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British tennis and badminton player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dorothea Lambert Chambers (née Dorothea Katherine Douglass; 3 September 1878 – 7 January 1960)[1] was a British tennis player. She won seven Wimbledon women's singles titles and a gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics.[2]
Full name | Dorothea Katherine Douglass Lambert Chambers | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Country (sports) | United Kingdom | ||||||||
Born | Ealing, Middlesex, England | 3 September 1878||||||||
Died | 7 January 1960 81) Kensington, London, England | (aged||||||||
Int. Tennis HoF | 1981 (member page) | ||||||||
Singles | |||||||||
Grand Slam singles results | |||||||||
Wimbledon | W (1903, 1904, 1906, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914) | ||||||||
US Open | QF (1925) | ||||||||
Doubles | |||||||||
Grand Slam doubles results | |||||||||
Wimbledon | F (1913, 1919, 1920) | ||||||||
Grand Slam mixed doubles results | |||||||||
Wimbledon | F (1919) | ||||||||
Team competitions | |||||||||
Wightman Cup | W (1925) | ||||||||
Medal record
|
In 1900, Douglass made her singles debut at Wimbledon, and after a bye in the first round, lost her second-round match to Louisa Martin. Three years later, she won her first of seven ladies singles titles. On 6 April 1907, she married Robert Lambert Chambers and became known by her married surname Lambert Chambers.[3][4]
In 1908, she won the gold medal in the women's singles event at the 1908 Summer Olympics after a straight-sets victory in the final against compatriot Dora Boothby.[5]
She wrote Tennis for Ladies, published in 1910. The book contained photographs of tennis techniques and contained advice on attire and equipment.[citation needed]
In 1911, Lambert Chambers won the women's final at Wimbledon against Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0, the first player to win a Grand Slam singles final without losing a game.[6] The only other female player to achieve this was Steffi Graf when she defeated Natalia Zvereva in the 1988 French Open final.[7]
In 1919, Lambert Chambers played the longest Wimbledon final up to that time: 44 games against Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. Lambert Chambers held two match points at 6–5 in the third set but eventually lost to Lenglen 8–10, 6–4, 7–9.[8]
Lambert Chambers only played sporadic singles after 1921 but continued to compete in doubles until 1927. She made the singles quarterfinals of the U.S. Championships in 1925,[9] and from 1924 to 1926, she captained Britain's Wightman Cup team. In the 1925 Wightman Cup, she played, at the age of 46, a singles (against Eleanor Goss) and doubles match and won both.[10][11] In 1928 she turned to professional coaching.
Lambert Chambers posthumously was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981.[12] She died in Kensington, London in 1960, aged 81.
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Win * | 1903 | Wimbledon | Grass | Ethel Thomson | 4–6, 6–4, 6–2 |
Win | 1904 | Wimbledon (2) | Grass | Charlotte Cooper Sterry | 6–0, 6–3 |
Loss | 1905 | Wimbledon | Grass | May Sutton | 3–6, 4–6 |
Win | 1906 | Wimbledon (3) | Grass | May Sutton | 6–3, 9–7 |
Loss | 1907 | Wimbledon | Grass | May Sutton | 1–6, 4–6 |
Win | 1910 | Wimbledon (4) | Grass | Dora Boothby | 6–2, 6–2 |
Win | 1911 | Wimbledon (5) | Grass | Dora Boothby | 6–0, 6–0 |
Win ** | 1913 | Wimbledon (6) | Grass | Winifred McNair | 6–0, 6–4 |
Win | 1914 | Wimbledon (7) | Grass | Ethel Thomson Larcombe | 7–5, 6–4 |
Loss | 1919 | Wimbledon | Grass | Suzanne Lenglen | 8–10, 6–4, 7–9 |
Loss | 1920 | Wimbledon | Grass | Suzanne Lenglen | 3–6, 0–6 |
* This was the all-comers final as Muriel Robb did not defend her 1902 Wimbledon title, which resulted in the winner of the all-comers final winning the challenge round, and thus, Wimbledon in 1903 by walkover.
** This was the all-comers final as Ethel Thomson Larcombe did not defend her 1912 Wimbledon title, which resulted in the winner of the all-comers final winning the challenge round and, thus, Wimbledon in 1913 by walkover.
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Loss | 1913 | Wimbledon | Grass | Charlotte Cooper Sterry | Dora Boothby Winifred McNair | 6–4, 4–2, ret. |
Loss | 1919 | Wimbledon | Grass | Ethel Thomson Larcombe | Suzanne Lenglen Elizabeth Ryan | 6–4, 5–7, 3–6 |
Loss | 1920 | Wimbledon | Grass | Ethel Thomson Larcombe | Suzanne Lenglen Elizabeth Ryan | 4–6, 0–6 |
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Loss | 1919 | Wimbledon | Grass | Albert Prebble | Elizabeth Ryan Randolph Lycett | 0–6, 0–6 |
In addition to playing tennis, Lambert Chambers was one of the leading badminton players at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903, 1904 and 1907, she was the runner-up at the singles event of the All England Badminton Championships.[13]
During the First World War, she undertook war work, first at Ealing Hospital, and later at the Little Theatre.[14] She married Robert Lambert Chambers, nephew of John Graham Chambers.
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