Lenglen–Dewhurst match at the 1926 Wimbledon Championships
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lenglen–Dewhurst match at the 1926 Wimbledon Championships was a second-round match between French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen and British Ceylonese tennis player Evelyn Dewhurst at the 1926 Wimbledon Championships, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. Lenglen, a six-time Wimbledon singles champion who was undefeated in singles at the tournament, defeated Dewhurst in straight sets for the last competitive win of her amateur career. The match had been rescheduled three times. Lenglen withdrew from the tournament following the match and also forfeited her amateur status a month after the tournament to become a professional tennis player.
Suzanne Lenglen vs. Evelyn Dewhurst | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Date | 25 June 1926 (three times rescheduled) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tournament | Wimbledon Championships | |||||||||
Location | All England Club, Church Road, Wimbledon | |||||||||
Lenglen (right) with Queen Mary at the 1926 Wimbledon Championships |
The match was enshrouded in controversy after it needed to be rescheduled to accommodate the British royal family. As Lenglen did not think the rescheduled time fit in with her doubles match, she asked for the match to be rescheduled again. Although it never was, Lenglen did not show up at the rescheduled time. As a result, tournament officials ultimately rescheduled the match anyway, moving it to the following day to be played following her doubles match. After her doubles match took longer than anticipated to complete, the singles match was rescheduled a third time again to the following day. Although Lenglen won the match, the British crowd that had long been extremely supportive of Lenglen turned against her after the press erroneously reported the postponements had angered Queen Mary, even though Queen Mary was supportive of Lenglen in the situation. Lenglen's fallout with the British crowd was one of the underlying factors in her leaving amateur tennis.
Lenglen's unwillingness to comply with the first rescheduled time of the match was in part due to two other separate issues, namely her family struggling with their finances and the French Tennis Federation demanding that she partner with a compatriot instead of her longtime doubles partner American Elizabeth Ryan.