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Charlotte Cooper (tennis)

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Charlotte "Chattie" Cooper Sterry (née Charlotte Reinagle Cooper; 22 September 1870 – 10 October 1966) was an English female tennis player who won five singles titles at the Wimbledon Championships and in 1900 became Olympic champion. In winning in Paris on 11 July 1900, she became the first female Olympic tennis champion as well as the first individual female Olympic champion.[1]

Charlotte Cooper Sterry
Cooper in 1900
Full nameCharlotte Reinagle Cooper Sterry
Country (sports) United Kingdom
Born(1870-09-22)22 September 1870
Ealing, Middlesex, England
Died10 October 1966(1966-10-10) (aged 96)
Helensburgh, Scotland
PlaysRight–handed
Int. Tennis HoF2013 (member page)
Singles
Career recordno value
Grand Slam singles results
WimbledonW (1895, 1896, 1898, 1901, 1908)
Doubles
Career recordno value
Grand Slam doubles results
WimbledonF (1913)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon3R (1914)
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1900 Paris Singles
Gold medal – first place 1900 Paris Mixed doubles

Early life and career

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Charlotte Cooper Sterry vs Blanche Bingley Hillyard at Eastbourne

Charlotte Cooper was born on 22 September 1870 at Waldham Lodge, Ealing, Middlesex, England, the youngest daughter of Henry Cooper, a miller, and his wife Teresa Georgiana Miller.[2] She learned to play tennis at the Ealing Lawn Tennis Club where she was first coached by H. Lawrence and later by Charles Martin and Harold Mahony.[a] She won her first senior singles title in 1893 at Ilkley.[3] Between 1893 and 1917 she participated in 21 Wimbledon tournaments. At her first appearance she reached the semifinals of the singles event in which she lost to Blanche Bingley Hillyard. She won her first singles title in 1895, defeating Helen Jackson in the final of the All-Comers event.[4][b] In that match she was down 0–5 in both sets but managed to win in straight sets.[5] In 1896, she successfully defended her title in the Challenge Round against Alice Simpson Pickering. Between 1897 and 1901 the titles were divided between Cooper Sterry (1898, 1901) and Bingley Hillyard (1897, 1899, 1900). The 1902 Challenge Round match against Muriel Robb was halted on the first day of play due to rainfall at 6–4, 11–13. The match was replayed in its entirety the next day and Robb won 7–5, 6–1, playing a total of 53 games which was then a record for the longest women's singles final.[6][7] In 1908 as a mother of two she won her last singles title when she defeated Agnes Morton in straight sets in the All-Comers final after a seven-year hiatus and at the age of 37.[8][9] She is the oldest Wimbledon's ladies’ singles champion and her record of eight consecutive singles finals stood until 1990 when Martina Navratilova reached her ninth consecutive singles final.[9][10]

In addition to her singles titles, Cooper Sterry also won seven All-England mixed doubles titles; five times with Harold Mahony (1894–1898) [3] and once with Laurence Doherty (1900) and Xenophon Casdagli (1908).[c] In 1913 she reached the final of the first Wimbledon women's doubles event with Dorothea Douglass, 18 years after winning her first Wimbledon title.

She won the singles title at the Irish Lawn Tennis Championships in 1895 and 1898,[3] a prestigious tournament at the time.[11] At the 1900 Summer Olympics, where women participated for the first time, Cooper Sterry won the tennis singles event. On 11 July 1900 she defeated Hélène Prévost in the final in straight sets and became the first female Olympic tennis champion as well as the first individual female Olympic champion. With Reginald Doherty, she won the mixed doubles title after a straight-sets victory in the final against Hélène Prévost and Harold Mahony.[12][d] In 1901 she won the singles title at the German Championships, and in 1902 she won the Swiss Championship.[13] Cooper Sterry remained active in competitive tennis and continued to play in championship events well into her 50s.

On 12 January 1901 she married Alfred Sterry, a solicitor, who became president of the Lawn Tennis Association. They had two children: Rex (1903–81) who was the vice-chairman of the All England Club for a period of 15 years during the 1960s and 1970s and Gwen (born 1905), a tennis player who participated at Wimbledon and played on Britain's Wightman Cup team.[2][14][15][16]

Cooper Sterry, who had been deaf since the age of 26, died on 10 October 1966 at the age of 96, in Helensburgh, Scotland.[2][17][18]

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2013.[19]

Playing style

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Cooper Sterry had an offensive style of playing, attacking the net when the opportunity arose. She was one of a few female players of her time who served overhead. Her main strengths were her steadiness, temperament and tactical ability.[2] Her excellent volleying skills stood out at a time when this was still a rarity in ladies tennis.[13]

Grand Slam finals

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Singles: 11 (5 titles, 6 runners-up)

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Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Win 1895[b] Wimbledon (1) Grass   Helen Jackson Atkins 7–5, 8–6
Win 1896 Wimbledon (2) Grass   Alice Simpson Pickering 6–2, 6–3
Loss 1897 Wimbledon Grass   Blanche Bingley Hillyard 7–5, 5–7, 2–6
Win 1898[e] Wimbledon (3) Grass   Louisa Martin 6–4, 6–4
Loss 1899 Wimbledon Grass   Blanche Bingley Hillyard 2–6, 3–6
Loss 1900 Wimbledon Grass   Blanche Bingley Hillyard 6–4, 4–6, 4–6
Win 1901 Wimbledon (4) Grass   Blanche Bingley Hillyard 6–2, 6–2
Loss 1902 Wimbledon Grass   Muriel Robb 5–7, 1–6
Loss 1904 Wimbledon Grass   Dorothea Lambert Chambers 0–6, 3–6
Win 1908[f] Wimbledon (5) Grass   Agnes Morton 6–4, 6–4
Loss 1912 Wimbledon Grass   Ethel Thomson Larcombe 3–6, 1–6

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

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Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 1913 Wimbledon Grass   Dorothea Douglass   Winifred McNair
  Dora Boothby		 4–6, 2–4 ret.

Notes

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  1. ^ In the 1910 book by Dorothy Chambers titled "Lawn Tennis for Ladies" Cooper Sterry describes winning her first championship at the Ealing Club: "Winning my first championship of the Ealing Lawn Tennis Club at the age of 14 was a very important moment in my life. How well I remember, bedecked by my proud mother in my best clothes, running off to the Club on the Saturday afternoon to play in the final without a vestige of nerve (would that I had none now!), and winning — that was the first really important match of my life."
  2. ^ a b This was actually the all-comers final as Blanche Bingley Hillyard did not defend her 1894 Wimbledon title, which resulted in the winner of the all-comers final winning the challenge round and, thus, Wimbledon in 1895 by walkover.
  3. ^ The Mixed Doubles only became an official Championship event in 1913.
  4. ^ Medals were not awarded until the 1904 Summer Olympics.
  5. ^ This was actually the all-comers final as Blanche Bingley Hillyard did not defend her 1897 Wimbledon title, which resulted in the winner of the all-comers final winning the challenge round and, thus, Wimbledon in 1898 by walkover.
  6. ^ This was actually the all-comers final as May Sutton did not defend her 1907 Wimbledon title, which resulted in the winner of the all-comers final winning the challenge round and, thus, Wimbledon in 1908 by walkover.

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charlotte Cooper.
  1. ^ "Charlotte Cooper". Olympedia. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – Sterry [née Cooper], Charlotte Reinagle". Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ a b c Smyth, J. G. (8 November 2013). "Oxford DNB article: Sterry, Charlotte Reinagle". archive.fo. Oxford University Press, 2004-2013. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. ^ Kelly Exelby (10 July 2012). "Tennis: Proud links to an All England legend". The New Zealand Herald.
  5. ^ Dorothy Lambert Chambers (1910). Lawn Tennis for Ladies (1 ed.). London: Outing Publishing Company.
  6. ^ Barrett, John (2013). Wimbledon : The Official History of the Championships (2nd ed.). Kingston upon Thames: Vision Sports Pub Ltd. p. 77. ISBN 9781907637896.
  7. ^ Hedges, Martin (1978). The Concise Dictionary of Tennis. New York: Mayflower Books. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-0861240128.
  8. ^ "Wimbledon player archive – Charlotte Sterry (Cooper)". AELTC.
  9. ^ a b Bud Collins (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis (2nd ed.). [New York]: New Chapter Press. pp. 445, 709. ISBN 978-0942257700.
  10. ^ "Wimbledon Top 10: Oldest Champions". AELTC. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
  11. ^ Lake, Robert J. (2014). A Social History of Tennis in Britain. Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 9781134445578.
  12. ^ "Olympics – Charlotte Cooper". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
  13. ^ a b A Wallis Myers, ed. (1903). Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad (1 ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 170, 280. OCLC 5358651.
  14. ^ Robertson, Max (1974). The Encyclopedia of Tennis. London: Allen & Unwin. pp. 323, 324. ISBN 9780047960420.
  15. ^ "Wimbledon players archive – Gwen Simmers (Sterry)". AELTC.
  16. ^ "Charlotte Cooper Sterry". Helensburgh Heroes. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  17. ^ "Charlotte Cooper – a biography". Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  18. ^ "Charlotte Cooper Sterry – All time tennis legend". Archived from the original on 3 December 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  19. ^ "Hall of Famers – Charlotte Cooper Sterry". International Tennis Hall of Fame.
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