Full name Althea Louise Brough Name Louise Brough Country (sports) United States Role Tennis player | Height 1.71 m Australian Open W (1950) Grand slams won (singles) 6 | |
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Born March 11, 1923
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ( 1923-03-11 ) Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand) Highest ranking No. 1 (1955, Lance Tingay) Died February 3, 2014, Vista, California, United States Similar People Margaret Osborne duPont, Doris Hart, John Bromwich, Ted Schroeder, Tom Brown | ||
Int. Tennis HoF 1967 (member page) | ||
Remembering ralph kiner louise brough clapp anna gordy gaye
Althea Louise Brough Clapp (née Brough; March 11, 1923 – February 3, 2014) was an American tennis player. During her career between 1942 and 1957, she won six Grand Slam singles titles as well as numerous doubles and mixed doubles titles. She was ranked world no. 1 by Lance Tingay in 1955.
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Biography
Louise Brough (pronounced Bruff) was born in Oklahoma City in 1923. Her family moved to Beverly Hills, California when she was four years old. She learned to play tennis on the public courts at Roxbury Park and was coached by Dick Skeen. In 1940 and 1941, she won the US Girls' Championships.
In doubles, Brough usually teamed with her longtime friend Margaret Osborne duPont. Both won their first US doubles title at the 1942 US Championships. The successful pair won another eight consecutive doubles titles at Forest Hills until 1950 which is the longest championship run in history in any event at any Grand Slam tournament. Brough and duPont did not play as a team at the US Championships in 1951 or 1952 but in 1953, they returned to extend their record match winning streak to 41 before losing to Hart and Shirley Fry in the final, 6–2, 7–9, 9–7. Their career record as a team at the US Championships was 58–2, winning 12 of the 14 times they entered the tournament and losing only five sets in those 14 years. In singles, Brough won the US title in 1947. Although she appeared in five more singles finals at Forest Hills, this would remain her only US singles title. In 1948, she had a match point at 6–5 in the third set against duPont. She also had three match points in the 1954 final against Doris Hart, the first at 5–4 in the third set and two more at 6–5 in that set.
At Wimbledon, Brough won the singles title three times in a row between 1948 and 1950, and again 1955. During the "Brough decade" from 1946 through 1955, a Wimbledon final without her was unusual. She appeared in 21 of the 30 finals contested at Wimbledon in singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles during that period. In 1950, she won the rare triple at Wimbledon – singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Alongside duPont, she won four doubles titles at Wimbledon, and another four mixed doubles titles partnering Tom Brown, John Bromwich and Eric Sturgess.
Brough took part in the Australian Championships only once, in 1950, when she won the singles and doubles title. Despite reaching the semifinals three times at the French Championships between 1946 and 1950, she could never win the singles titles there as the slow clay courts were not suitable to her attacking style of play. However, she won the doubles title at Paris in 1946, 1947 and 1949.
In summary, Brough won 13 titles at Wimbledon, 17 titles at the US Championships, 3 titles at the French Championships, and 2 titles at the Australian Championships. Her 35 Grand Slam titles ties her with Doris Hart for fifth on the all-time list, behind only Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, and Margaret Osborne duPont.
According to John Olliff and Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Brough was ranked in the world top 10 from 1946 through 1957 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 1 in those rankings in 1955. She was included in the year-end top 10 rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) from 1941 through 1950 and from 1952 through 1957. She was the top ranked US player in 1947. Her 16 years in the USLTA top 10 put her behind only Billie Jean King (18 years) and Chris Evert (19 years).
Bud Collins regards her one of the great volleyers in history. He wrote, "A willowy blonde, 5-foot-71/2, she was quiet but the killer in the left court when at play alongside duPont." Beside her aggressive volleys, her strengths were her backhand and a paralyzing American twist serve with a high kick. Her rival Alice Marble wrote about Brough's serve, "She gets an enormously high bounce on this serve, and women are notoriously feeble in their effort to return it, especially on the backhand."
Brough married Pasadena dentist Dr. Alan Clapp on August 9, 1958 and retired from tennis competitions one year later. She taught juniors in California for the following 20 years. She was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967. Occasionally she played in senior tournaments, winning the doubles title at the US Hard Court Senior Championships alongside Barbara Green Weigandt in 1971 and 1975. Her husband died in 1999. She died at her home in Vista, California, on February 3, 2014, at the age of 90 and left no children.
Mixed doubles
R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam doubles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.