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 Championships, defeating Dorothy Stevenson in the final.

Personal life

Cheney was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of Tennis Hall of Famer

May Sutton Bundy May Godfrey Sutton (September 25, 1886 – October 4, 1975) was an American tennis player who was active during the first decades of the 20th century. At age 16 she won the singles title at the U.S. National Championships and in 1905 she became ...

(1886–1975) and U.S. men's doubles champion

Tom Bundy Thomas Clark Bundy (October 8, 1881 – October 13, 1945) was a tennis player from Los Angeles, California, who was active in the early 20th century. With Maurice McLoughlin, he won three doubles titles at the U.S. National Championships. Bundy D ...

(1881–1945). She was the grandmother of former Major League Baseball player

Danny Putnam Daniel Chris Putnam (born September 17, 1982) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics. Career Amateur As a student at Rancho Bernardo High School in 2001, he was ...

. Cheney died on November 23, 2014, in

Escondido, California Escondido is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. Located in the North County region, it was incorporated in 1888, and is one of the oldest cities in San Diego County. It has a population of 151,038 as of the 2020 census. Et ...

at the age of 98.

Tennis career

According to A. Wallis Myers and

John Olliff John Sheldon Olliff (1 December 1908 – 29 June 1951) was an English tennis player, author and sportsjournalist. Life Olliff took part in the Wimbledon Championships from 1928. In singles, he advanced to the fourth round several times until ...

of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', Bundy Cheney was ranked in the world top 10 in 1937 and 1946 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of sixth in 1946. The

United States Lawn Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for 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 ...

(USLTA) included Bundy Cheney in its year-end, top-ten rankings of U.S. players from 1936 through 1941, 1943 through 1946, and in 1955. She was ranked third in 1937, 1938, and 1941. Bundy was a member of the victorious 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 generate ...

teams from 1937 through 1939. She was inducted 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 indo ...

in 2004. Cheney was still competing in selected top level events at the age of 51. In 1967, she defeated a seeded player,

Karen Krantzcke Karen Krantzcke (1 February 1946 – 11 April 1977) was an Australian tennis player. She 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 ...

, in the third round of the

Pacific Southwest Championships The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

in straight sets. Her win–loss singles records against some elite players were as follows: * 21–8 Mary Arnold Prentiss * 9–3 Patricia Canning Todd * 7–2 Doris Hart * 4–1 Billie Jean King * 3–0 Freda James Hammersley * 4–2 Shirley Fry * 6–5 Margaret Osborne duPont * 3–2 Nell Hall Hopman, Thelma Coyne Long * 2–1 Simmone Passemard Mathieu * 1–0 Betty Nuthall, Nelly Adamson Landry * 2–2 Mary Hardwick * 1–2 Katherine Stammers Menzies * 0–1 Althea Gibson, Angela Mortimer, Anita Lizana, Ann Haydon Jones * 0–1 Christine Truman, Lesley Turner Bowrey, Nancy Richey * 2–4 Maureen Connolly * 1–3 Nancye Wynne Bolton * 0–2 Helen Jacobs, Rosemary Casals * 8–11 Sarah Palfrey Cooke * 3–6 Darlene Hard * 0–3 Carole Caldwell, Jadwiga Jedrzejowska * 5–10 Louise Brough * 1–8 Karen Hantze Susman * 1–9 Alice Marble * 1–16 Beverly Baker Fleitz * 8–26 Pauline Betz By the end of her senior age-groups playing career, Cheney had amassed 394 USTA titles — a record.

Grand Slam and other singles tournaments

In the first singles match of her career at any Grand Slam tournament, Bundy upset second-seeded Sarah Palfrey Fabyan in the first round of the 1936 U.S. National Championships. Bundy ultimately lost in the quarterfinals. The first nine times that Bundy Cheney played singles at the U.S. National Championships, she reached at least the quarterfinals. During those (and other) years, she had no "bad" losses at Grand Slam singles tournaments. Her losses were as follows Bundy Cheney also had several significant singles wins at Grand Slam tournaments: Cheney won the singles title at the 1944 Tri-Cities Championships in Cincinnati, defeating Betz in the final. The following year, Cheney was the singles runner-up at that tournament.

Grand Slam and other women's doubles tournaments

Bundy Cheney was a three-time runner-up in Grand Slam women's doubles tournaments: 1938 Australian National Championships, 1940 U.S. National Championships, and 1941 U.S. National Championships. Cheney won the women's doubles title at the 1944 and 1945 Tri-Cities Championships in Cincinnati.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 title)

Doubles (3 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles (4 runner-ups)

Other singles finals (54 titles, 60 runner-ups)

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 1939 an ...

. ¹In 1946 and 1947, the French International Championships were held after the Wimbledon Championships.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cheney, Dorothy 1916 births 2014 deaths American female tennis players Australian Championships (tennis) champions Tennis players from Los Angeles Rollins College alumni International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles 21st-century American women