BackThe incredible story of Doris Hart
She overcame a debilitating bone disease to become the greatest women's player of her generation. A tribute to Hart, who died on 29 May
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Osteomyelitis is a disease of the bone or bone marrow that usually occurs in children and can often cripple them for life. Some “OM" sufferers are left immobilized while many others find it very difficult to move without the help of people or mobility equipment. It is not a disease that in anyway helps with a career in most sports, leave alone tennis.
At the age of 15 months Doris Hart was diagnosed with such an acute case of OM, that at one point doctors suggested that her right leg be amputated. It was not. But the little girl spent much of her early childhood flitting in and out of hospitals and operation theatres.
One day, sitting up in bed, she sighted some children learning to play tennis in a nearby park. Hart, who had no time for self-pity and wrote as much in a memoir, instantly made up her mind to play the sport as soon as she got better. She started playing at 10, in 1935. At 16, she was a top 10 US player. At 21, she broke into the world Top 10. It was immediately clear to anyone who watched her play that Hart was bow-legged. Her right knee had a prominent deformity, a remnant of her childhood malaise that many thought was due to polio, and she was nothing like the fastest player on the court. Hart knew this of course, and decided to make up for this shortcoming with a combination of two things: match intelligence and finesse. In particular, Hart worked on the elements of her game that did not depend so much on speed—a good serve and a fantastic drop shot.
Growing up in Florida, US, success in the form of major titles did not come quickly to Hart. She had to wait till 1947 to win her first: the Wimbledon women’s doubles with Patricia Todd. This proved to be a turning point in Hart’s career. She had always had the confidence. But now it seemed she had also discovered a certain knack for winning the majors.
“From 1949 to 1955, Hart’s career absolutely exploded, winning 33 major titles in 46 opportunities, a remarkable 72 percent winning clip," reads her online profile on the International Tennis Hall of Fame website.
Analysing these results makes for mind-boggling reading. For instance, Hart and her longtime doubles partner Shirley Fry won four straight Roland Garros titles from 1950-53, losing just one set in the process. But the single greatest moment of Hart’s remarkable career came at Wimbledon in 1951 when she achieved one of the greatest feats in any sport by any man or woman.
The 1951 edition of Wimbledon was battered by so much rain that the organizers had to rearrange the final round of matches and crunch them all on 6 July.
In the women’s single final, Hart met fellow American Fry. Hart had proceeded to the title match without losing a single set in the process. She then proceeded to demolish Fry in 36 minutes. The scoreline read 6-1, 6-0. It had been the most one-sided women’s final at Wimbledon in some three decades.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported what happened next: “After an hour and a half’s rest she took Shirley on her side and outlasted the defending champions, Louise Brough and Mrs. Margaret Osborne Dupont, 6-3, 13-11, in a tremendous struggle."
Hart was, by all accounts, a phenomenal doubles player. It was as if she was making up for her slightly disappointing win ratio in major singles finals. Hart played in 18 singles finals, winning just six of them. At the same time, she won 29 doubles major titles. Along the way she became the first person to set one of the hardest records in tennis: the Career Boxed Set. Requiring at least one victory in every possible Grand Slam title—singles, doubles and mixed—at every major, the Career Boxed Set has only ever been achieved by three women (the only way to make this record even harder is to ask a player to win all 12 titles in the same calendar year. Given the nature of modern tennis, this record will almost certainly never be set).
But back to 6 June 1951. Hart had just won two titles in the space of half a day. That evening she took to the court for the third time. Hart and Australian Frank Sedgman took on Nancye Wynne Bolton and Mervyn Rose in the final of the mixed double event. Astonishingly Hart won again with a scoreline of 7-5, 6-2.
Hart won all three titles at a major, all without losing a single set, and, all on the same day. With a bow leg. And she didn’t even break into a sweat. In 2004, in an interview with the Taipei Times, Hart said: “I wasn’t tired, I was on cloud nine."
Doris Hart, winner of a total of 325 titles in her playing career, died on 29 May. Of all the wonderful things that were written about her afterwards, nothing comes close to what her old partner Shirley Fry had to say: “Doris is finally at peace and probably chasing down balls on two good legs now."
That is a remarkably touching thought. And also an utterly fearsome one.
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