Dorothy Head Knode
Dorothy Head Knode ( born July 4, 1925 in Richmond, California as Dorothy Head ) is an American tennis player. Her achievements reached in the 1950s, as she stood twice in the singles final of the French Tennis Championships as well as four other semi-finals played at Grand Slam tournaments.
Biography
Training and initial success in tennis
Dorothy Knode was born in 1925 in California as Dorothy Head. She started at the age of eleven years with the sport of tennis. Knodes aunt finished her education so that she could learn how to play tennis on the public courts in Alameda County. After about a year, she participated in competitions where they always measured himself against older children.
After her high school graduation Knode worked for a year in a supply depot of the United States Navy to the upcoming college fund can. She joined the University of California at Berkeley, and then worked as a secretary. At the beginning of the 1940s took Knode several times by the U.S. Tennis championships and reached in 1943, 1946 and 1947, the quarter-finals. In 1948 she won the tennis tournament in Cincinnati in single as well as in the women's doubles with the Romanian Magda Rurac. 1951 should follow in Cincinnati another victory in women's doubles.
Participation in European tournaments
1950 Knode decided to launch an international tennis career and went to Europe. In the same year she first participated at the French Tennis Championships as well as to the British Wimbledon Championships, where she reached the third or fourth round. In the Open German Tennis Championships in Hamburg, she won the singles and doubles titles. 1952 should there be followed by further titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles. A first major success came in 1952 with the Knode semi-finals at the French Championships, where she was number three with 2:6 and 6:8 of their peers compatriot and eventual tournament winner Doris Hart defeated, which was performed as the number two -seeded. The following year, Knode moved back into France to the semifinals of the Tennis Championships, where she is number five of the later American champion and top-seeded Maureen Connolly in two sets ( 3:6, 3:6 ) was defeated. In the same year it reached number four of the seedings for the first time the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships, where she again defeated Doris Hart ( 2:6, 2:6 ).
In 1954, Knode mother of a daughter and started only at the U.S. Championships, where she also was not on the first round. 1955 became their most successful year so far. The seeded four U.S. American who should never take part in the Australian Championships, reached after victories over the British Shirley Bloomer ( 6:3, 6:3 ) and their top-seeded compatriot Beverly Fleitz ( 6:2, 6:3 ) the final of the French Tennis Championships. There she met on the seeded Briton Angela Mortimer. Knode won the first set 6-2. The second set went with 5:7 in the six years younger female opponent. The decisive third set was so hard -fought that Knode like the legendary world-class French player Suzanne Lenglen was exhausted still serve a cognac during the game. Claims to missing Knode time, only two points to her first Grand Slam title. Since there was no tie-break at that time ( this was introduced in the women until 1973 ), Mortimer won the third set to 10:8. With 38 games to go, it was the longest final at the French Tennis Championships. This record should outbid only in 1996 by Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario who needed 40 games and more than three hours.
1956 reached Knode together with Darlene Hard, the women's doubles final of the French Tennis Championships, where both documents but the American-British duo Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton in three sets ( 8:6, 6:8, 1:6 ). At the successful individual results previously she could not tie on the other hand in 1956 ( France: third round, Wimbledon: 2nd Round, U.S. Championships: Quarter-finals ). In the following year Knode succeeded the best according to Placements season. At the French Championships in 1957, it reached number two -seeded again the final, where they met the top seed Shirley Bloomer and was defeated in straight sets with 1:6 and 3:6. At Wimbledon, she finished fourth in the seedings and reached the semifinals, where she defeated with 2:6 and 3:6 of their weaker classified countrywoman Darlene Hard. At the U.S. Championships Knode also different from the semi-final against the eventual winner Althea Gibson.
Ending of the career and personal life
After the 1957 season Knode could not build on the previous performances at Grand Slam tournaments and stepped up to the late 1960s, only sporadically in the three major tennis tournaments in France (including 3rd round 1966), Wimbledon (including 3rd round 1960 and 1963) and the United States (4th round 1962) in appearance. In 1958 she won at the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships in three sets to Shirley Bloomer ( 4:6, 7:5, 7:5 ). Four years later she won the Central Japan Women's Open against Reiko Miyagi ( 6:3. 6:0 ). Knodes highest finish was fifth in the world (1955, 1957) and the third rank in the U.S. or national rankings (1957 and 1959). She also won six national titles in singles (1955, 1958, 1962 ) and double (1955, 1956, 1958) and was, among other things in 1955 and 1957 Member of the victorious American Wightman Cup team.
Until well into old age Knode remained connected to the sport of tennis. She trained with more than 70 years, two to three times per week and entered the United States regularly in seniors tournaments such as the Queen's Cup (2004) in appearance. In 2005 she won as top seed player at the 25th ITF Super Seniors World Individual Championships in Turkey Manavgat the singles final of the over-80s against the German Ingeborg Knuth and reached together with the Mexican Carmen Christlieb the doubles final. Zuletzte Knode reported in 2010 at the age of 84 years for the USTA National Senior Women 's Clay Court Championships.
As an amateur player remained Dorothy Knode, which compared their style of play and talent in 1999 with the her compatriot Mary Joe Fernandez ( long baseline balls to both sides and drop shots in key moments of the game), denied large financial gains. She lived in Panama, Turkey ( where she met her former husband ) and the United States and moved to two daughters. Knode traveled among other things, Egypt, Pakistan and also stated to have played a doubles tennis with Japanese Empress Michiko. She learned the languages French, Spanish, German and Japanese, trained as a teacher and also worked as a tennis instructor. Today she lives in Huntington Beach, California.