Helen Wills began playing tennis at the age of 13 and won her first major title, the United States Girls' Championship, in 1921. She repeated as national girls' champion in 1922 and won her first women's singles title in 1923 at the age of 17. Wills quickly dominated women's tennis, with strong overheads and serves mixed with outstanding control; from 1926 until 1932, she did not lose a solo set. She won seven U.S. championships and eight Wimbledon titles in singles. From 1923 to 1939, she won four French singles titles and twelve US, Wimbledon, and French doubles crowns. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, she won two gold medals. Wills had a heated rivalry with Helen Hull Jacobs.

Wills graduated from the University of California in 1927 and married Frederick S. Moody in December 1929. For the next decade, she competed as Helen Wills Moody. After divorcing in 1937, she married Aidan Roark in October 1939 and competed in senior tournaments as Mrs. Roark for a while. She published two tennis books, Tennis and Fifteen Thirty, as well as a mystery, Death Serves an Ace, co-written with R.W. Murphy. A second passion in art led to the holding of multiple shows of her sketches and paintings at New York galleries. In 1959, she was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

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Helen Wills

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