🎾0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ Suzanne Lenglen
Meet Suzanne Lenglen, the trailblazing albeit at times controversial tennis player who, as one of the first international sports stars, helped revolutionize the game (and sporting fashions) in Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in Paris on May 24, 1899, Lenglen began to play tennis at age 12 as a means to ease her asthma and build stamina. Her career was shaped by her father, Charles, who from an early age insisted that his daughter practice and play with male counterparts, as well as adopt some components of their game. She began playing–and winning–major tournaments at age 14, won the French championship the next year, and in 1919 the 20-year-old dominated her Wimbledon debut with titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Lenglen won Olympic gold (1920 ) then stitched together an impressive win streak, dropping just one match before turning professional in October 1926, when she became the first female professional tennis player alongside Mary K. Brown (Voice 🎾0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣). During the course of her career, Lenglen amassed 241 titles, was elected Queen of Sport in France, and forever changed the sport, foreshadowing other global tennis superstars whose on-court prowess and fashions would shape the game.
The Context
Modern tennis, codified in 1870s England, rapidly grew in popularity around the world. It was enjoyed by both men and women, typically from the upper- and upper middle-classes. As its demographics expanded, so, too did the types of surfaces on which it was played. From a game played on grass, by the turn of the twentieth century it was played on clay courts and hardwood floors.
Lenglen at Cannes in 1920. Photo: Agence Rol, Bibliothèque National de France.
The first women’s Olympic tennis events, the singles and mixed doubles tournaments, were included in the 1900 Paris Games, and as Dr Jean Williams argues, were important (alongside other international competitions) in driving more women to take up the game.[1] Thus it’s no surprise that some of the first international female sports stars of the twentieth century were tennis players with Lenglen at the forefront. She was known just as much for her diva-like behavior in competitions, her colorful fashions that included daringly short skirts, plunging necklines and headbands, and her joie de vivre enjoying the best nightlife on offer as for her on-court credentials.
Lenglen made her first appearance at what became the U.S. Open in 1921, traversing the Atlantic Ocean to compete against American women on their home courts, “an ambition that had become almost a religion,” she told New York Times readers.
The occasion revolutionized tennis in the United States as the women’s national championships were relocated from Philadelphia to New York for the occasion so as to accommodate the thousands of fans who wanted to watch–and pay to do so–the French legend live in action.
Lenglen walking off the court after retiring against Mallory. Photo: Creative Commomns.
But, it was also one of Lenglen’s more humiliating ones: she defaulted during her second set against Molla Bjurstedt Mallory in a highly anticipated game.
Lenglen took to the New York Times to justify herself to the U.S. public.
“...[I]n spite of the many kindnesses shown to me in the last few weeks. Splendid as these have been and appreciative as I am for them, it has been impossible for me to miss a certain undercurrent concerning my inability to play the scheduled matches…I have been called a quitter. It is that which hurts the most and which I simply cannot erase from my mind.”
She pointed to the bronchitis she suffered just prior to sailing for New York in August. Moreover, she argued (perhaps dubiously), while U.S. sporting ethics prevented a player from defaulting mid-match, that was not necessarily part of the French sports culture. “It violates no standards of propriety in my country,” she noted of her default due to claims of illness, “although in this instance it would have been the same had it broken every French rule of conduct on the tennis court.”
The Sports Diplomacy Connection
While this vignette illustrated cultural exchange through sport, and the potential disparities in sporting cultures and ethics from one country to another (as Lenglen claimed), better depictions of Lenglen’s informal role as a sports representative in the United States came in 1926.
Lenglen (right) shaking hands with Mary Browne during the United States professional tour. Photo: Bain News Service, Library of Congress.
Earlier that year, she played the “match of the century” in Cannes against American Helen Wills (Voice 🎾0️⃣0️⃣3️⃣). Then in October, she played across the United States as part of the first female professional tennis tour (in which Lenglen won all 38 matches). With matches country-wide, she was able to experience and see the United States far beyond the courts of Queens, New York.
Lenglen embodied the “new woman” in France, one who flouted social, sexual, and fashion conventions and negotiated American stereotypes about their sister republic and its citizens. As one of the first international sports superstars, Lenglen represented the tennis world. In the process, she helped grow the game even though her dramatic actions and statements could at times be deemed undiplomatic.
She also used tennis as a means to learn more about the United States and its culture. For example, during her 1926 tour, “The Goddess” attended a baseball game at Yankee Stadium, reportedly asking questions to learn more about the game and all that surrounded it.
Lenglen returned to France but, with a lack of professional tennis opportunities in Europe and the doors to amateur competitions closed, faded from the spotlight afforded through the court. She designed sportswear fashions, taught youth clinics, and conveyed her accrued technical knowledge in the book Tennis by Simple Exercises. Lenglen suffered poor health in the 1930s, first acute appendicitis and then a leukemia diagnosis; she passed away July 4, 1938, although to this day the cause of death remains a mystery .
Mapping the Connection
From Paris, France to Queens, New York
Further Reading
[E] “Suzanne Lenglen,” International Tennis Hall of Fame
[E] “Drama! Queens! The women’s match that forever changed the U.S. Open,” U.S. Open, September 2, 2021.
[E] Larry Engelmann, The Goddess and the American Girl: The Story of Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills, (Oxford University Press, 1988).
[1] Jean Williams, A Contemporary History of Women’s Sport, Part One: Sporting Women, 1850-1960, (Routledge, 2014), p147.
How to Cite This Entry
Krasnoff, Lindsay Sarah. “Voices: Suzanne Lenglen,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/025-suzanne-lenglen. (date of consultation).