Frances Ellen 'Nell' Truman Robinson (12 December 1945 – 8 April 2012), was a female

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from the United Kingdom who was active in the 1960s and early 1970s and was mainly known for her performance as a doubles player. Nell Truman was born on 12 December 1945 in

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

, England, the youngest child of Stanley and Aimee Truman. Her father was a chartered accountant. She was the sister of tennis player

Christine Truman Christine Clara Truman Janes (born 16 January 1941) is a former tennis player from the United Kingdom who was active from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. She won a singles Grand Slam title at the French Open, French Championships in 1959 and was ...

. She attended

Queen Anne's School Queen Anne's School is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18, situated in the suburb of Caversham just north of the River Thames and Reading town centre and occupying a campus. There are around 450 pupils. Nearly half a ...

in Caversham, Berkshire, and went on to read geography at

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. It has some 450 undergraduate and 200 ...

, where she was awarded

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

in tennis and

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

. She won a gold medal in the singles event at the 1967 World Student Games in Tokyo. Her best performance at a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the final of the doubles event at the

1972 French Open The 1972 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 22 May until 4 June. It was the 76th staging of the French Open, and the second Grand Sl ...

. Partnering compatriot

Winnie Shaw Winifred Mason Shaw (later Mrs. Wooldridge) (18 January 1947 – 30 March 1992) was a professional tennis player from Scotland whose career ran from the mid-1960s until the early 70s. In 2002, she posthumously was inducted into the Scottish Sp ...

, they lost the final in straight sets to

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. King was a member of the victorious United States ...

and

Betty Stöve Betty Flippina Stöve (born 24 June 1945) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best remembered for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 19 ...

. Her best Grand Slam singles performance was reaching the fourth round of the

1969 Wimbledon Championships The 1969 Wimbledon Championships was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament that was played on outdoor grass courts. It was the second edition of the Wimbledon Championships in the Open Era and the 83rd since its formation. It was held a ...

in which she lost to

Judy Tegart Judy Tegart Dalton (née Tegart; born 12 December 1937) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She won nine Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major doubles titles, and completed the Grand Slam (tennis)#Career Grand Slam, career Gra ...

. Between 1965 and 1972, Truman played in five

Wightman Cup The Wightman Cup was an annual team tennis competition for women contested from 1923 through 1989 (except during World War II) between teams from the United States and Great Britain. History U.S. player Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman wanted to generate ...

s, a team tennis competition for women between the United States and Great Britain. During the 1968 Wightman Cup, the match was tied at three all, and Nell partnered sister Christine in the deciding rubber. The sisters won the match, and Nell hit the winning shot to give the British team a victory, their first triumph over the U.S. team since 1960. In February 1968, she won the singles title at the French Covered Courts Championships in Paris. At the Alexandria Championships in Egypt, played in March 1968, she defeated

Olga Morozova Olga Vasilyevna Morozova ( rus, link=no, Ольга Васильевна Морозова, , ˈolʲɡə mɐˈrozəvə, a=Ru-Olga_Morozova.ogg; born 22 February 1949) is a retired tennis player who competed for the Soviet Union. She was the run ...

in the final to win the singles title. In April 1968, she and her sister became the first winners of an

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

tennis event by winning the women's doubles title at the

British Hard Court Championships The British Hard Court Championships is a defunct Grand Prix tennis and WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1968 to 1983 and 1995 to 1999. The inaugural edition of the tournament was held in 1924 in Torquay, moving to the West Hant ...

in Bournemouth. In February 1971, she won the singles title at the German Indoor Tennis Championships in Bremen, defeating

Heide Orth Heide Orth (''née'' Schildknecht; born 10 August 1942) is a former tennis player from Germany. Heide grew up in Essen in the industrial Ruhr valley and began playing tennis with her father at the age of 13. Her first major success was winning t ...

in the final in straight sets. In 1972, she joined the Virginia Slims tennis circuit. She married Christopher Robinson, a London solicitor, on 7 October 1972 with whom she had a son and three daughters. Nell Truman died in Cambridge on 8 April 2012 as a result of a stroke.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1 runner-up)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Truman, Christine 1945 births 2012 deaths English female tennis players People educated at Queen Anne's School People from Loughton British female tennis players Tennis people from Essex Universiade medalists in tennis Universiade gold medalists for Great Britain Universiade bronze medalists for Great Britain Medalists at the 1967 Summer Universiade