Lucia Valerio

Lucia Valerio ([luˈtʃia vaˈlɛrjo]; 28 February 1905 – 26 September 1996) was an Italian female tennis player who was active during the late 1920s and the 1930s.

Valerio learned playing tennis from her father and she played on a tennis court at her home. Before settling on tennis she practiced fencing, horse riding and skiing. Her favorite strokes were the forehand passing shot and cut service.

Between 1928 and 1938 she participated in seven Wimbledon Championships. Her best result in the singles event was reaching the quarterfinal of the 1933 Wimbledon Championships in which she was defeated by eventual finalist Dorothy Round. That same year she partnered with Madzy Rollin Couquerque to reach the third round of the doubles competition. In 1935 she reached the quarterfinal of the mixed doubles event with Don Turnbull which they lost to the first-seeded pair Hilde Spehrling and Gottfried Von Cramm.

In 1930 she played against Phyllis Satterthwaite in the final of the Bordighera tournament on the Italian Riviera. Satterthwaite was a baseline player with a game based on safety and keeping the ball in play. At match point her determination not to make an error resulted in a rally which lasted 450 strokes. Satterthwaite won the point and the match.

At the French Championships she reached the quarterfinal in 1931 and 1934. In 1935 she lost the quarterfinal in straight sets to Cilly Aussem who would proceed to win the championship and in 1934 Simonne Mathieu proved too strong for her.

In 1931 she won the singles title at the Italian Championships in Milan after winning the final against Dorothy Andrus Burke in three sets. That year she also won the mixed doubles title with G.P. Hughes. Additionally she was a runner-up at the inaugural 1930 championships as well as the 1932, 1934 and 1935 editions.

She was part of the Italian team that toured India in 1932 and during that trip won the singles title at the East and West of India Championships.