[LKK]

Re: Bio Test for LKK

AMIACH, SOPHIE
France
Born 10 November 1963 in Paris, France
Height: 5' 5"
Righthanded
[Active 1980-1995]

1984 Australian QF was the slam highlight of her career. She lost 6-2 6-1 at that stage to Chris Evert-Lloyd. This was her only year inside the top 100.

The 1985 World of Tennis Annual states she lived in Nice, the town of her birth. Her own website stated she was born in Paris and moved to Nice at the age of 2. She was introduced to tennis at the afe of 4 by her father Roland, a dentist who built a tennis court in Antibes.

Sophie has resided in the United States since 1988. She moved there to be coached by Billie Jean King after an injury. Considering retirement, she was convinced by King to give it another go. Amiach contested in singles at all 4 majors from 1981 to 1993.

I have Billie-Jean King to thank for all she did for me and for being such a positive influence in my life, not only as a tennis player, but also as a great person and friend

Year-End WTA Ranking

1980: #183
1981: #167
1982: #160
1983: #196
1984: #076 [Career high of #54 on 02 April 1984]
1985: #121
1986: #225
1987: #504 (ranking drop due to injury)
1988: #211
1989: #129
1990: #225
1991: #235
1992: #235
1993: #198
1994: #229
1995: #440

Sources:

1985 World of Tennis, page 293


https://web.archive.org/web/20120402165859/http://www.40-love.com/web284//sophie/default.asp [Her fprmer website]

 

[LKK]

Re: Bio Test for LKK

ABBAS, BETSY (nee Betsy Venter)
Great Britain/South Africa/Egypt
Married Abbas (married between December 1950- early 1952), an Egyptian national.
[Active 1947-circa 1961]

RU at the Egyptian Chmps in 1947.

Single when she played the French in 1949-she was listed as a South African, but played the mixed at Wimbledon with an Egyptian. She is still unmarried when RU at a mixed event in Cairo on 26 November 1950.

She was Mrs Abbas by 1952, when she was RU at Alexandria.

Her highlight at a major event was reaching the QF at 1960 French Chmps.

Wimbledon Record (entered 1949, 1952, and 1954.)

Singles: 2-3 (3R in 1952)
Doubles: 4-3
Mixed: 4-3

Sources:

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scor...B/scores/draws/archive/pdfs/players/670600dd-158d-4b50-9e62-c14803d4dfc4_LS.pdf

 

[LKK]

Re: Bio Test for LKK

ADAMSON, Mrs (nee ????)

1914 RU in Alexandria, Egypt

 

[LKK]

Re: Bio Test for LKK

ADAMSEN, SIGNY
Norway

1927 Norweigian Champ. She represented the Oslo Tennis Club.

 

[LKK]

Re: Bio Test for LKK

ADDISON, LILY (Marion Lillian Addison)
Australia (Victoria)
Born 23 December 1885 in Adeliade, South Australia, Australia
Died 27 November 1982
[Active 1904-at least 1925]

The first Australian woman to play at Wimbledon in 1919 (where she made the mixed doubles semi-final).

[From Gee Tee]

Lily Addison became known as a tennis player of note in 1904 when she and Doctor Eric Pockley won the Victorian mixed doubles championship.

In 1906 she won the Victorian singles title, defeating the four-time champion Lorna Gyton. She won this title again from 1908 to 1911 and amazingly one more time in 1921 (aged 36). She also won state singles titles of NSW (1910) and SA (1906, 1908-1910) and represented Victoria in the traditional team matches against NSW and SA.

After her brother and occasional mixed doubles partner, JJ Addison, was killed in action during World War I, she served as a nurse in Salonika.
In 1919, she became possibly the first Australian woman to compete at Wimbledon, reaching the second round of singles and the semi-finals of the mixed doubles.

In the 1920s she became Matron at Geelong Colleg and though her play became less frequent, she was still good enough to be ranked #5 in the Victorian state tennis rankings of January 1925
[/list]List of Titles

Victorian Championships 1906, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1921
New South Wales Championship 1910
South Australian Championships 1906, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911


Miss Addison in 1914 (from State Library of South Australia.

Sources:

Lily Addison - first Aussie at Wimbledon
http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=396520http:

[Australian Women's Register-Includes many primary sources]
http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE4545b.htm

//www.womenaustralia.info/blog/2010/06/22/using-the-online-community-to-create-history/

[Thanks to GeeTee for this biography and to Andrew Tas for her birth and death dates]

 

[LKK]

Re: Bio Test for LKK

ADDISON, MURIEL
Australia (Tasmania)
1920s, possibly Lily Addison's sister who played for Victoria

 

[LKK]

AGASSI, RITA
United States
Born 18 October 1960 in Chicago, Illinois
Married (1) Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" Gonzales (1928-1995) on 31 March 1984-divorced in 1989. son Skylar born in 1986.
[Active 1978-1980]

Most famous as the sister of Andre Agassi and wife of Pacho Gonzales. Her tumultuous relationship with her father led her to abandon top flight tennis. Rita's father routinely made her hit over 5,000 tennis balls a day. Some speculated her marriage to Pancho (her coach at the time) was a way of getting away from her controlling father. Over 32 years her senior, Pancho and Rita lived together from 1981.

Rita was so stressed by her dad in her she took anti-anxiety pills and had an ulcer at 13. Rita says she could not play without taking medication.
Unusually for the time Rita had a two-handed forehand.

Mike on his daughter: "The fact is, I ruined tennis for Rita by pushing her too hard," Mike admitted. "My theory was, if you hated losing enough, you wouldn't lose, and so I harangued her half to death. For Rita, I made sure it was tennis all the time. When Rita's friends were at the movies, out having a good time, Rita was on the tennis court -- always," Mike said. And what was the result of all this programming? "By the time she was 13, the kid had bleeding ulcers," Mike lamented. As you might expect, there comes a point where you get pushed hard enough, something's going to give. "She was like Andre: headstrong and feisty, competitive, and very self-motivated. Any time I pushed her, she pushed right back, even throwing games and sometimes entire matches to make her point. Just to spite me, she married tennis legend -- and world class ***** Pancho Gonzalez, who was 32 years her senior."

She was not close with her brother, at least as of 2000. Her words reveal the rift but not its' source:

Rita, a teaching pro at Bally's, has been estranged from Andre for many years. She cited personal reasons for their rocky relationship.
"I can't stand him," she said. "His name is not allowed to be said on my court. There is no water under the bridge or over the bridge. There is no bridge.
"It's not that I wish him harm. I hope he has a good life. Just a life away from mine."

The Agassi clan-Rita is to the right of younger brother Andre and her father.

Sources:


http://www.tennisforum.com/59-blast-past/395760-other-agassi-rita.html [A Blast Thread]

http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/players/player/profile.aspx?playerid=20007407

[Thanks to Rollo for this information]

 

[LKK]

AHLUWALIA, AMREETA
India
Born 25 October 1960
Married Balachandran

 

[LKK]

AHMED, PARVEEN (nee Parveen Sheikh)
Pakistan
Married a Mr I. N. Ahmed by 1962. Single in 1953
[Active from at least 1955-1963]

Listed as Mrs PN Ahmed when she played Wimbledon in 1963. Also toured Europe in 1955-56.

 

[LKK]

AIGHTON, Miss R
Great Britain

1914 winner in Alexandria, Egypt

 

[LKK]

AITCHISON, KATHLEEN (Kathleen Bulkeley Aitchison)
United Kingdom
Born 9 February 1886 Sunderland
Died 6 March 1960 Ryhope
Unmarried
Listed as K.B. Aitchison. This is Helen's less famous sister.
[Active in 1919]

[Thanks to Olympus for this biography]

 

[LKK]

ALAVANTIC, Dora
Yugoslavia
Born 01 Mar 1957
Active in the 1970s

 

[LKK]

ALLIATA, ESTER
Italy
Born 1920
Married Fraschini, circa 1947

 

[LKK]

ALEXANDER, “SUE” (Susan Alexander)
Australia
Born
Married (1) Pedro Rodriguez (a painter), 1972 or 1973
Married (2) Markus Pluss

She is sister of tennis player John Alexander. Active as early as 1966, when she entered the Aussie.

Susan with her son, first husband and father

 

[LKK]

ALEXANDROVNA, ELENA (Elena Dmitrieva Alexandrovna)
Russia
Born 26 November 1903
Died 16 September 1979
Married Poslavsky

 

[LKK]

ALEXANDRI, ALICE
Greece
Active in the 1970s.

 

[LKK]

ALLEN, HEATHER (Heather Winser Allen)
Great Britain
Born 20 June 1944 in Droitwich, Worcestershire, Great Britian
Married Bob Barwick

Active in 1964. Later Lived In South Africa And Australia

Sources: International Who’s Who of Tennis 1983.

[Thanks to Rosamund for this biography]

 

[LKK]

ALISON, ROBERTA
United States
Born 13 December 1943 in Alexander City, Alabama
Died 20 March 2009 in Alexander Ciy, Alabama
Married Earl Baumgardner (a tennis player, born 1937), 14 August 1965

Alsion began playing tennis at the age of seven under the tutelage of her father, Cal Alison, former #1 singles player at Alabama. She was the granddaughter of Benjamin Russell, founder of Russell Corporation

She was ranked No. 1 in the South as a junior, was ranked in the top 20 nationally four times, was elected twice to play on the National Junior Wightman Cup team and played on the Southern Girls’ Intersectional Team for five years.

She played on the University of Alabama men’s tennis team from 1963-65-a first in US college tennis.

The Roberta Alison Fall Classic, a collegiate tennis tournament played at Alabama, was named in her honor.

Died due to a hosue fire, she was survived by her two sons.


Southern Hall of Fame Member Roberta Alison Passes:
http://www.southern.usta.com/News/2...om/News/2009_03/Southern_Hall_Of_Fame_Member_Roberta_Alison_Baumgardner_Passes/

Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberta_Alison

Sources:

1993 article in the Birmingham News (need a more specific date)

 

[LKK]

ALLIN, GWENDOLINE (nee Gwendoline Crichton Moon)
United Kingdom (Wales)
Born 17 September 1906
Died 1987
Married January to March of 1929 to Erik Kenelm Allin in Conway, Caenarvonshire, Wales

Competes in a Malaysian event in 1930. Erik and Gwendoline are on several ship manifests in the 1930s coming and leaving the Malay Peninsula. They returned to Wales and are buried there in St Trillo's Cemetary on Rhos on Sea, Conway, Wales.

 

[LKK]

ALVAREZ, “LILI” de (Elia Maria González-Álvarez y López-Chicheri)
Spain
Born 09 May 1905 at the Hotel Flora in Rome, Italy
Died 08 July 1998 in Madrid, Spain.
Married Comte Jean de Gaillard de la Valdène, on 14 November 1935 in Madrid (separated from 1939 on death of only child)
Nickname: "The Senorita"
[Active 1919 to 1937]

3 time Wimbledon finalist (1926-1928) and 1930 Italian Champion.

Author of Modern Lawn Tennis (1927) and Plenitud (Fullness) in 1946.

At an early age Lili was a skating star, taking up tennis as a second sport. She won the Swiss Indoors in 1919 at the age of 13, marking her as a prodigy in the mold of Suzanne Lenglen.

Lili never reached those heights; as her Lenglen-like flair was never wed to consistency. Nonetheless Lili was proved to be Spain’s greatest player until Arantxa Sanchez and a star of the first magnitude.

Her grand slam career spanned from 1925 (when she lost in the 1R of the French) to 1937.

Aussie: never played
French: 4 SF (1930-31, 1936-37) and 1 QF in 1927.
Wimbledon: 3 finals (1926-28)
US Nationals: never played

Won French doubles in 1929 with Kea Bouman.

World ranked #2 in 1927 and 1928.

Alverez sparkled in reaching 3 consecutive Wimbledon finals. She came closest in the first vs Kitty McKane in 1926, leading 4-1 in the thrd only to fade. Helen Wills bested her in 1927 and 1928; though the 1927 final was vastly entertaining due to the Senorita's dash and moxie in trying impossible shots.

She was famous for her daring half-volleys, often hit from the baseline. The daring quality of her attack compelled spectators to watch. It was said that for five games she could best anyone. Unfortunately she lacked the stamina and consistency to take major titles. In the words of Martin Hedges, she displayed "a tendency to commit serious errors at vital moments."

Lili was a trendsetter in fashion. She created buzz in 1931 by wearing the first divided skirt in tennis designed by Elsa Schiaparelli. Center Court was agog when she came out in trousers, a wrap around skirt and one red sock!

From 1934 to 1937 she played as the Countess Valdene. When their only child died in 1939 the couple separated. Lili moved back to Spain in 1941 and became a writer. Her writings demonstrated her commitment to feminism and Catholicism.

The talented and cosmopolitan Alvarez spoke 5 languages.

World Top Ten Rankings

1926: #3
1927: #2
1928: #2
1930: #8
1931: #8

Alvarez oozed flair and panache

Her culottes or "robe pants" costume in 1931

Sources:

Hedges, Martin. The Concise Dictionary of Tennis. 1978. p. 12

Lili de Alvarez - Spain's first great tennis star - TennisForum.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil%C3%AD_%C3%81lvarez

[Thanks to Rollo for this biography]