Patricia Canning Todd (born Mary Patricia Canning, July 22, 1922 – September 5, 2015) was an American
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 c ...
player who had her best results just after World War II. In 1947 and 1948, she won a total of four Grand Slam championships: one in singles, two in women's doubles, and one in mixed doubles. She won these titles as a young mother.
Tennis career
Todd and her partner lost seven times to
Louise Brough and
Margaret Osborne duPont in the women's doubles finals of Grand Slam tournaments. Todd's lone victory over the Brough-Osborne duPont partnership was in the final of the 1947
Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pl ...
, when Todd teamed with
Doris Hart. Todd and her partner lost twice to Brough and her partner in the mixed doubles finals of Grand Slam tournaments.
Todd won the title at the 1947
French International Championships and reached the semifinals there in 1948. At the 1947 event, the fourth-seeded Todd played top-seeded Osborne duPont, the defending champion and the newly crowned Wimbledon champion, in a semifinal that took two days to complete. After Osborne duPont won the first set 6–2, thunderstorm stopped play for the remainder of the day. The next day, Todd, "producing magnificent backhand shots", won after being 1–3 down in the final set. The crowd was so vocal in backing Todd that a referee reversed a line call to give Todd match point. In the final, Hart played an attacking game and led 4–3 in the final set, but "she was against a great fighter who was content to retrieve, and on a slow court, defence overcame attack". At the 1948 event, Todd, who was the favorite and defending champion, was defaulted by French officials after she refused to move her scheduled center court match to court 2. Todd had complained about being last on center court after having played there only one match previously. When requested to move, she refused because of the late hour and because a full set of linesmen would not be present. "They can scratch
efaultme if they like. I am not going to play anywhere but on the center court where my match is scheduled." The officials defaulted her, then changed their minds and gave her Nelly Landry's phone number, her opponent, to reschedule. When Landry could not be reached, the default stood.
She returned to the French International Championships in 1950, after a one-year absence, and reached the final where she lost to Hart. Todd went to the hospital after the final for blood poisoning.
During her Grand Slam singles career, Todd was 2–0 versus
Shirley Fry, 1–0 versus
Katherine Stammers, 1–1 versus Hart, 0–1 versus
Nancye Wynne Bolton, 0–1 versus
Pauline Betz, 1–3 versus Osborne duPont, 0–2 versus
Dorothy Bundy Cheney
Dorothy "Dodo" May Sutton Bundy Cheney (September 1, 1916 – November 23, 2014) was an American tennis player from her youth into her 90s. In 1938, Bundy was the first American to win the women's singles title at the Australian National Champi ...
, and 1–6 versus Brough.
As for tournaments that were not Grand Slam events, Todd won the singles and mixed doubles titles at the South American championships in 1947 and 1948. In 1942 and 1948, she won the U. S. Indoor National Championships. In 1950, she was the singles and doubles titlist at the Asian Championships and the Championships of India. She won both the singles and doubles titles at the
Tri Cities Champiinships in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1951. She also won singles titles at the U. S. Hardcourt Championships in 1950 and 1951 and was the women's doubles champion there in 1950, 1955, 1956, and 1957.
According to
John Olliff and
Lance Tingay of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', Todd was ranked in the world top 10 from 1946 through 1952 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of world no. 4 in those rankings in 1950.
[ Todd was included in the year-end top ten rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association in 1942 and from 1944 through 1952, reaching a career high ranking of no. 4 in 1947 and 1949. She unsuccessfully complained about her no. 6 ranking in 1948, especially the placement of Beverly Baker, Gertrude Moran, and Hart above her, accusing the USLTA of having no standard ranking rules and of punishing her for refusing to play her semifinal match against Landry in Paris.
Todd played doubles on the U.S. ]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 gen ...
team from 1947 to 1951, compiling a 4–1 win–loss record.[
Todd was nominated for induction into the ]International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an ind ...
in 2005, but she was not selected. She was inducted into the San Diego Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010. Todd was inducted to the Southern California Tennis Association Hall of Fame, 2011.
Personal life
Patricia married Richard Bradburn Todd on December 25, 1941. They had two children, Patrica Ann Todd on November 7, 1943 and Whitney Seaton Todd on July 1, 1953. She died on September 5, 2015 in Encinitas, California, at the age of 93.
Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 193 ...
.
1In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.
Grand Slam finals
Singles (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Doubles (2 titles, 8 runners-up)
Mixed doubles (1 titles, 3 runners-up)
See also
* Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Pat Canning
1922 births
2015 deaths
American female tennis players
French Championships (tennis) champions
Tennis players from San Francisco
Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era)
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles
21st-century American women