06. Truman moved in on Lehane's service, punching it either down the line or across court and gradually the Australian lost confidence. She then started to bustle her shots and created her own errors.

Feb 1960 - AO Final - Lehane held a point in the first set for a 5/2 lead but Smith won with a great passing shot and from that stage she had a definite edge. Unless Lehane can learn to volley and play short balls, she will have great difficulty keeping level with Smith.

Nov 1960 - NSW Championhips - Jan Lehane scored her first victory over Margaret Smith in more than a year, winning the NSW Championships in straight sets. Smith was definitely the better shot maker but could not match the tenacity of her little opponent who swung the ball about the court and picked up match points on Smith's errors.


and later...



Oct 1964 - The LTAA has lifted the ban on Jan Lehane, one of a number of Australian players who were banned in March this year.


Jan 1965 - Jan Lehane left hospital last Friday after a second serious knee operation. Doctors have advised that her chance of coming back to international competitions rests on extensive treatment in the next six months and she has been advised not to play tennis in this time. The 23 year old missed part of an overseas tour last year when she suffered a recurrence of a knee injury at Wimbledon. She cut short her tour and returned to Australian in August for an operation to remove a cartilage in her left knee.

Miss Lehane defied doctor's advice and returned to tennis in the recent Manly seaside event. She severely damaged the cartilage in her injured knee and also damaged ligaments.

What an interesting woman she sounds- thanks for the post. I tske it her career was finished after the Manley event? What an injustice that she never got an Aussie Open title.

[preacherfan]

Originally Posted by iainmac

What an interesting woman she sounds- thanks for the post. I tske it her career was finished after the Manley event? What an injustice that she never got an Aussie Open title.

Actually, Lehane came back and was a top 20 player one year on the late 60's. She didn't challenge for the top again, but played the Aussie championships even in the late 70's.

[chris whiteside]

Originally Posted by preacherfan

Actually, Lehane came back and was a top 20 player one year on the late 60's. She didn't challenge for the top again, but played the Aussie championships even in the late 70's.

Hope things are going well with you, P/F.

That would be 1967 when she played the international circuit in an attempt to make a comeback.

She lost in the 3r of the Australian Championships to Gail Sherrif in 3 sets and had a reasonable Caribbean circuit. Although she lost 5 times to Ann Jones she took her to 3 sets in a couple of those matches.

She had a good tournament at Wimbledon where she beat Francoise Durr before bowing out in 4r to Kathy Harter.

Although she had a quite a few defeats to lesser players she had wins over Mary-Ann Eisel, Judy Tegart, Lesley Turner and Pat Walkden as well as Frankie.

Rather bizarrely considering that was the year Frankie won the French and German Champs and was ranked #3 in the world for it, Jan had a 4-0 winning h2h over her.

Jan would have finished somewhere around the mid-teens for the year. She won an invitation event in Dublin and the Turkish Championships. I'm not sure if she played outside Australia from 1968 onwards.

[tennisvideos]

Originally Posted by chris whiteside

Hope things are going well with you, P/F.

That would be 1967 when she played the international circuit in an attempt to make a comeback.

She lost in the 3r of the Australian Championships to Gail Sherrif in 3 sets and had a reasonable Caribbean circuit. Although she lost 5 times to Ann Jones she took her to 3 sets in a couple of those matches.

She had a good tournament at Wimbledon where she beat Francoise Durr before bowing out in 4r to Kathy Harter.

Although she had a quite a few defeats to lesser players she had wins over Mary-Ann Eisel, Judy Tegart, Lesley Turner and Pat Walkden as well as Frankie.

Rather bizarrely considering that was the year Frankie won the French and German Champs and was ranked #3 in the world for it, Jan had a 4-0 winning h2h over her.

Jan would have finished somewhere around the mid-teens for the year. She won an invitation event in Dublin and the Turkish Championships. I'm not sure if she played outside Australia from 1968 onwards.

Wow, I would have been in heaven watching the unorthodox stylists of Durr and Lehane matching up! Although I am shocked that Lehane had a 4-0 H2H in perhaps one of Durr's greatest years when Lehane was on the comeback trail after years of injuries! It's not that surprising in one way though, as Frankie did mention she had more trouble against similar baseliners eg. Evert, Richey, Melville etc than she did against the S&V stars of the day. She did seem to do much better against King, Casals, Wade etc.

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by preacherfan

Actually, Lehane came back and was a top 20 player one year on the late 60's. She didn't challenge for the top again, but played the Aussie championships even in the late 70's.

That is interesting thanks. I must check the results for the Aussie Open of the late 70s and see who she played. I bet it was frustrating for her to be playing then when the fields would not have been so strong but her game was no longer able to capitalise!!!

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by chris whiteside

Hope things are going well with you, P/F.

That would be 1967 when she played the international circuit in an attempt to make a comeback.

She lost in the 3r of the Australian Championships to Gail Sherrif in 3 sets and had a reasonable Caribbean circuit. Although she lost 5 times to Ann Jones she took her to 3 sets in a couple of those matches.

She had a good tournament at Wimbledon where she beat Francoise Durr before bowing out in 4r to Kathy Harter.

Although she had a quite a few defeats to lesser players she had wins over Mary-Ann Eisel, Judy Tegart, Lesley Turner and Pat Walkden as well as Frankie.

Rather bizarrely considering that was the year Frankie won the French and German Champs and was ranked #3 in the world for it, Jan had a 4-0 winning h2h over her.

Jan would have finished somewhere around the mid-teens for the year. She won an invitation event in Dublin and the Turkish Championships. I'm not sure if she played outside Australia from 1968 onwards.

Chris. In the circumstances Lehane had a really good 67 by the sound of it.To beat Durr in all their meetings was quite an achievement. I take it none of the victories over Durr were on clay??

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by tennisvideos

Wow, I would have been in heaven watching the unorthodox stylists of Durr and Lehane matching up! Although I am shocked that Lehane had a 4-0 H2H in perhaps one of Durr's greatest years when Lehane was on the comeback trail after years of injuries! It's not that surprising in one way though, as Frankie did mention she had more trouble against similar baseliners eg. Evert, Richey, Melville etc than she did against the S&V stars of the day. She did seem to do much better against King, Casals, Wade etc.

Craig. I know it is a shock that she dominated Durr that year. I know what you mean, Durr really did struggle far more against the great baseline players. Even late in her career when she could barely get a game from Evert she was still able to defeat or threaten Navratilova. It is funny because you would have thought her unorthodox style would have unsettled rythmic players like Evert and Jones but this seldom seemed to be the case??

[preacherfan]

In '77, she won her first match at the AO, before going down 61 62 to Fromholtz. She and Lesley Turner Bowrey reached the semis where they lost 63 64 to Fromholtz and Gourlay. In an intriguing 1R doubles, O'Neill/Bowrey d. Dalton/Krantzcke. I wonder if the combined ages of those competitors might be greater than almost any others in history.

In '71, she defeated a young Fromholtz before bowing to Hunt in the QF.

I think the results database might show several other Aussie tournaments that the ITF database doesn't.

[tennisvideos]

Originally Posted by iainmac

Craig. I know it is a shock that she dominated Durr that year. I know what you mean, Durr really did struggle far more against the great baseline players. Even late in her career when she could barely get a game from Evert she was still able to defeat or threaten Navratilova. It is funny because you would have thought her unorthodox style would have unsettled rythmic players like Evert and Jones but this seldom seemed to be the case??

I think the other baseliners had that little bit more power than Frankie - and so her slower game was easier for a solid consistent baseliner to handle. But I do imagine the slow junk balls and lobs she threw in often would have unsettled most of the S&V players. So I can see how this played out. As a baseliner I don't have much trouble with other junk ball type players.... so I can see why Evert dominated her. And I see a lot of S&V players struggling more against junk ball types.

Mind you, I would love to watch every Durr match no matter who she played so I am easily pleased in that regard. Pity there isn't any footage around of Lehane though. I would have liked to have seen some of her in action.

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by preacherfan

In '77, she won her first match at the AO, before going down 61 62 to Fromholtz. She and Lesley Turner Bowrey reached the semis where they lost 63 64 to Fromholtz and Gourlay. In an intriguing 1R doubles, O'Neill/Bowrey d. Dalton/Krantzcke. I wonder if the combined ages of those competitors might be greater than almost any others in history.

In '71, she defeated a young Fromholtz before bowing to Hunt in the QF.

I think the results database might show several other Aussie tournaments that the ITF database doesn't.

Thanks for that. I am wondering if she ever played doubles with Chris O Neil- I am sure I have seen that somewhere. Maybe Aussie Open 74 or something??

[iainmac]

Originally Posted by tennisvideos

I think the other baseliners had that little bit more power than Frankie - and so her slower game was easier for a solid consistent baseliner to handle. But I do imagine the slow junk balls and lobs she threw in often would have unsettled most of the S&V players. So I can see how this played out. As a baseliner I don't have much trouble with other junk ball type players.... so I can see why Evert dominated her. And I see a lot of S&V players struggling more against junk ball types.

Mind you, I would love to watch every Durr match no matter who she played so I am easily pleased in that regard. Pity there isn't any footage around of Lehane though. I would have liked to have seen some of her in action.

Funny I am a baseliner but in my Scottish league matches I thrive more against a target at the net- but I understand what you mean. It seems so odd that a woman who reached so many GS finals in Australia should have no footage. There must be somewhere. Hope you find some- but not the 67 matches when she beat Durr maybe!!!

[chris whiteside]

Bump for GeeTee.