Margaret Osborne duPont (born Margaret Evelyn Osborne; March 4, 1918 – October 24, 2012) was a world No. 1 American 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 cov ...

player. DuPont won a total of 37 singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, which places her fourth on the all-time list despite never entering the

Australian Championships The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. ...

. She won 25 of her Grand Slam titles at the U.S. Championships, which is an all-time record.

Career

DuPont won six Grand Slam singles titles. She saved match points in the final of the 1946 French International Championships (versus

Pauline Betz Pauline may refer to: Religion *An adjective referring to St Paul the Apostle or a follower of his doctrines *An adjective referring to St Paul of Thebes, also called St Paul the First Hermit *An adjective referring to the Paulines, various relig ...

) and in the final of the 1948 U.S. National Championships (versus

Louise Brough Althea Louise Brough Clapp (née Brough; March 11, 1923 – February 3, 2014) was an American tennis player. In her career between 1939 and 1959, she won six Grand Slam singles titles as well as numerous doubles and mixed-doubles titles. At the ...

). The 48 games played during the 1948 final remain the most played in a women's singles final at that tournament. DuPont teamed with Brough to win 20 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, which ties

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

and

Pam Shriver Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...

for the most Grand Slam titles ever won by a women's doubles team. DuPont and Brough won nine consecutive titles at the U.S. National Championships from 1942 through 1950. They won that tournament 12 of the 14 years they entered as a team. Their 12 titles is an all-time record for a women's doubles team at the U.S. National Championships, well-surpassing the four career titles won by the teams of Navratilova and Shriver,

Doris Hart Doris Hart (June 20, 1925 – May 29, 2015) was an American tennis player from who was active in the 1940s and first half of the 1950s. She was ranked world No. 1 in 1951. She was the fourth player, and second woman, to win a Career Grand Slam in ...

and Shirley Fry, and

Sarah Palfrey Cooke Sarah Hammond Palfrey Danzig (née Palfrey; September 18, 1912 – February 27, 1996) was an American tennis player whose adult amateur career spanned 19 years, from June 1926 until September 1945. She won two singles, nine women's doubles, and ...

and

Alice Marble Alice Marble (September 28, 1913 – December 13, 1990) was an American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships between 1936 and 1940: five in singles, six in women's doubles, and seven in mixed doubles. She was ranked world No. 1 in 19 ...

. DuPont won 13 women's doubles titles, 10 of which were in succession from 1941 through 1950, at the U.S. National Championships. Both of those are all-time records. DuPont's nine mixed doubles titles at the U.S. National Championships is more than any other player. Four of those titles were in partnership with William Talbert, which is a record for a mixed-doubles team at the U.S. National Championships. Three were with

Neale Fraser Neale Andrew Fraser (born 3 October 1933) is a former number one amateur male tennis-player from Australia, born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of a Victorian judge. Fraser is the last man to have completed the triple crown, i.e. having won ...

. According to John Olliff and

Lance Tingay Lance Tingay (15 July 1915 – 10 March 1990) was a British sports journalist, historian, and author of several tennis books. For many years his annual ranking of top tennis players was "the only one that counted" before ATP rankings were introduc ...

of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', duPont was ranked in the world top 10 from 1946 through 1950, and in 1953, 1954, 1956, and 1957. She was ranked world No. 1 from 1947 through 1950. No rankings were issued from 1940 through 1945. DuPont was included in the year-end top 10 rankings issued by 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, ...

in 1938, from 1941 through 1950, and in 1953, 1956, and 1958. She was the top ranked U.S. player from 1948 through 1950. From 1938 through 1958, DuPont went undefeated in 10

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 ...

competitions, winning 10 singles and nine doubles matches. She also captained the U.S. team nine times, winning eight.

Personal life

Margaret married

William duPont, Jr. William du Pont Jr. (February 11, 1896 – December 31, 1965) was an English-born American businessman and banker, and a prominent figure in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. He developed and designed more than 20 racing venues, including F ...

on November 26, 1947 and later interrupted her career to give birth to a son, William duPont III on July 22, 1952. She is one of the few women to win a major title after childbirth. DuPont never played the Australian Championships because her husband would not let her. She later divorced duPont in 1964 and formed a life partnership with fellow player

Margaret Varner Bloss Margaret Varner Bloss (born October 4, 1927) is a retired American athlete and professor of physical education from El Paso, Texas who excelled in three distinctly different racket sports: badminton, squash, and tennis. She is the only person t ...

. DuPont died on October 24, 2012 while in hospice care in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the ...

at age 94.

Awards

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 1967. The

Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame is a membership-based organization founded in 1976. The organization runs a museum with exhibits at Daniel S. Frawley Stadium on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware and promotes physical fitness in t ...

inducted DuPont in 1999. In 2010, she was inducted into the US Open Court of Champions.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (6 titles, 4 runners-up)

Doubles (21 titles, 6 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: (10 titles, 4 runners-up)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Women's doubles

Mixed doubles

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 ...

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dupont, Margaret Osborne American female tennis players Margaret Osborne French Championships (tennis) champions People from Wallowa County, Oregon Tennis people from Delaware International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Tennis people from Oregon United States National champions (tennis) Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) 1918 births 2012 deaths Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles World number 1 ranked female tennis players