Dorothy Cheney
Encyclopedia
Dorothy “Dodo” Bundy Cheney (born September 1, 1916, in Los Angeles, California
) is the daughter of Tennis Hall of Famer May Sutton Bundy
and U.S. doubles champion Tom Bundy
(1912–1914). She has been an outstanding American tennis
player from her youth into her 90s. She played most of her tennis at the Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC), during the years that Perry T. Jones was President of the Southern California Tennis Association.
In 1938, Cheney became the first American to win the women's singles title at the Australian Championships
, defeating Dorothy Stevenson in the final 6–3, 6–2.
Cheney was a three-time runner-up in Grand Slam
women's doubles tournaments. At the 1938 Australian Championships, Cheney and her partner Dorothy Workman lost to Nancye Wynne Bolton
and Thelma Coyne Long
9–7, 6–4. At the 1940 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Marjorie Gladman Van Ryn
lost to Alice Marble
and Sarah Palfrey Cooke
6–3, 9–7, which was the latter team's fifth consecutive title at the U.S. Championships. At the 1941 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Pauline Betz Addie lost to the team of Cooke and Margaret Osborne duPont
3–6, 6–1, 6–4.
Cheney was a four-time runner-up in Grand Slam mixed doubles tournaments. At the 1940 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Jack Kramer lost to Marble and Bobby Riggs
9–7, 6–1. At the 1944 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Donald McNeill
lost to duPont and William Talbert 6–2, 6–3. At the 1946 French Championships, Cheney and her partner Thomas Brown
lost to Betz Addie and Budge Patty
7–5, 9–7. At Wimbledon
in 1946, Cheney and her partner Geoff Brown
lost to Louise Brough Clapp and Thomas Brown 6–4, 6–4.
Cheney was a member of the victorious U.S. Wightman Cup
teams from 1937 through 1939.
Cheney won the Cincinnati
singles title in 1944, defeating Betz Addie in the final. Cheney also won the Cincinnati doubles title that year. In 1945, Cheney was a singles runner-up and doubles winner in Cincinnati.
Cheney was still competing in selected top level events at the age of 51. In 1967, she upset a seeded player, Karen Krantzcke
, in the third round of the Pacific Southwest Championships 6–2, 6–2 just two weeks after Krantzcke had reached the third round of the US Open. Now 91 years old, Cheney still competes in tennis events and currently holds the record for the most United States Tennis Association
senior titles — more than 300.
According to Wallis Myers and John Olliff of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail
, Cheney was ranked in the world top ten in 1937 and 1946 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 6 in those rankings in 1946. Cheney was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association
from 1936 through 1941, 1943 through 1946, and in 1955. She was the third-ranked U.S. player in 1937, 1938, and 1941.
Cheney was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
in 2004.
NH = tournament not held.
R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
1In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
) is the daughter of Tennis Hall of Famer May Sutton Bundy
May Sutton
May Godfrey Sutton was a tennis champion and the first American to win the singles title at Wimbledon.-Biography:...
and U.S. doubles champion Tom Bundy
Tom Bundy
Thomas Clark Bundy was a tennis player from the Los Angeles, California, United States.Bundy won the All-Comers final, but finished runner-up to William Larned in the Challenge Round of the U.S. National Championships men's singles event, in 1910...
(1912–1914). She has been an outstanding American tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player from her youth into her 90s. She played most of her tennis at the Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC), during the years that Perry T. Jones was President of the Southern California Tennis Association.
In 1938, Cheney became the first American to win the women's singles title at the Australian Championships
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
, defeating Dorothy Stevenson in the final 6–3, 6–2.
Cheney was a three-time runner-up in Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
women's doubles tournaments. At the 1938 Australian Championships, Cheney and her partner Dorothy Workman lost to Nancye Wynne Bolton
Nancye Wynne Bolton
Nancye Wynne Bolton was a female tennis player from Australia. She won the women's singles title six times at the Australian Championships, second only to Margaret Court who won 11 titles...
and Thelma Coyne Long
Thelma Coyne Long
Thelma Dorothy Coyne Long was one of the female tennis players who dominated Australian tennis from the mid-1930s to the 1950s.-Tennis career:...
9–7, 6–4. At the 1940 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Marjorie Gladman Van Ryn
Midge Gladman
Marjorie "Midge" Gladman Van Ryn of Santa Monica, California, was an important American amateur tennis player in the early part of the 20th Century....
lost to Alice Marble
Alice Marble
Alice Marble was a World No. 1 American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships : 5 in Singles, 6 in Women's Doubles, and 7 in Mixed Doubles.-Early life:Born in the small town of Beckwourth, Plumas County, California, Marble moved with her family at the age of...
and Sarah Palfrey Cooke
Sarah Palfrey Cooke
Sarah Hammond Palfrey Fabyan Cooke Danzig was a female tennis player from the United States....
6–3, 9–7, which was the latter team's fifth consecutive title at the U.S. Championships. At the 1941 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Pauline Betz Addie lost to the team of Cooke and Margaret Osborne duPont
Margaret Osborne duPont
Margaret Evelyn Osborne duPont is a former World No. 1 American female tennis player.DuPont won a total of 37 singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, which places her fourth on the all-time list despite never entering the Australian Championships. She won 25 of her Grand...
3–6, 6–1, 6–4.
Cheney was a four-time runner-up in Grand Slam mixed doubles tournaments. At the 1940 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Jack Kramer lost to Marble and Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...
9–7, 6–1. At the 1944 U.S. Championships, Cheney and her partner Donald McNeill
Don McNeill (tennis)
William Donald McNeill was an American male tennis player. He was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma and died in Vero Beach, Florida, United States....
lost to duPont and William Talbert 6–2, 6–3. At the 1946 French Championships, Cheney and her partner Thomas Brown
Tom Brown (tennis player)
Thomas P. "Tom" Brown, Jr. was an American tennis player. He died at the age of 89. In the 1940s he was one of the best amateur players in the world, losing to Jack Kramer in the finals of both the U.S. Open in 1946 and Wimbledon in 1947...
lost to Betz Addie and Budge Patty
Budge Patty
John "Budge" Edward Patty was an American male tennis player. He was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States.1950 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles...
7–5, 9–7. At Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
in 1946, Cheney and her partner Geoff Brown
Geoff Brown (tennis)
Geoff Brown is a former Australian male tennis player, born in Murrurundi, New South Wales, Australia.Brown was runner-up to Yvon Petra in the 1946 Wimbledon Championships final, and also reached the 1949 Australian Championships doubles final, alongside Bill Sidwell.-References:...
lost to Louise Brough Clapp and Thomas Brown 6–4, 6–4.
Cheney was a member of the victorious U.S. Wightman Cup
Wightman Cup
The Wightman Cup was a team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 between teams from the United States and Great Britain. U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to generate international interest in women's tennis the way Davis Cup did for men's...
teams from 1937 through 1939.
Cheney won the Cincinnati
Cincinnati Masters
The Cincinnati Open is an annual outdoor hardcourts tennis event held in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio, USA. The event started on September 18, 1899 and is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city., Between...
singles title in 1944, defeating Betz Addie in the final. Cheney also won the Cincinnati doubles title that year. In 1945, Cheney was a singles runner-up and doubles winner in Cincinnati.
Cheney was still competing in selected top level events at the age of 51. In 1967, she upset a seeded player, Karen Krantzcke
Karen Krantzcke
Karen Krantzcke was an Australian tennis player who achieved a World Top Ten singles ranking in 1970. In her short career, she made the quarterfinals or better at each of the four Grand Slam championships...
, in the third round of the Pacific Southwest Championships 6–2, 6–2 just two weeks after Krantzcke had reached the third round of the US Open. Now 91 years old, Cheney still competes in tennis events and currently holds the record for the most United States Tennis Association
United States Tennis Association
The United States Tennis Association is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels...
senior titles — more than 300.
According to Wallis Myers and John Olliff of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, Cheney was ranked in the world top ten in 1937 and 1946 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 6 in those rankings in 1946. Cheney was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association
United States Tennis Association
The United States Tennis Association is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels...
from 1936 through 1941, 1943 through 1946, and in 1955. She was the third-ranked U.S. player in 1937, 1938, and 1941.
Cheney was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The hall of fame and honors players and contributors to the sport of tennis and includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indoor tennis facility, and a court tennis facility.-History:The hall of fame and...
in 2004.
Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
| Tournament | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 19461 | 19471 - 1954 | 1955 | 1956 - 1958 | 1959 | Career SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia Australian Open The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court... |
A | A | W | A | A | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | A | A | A | A | A | 1 / 1 |
| France | A | A | A | A | NH | R | R | R | R | A | SF | A | A | A | A | 0 / 1 |
| Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors... |
A | A | 4R | A | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | SF | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 |
| United States | QF | SF | SF | QF | QF | QF | A | SF | SF | QF | 1R | A | 3R | A | 1R | 0 / 12 |
| SR | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 1 / 3 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 1 | 1 / 16 |
NH = tournament not held.
R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
1In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.
See also
- Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam finalTennis performance timeline comparison (women)This article presents in a tabular form the career tennis Grand Slam, World Hard Court Championships and Olympic singles results of every woman who has reached the singles final of at least one Grand Slam, World Hard Court Championships or Olympic tournament during her career...