Jeanne-Marie Matthey-Jonais (25 January 1886 – 24 November 1980) was a French

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 cov ...

player. She competed during the first two decades of the 20th century. Matthey won the French Open Women's Singles Championship four times in succession from 1909 to 1912, but lost the 1913 final to

Marguerite Broquedis Marguerite Marie Broquedis (; married names Billout-Bordes; 17 April 1893 – 23 April 1983) was a French tennis player. Biography Broquedis was born on 17 April 1893 in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques. She moved with her family to Paris around t ...

.French Open winners
Retrieved on 13 September 2009. Matthey was born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

, Egypt to a Swiss father and a French mother. The family moved to Paris, France in 1900 where she started playing tennis at the Racing Club de France. In July 1913 she won the singles events at the tournaments of Chantilly and Compiègne. At Chantilly she defeated 14 year old-

Suzanne Lenglen Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (; 24 May 1899 – 4 July 1938) was a French tennis player. She was the inaugural world No. 1 from 1921 to 1926, winning eight Grand Slam titles in singles and twenty-one in total. She was also a four-time World ...

in the semifinal and

Kate Gillou-Fenwick Catherine Marie Blanche "Katie" Gillou (17 February 1887 – 1 January 1964) was a French tennis player in the first decade of the 20th century. Gillou won the French Women's Singles Championship in each of 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1908, having lo ...

in the final. At Compiègne later that month she had a walk-over in the final against Lenglen. In October 1913 she won the singles title at the Paris Covered Court Championships, played at the Sporting Club de Paris, after a three-set victory in the final against Broquedis. In World War I she served as a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

nurse. As she was serving on front she was seriously wounded several times. Because of the wounds to her right arm she gave up playing tennis. In 1972 when she attended Roland Garros she jokingly said that she consisted of many pieces because of her war wounds. In 1927 she received the bronze Medal of Honour for public assistance (''médaille d'honneur de l'assistance publique'') for her services as a nurse. In 1952 she was named a knight in the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleo ...

, in 1958 she became an officer and in 1962 she was promoted to the rank of commander. During World War II she was active in the resistance, tasked with relaying messages, and after being arrested and tortured by the Gestapo was interned in German concentration camps in 1945.

References

External links

French Open – Past Women's Singles champions

Paris archives death certificate (Acte de décès no 3253)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthey, Jeanne 1886 births 1980 deaths French female tennis players French Championships (tennis) champions