Alice Marble

Tennis Player

• Born: September 28, 1913
• Birthplace: Beckwourth, California
• Died: December 13, 1990
• Place of death: Palm Springs, California

Sport: Tennis

Early Life

Alice Marble was born on September 28, 1913, in Beckwourth, California, the fourth of five children. Life was hard in the early years; her father, a farmer, died when she was only six. By this time, the family had moved to San Francisco, and Alice’s eldest brother, Dan, and her mother, Jessie, worked to support the family. Dan was seven years older than Alice and helped guide her toward a career in tennis. Alice spent her spare time playing baseball, which was her first love. At this time, however, it was unusual for girls to play baseball. Dan gave Alice her first tennis racket and paid for her to join a tennis club. By this time, Alice was sixteen years old.

The Road to Excellence

Alice began to practice regularly, curtailing the usual social engagements of a teenager in favor of the disciplined life of a serious athlete. She quickly became good enough to start playing junior tournaments, and she won the state junior tournament in 1931, at the age of seventeen. Next, Alice sought out Eleanor Tennant, the woman who was to be her coach. “Teach” Tennant was the leading coach of her day. She had several movie stars as her pupils, including Carole Lombard and Errol Flynn.

Tennant immediately recruited Alice as her pupil, and in return, Alice performed secretarial duties for her coach. The system paid dividends because a year later, Alice rose to number seven in the national rankings and won her first significant tournament—the state women’s championship. Later in 1932, Alice took lessons from another coach, Harwood White, who helped her learn some new stroke techniques that greatly improved her game.

Alice continued to advance, and in 1933, she was chosen to play for the U.S. Wightman Cup team in the annual challenge match against Great Britain. She had risen to number three in the United States, behind the great contemporaries Helen Wills Moody and Helen Jacobs. In that year, Alice first contracted the illness that dogged her for most of the next two years. Playing in Easthampton, Long Island, Alice collapsed because of sunstroke after playing 108 games in 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Although she quickly recovered, more serious illness was around the corner.

The Emerging Champion

Following this incident, Alice became anemic, a condition resulting from a deficiency of iron in the body. Alice felt tired most of the time and was not able to play her best tennis.

In 1934, the Wightman Cup team made a trip to France. That was exceptional, since the team usually played only against Great Britain and had not traveled to the continent of Europe before. The six-day trip by ocean liner, the excitement of a new language, and the strange red clay court surface took their toll on Alice.

Alice was playing in the Stade Roland Garros in Paris when, once again, she collapsed on the court. Some thought she had tuberculosis, a lung disease that was often fatal in those days. A later diagnosis, however, revealed pleurisy, less dangerous but still a serious and painful illness. She was told by two doctors that she would never play tennis again. Alice was hospitalized, first in Paris and then in Los Angeles, where she spent several months recovering in a sanatorium. As she convalesced, Alice started to do secretarial work for Tennant. She gradually got stronger and never let go of her dream to play tennis again. Almost a year later, Alice was back on court—as her coach’s assistant—helping to give lessons to movie-star pupils such as Marlene Dietrich.

Continuing the Story

Despite the reservations of officials of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, Alice resumed her career in 1935. She and her coach Tennant were inseparable, and their hard work was rewarded when Alice won the California State Championships that year. This win was a turning point for Alice. Her repertoire of shots widened as she capitalized on the developments made with her other coach, Harwood White, three years earlier. Unlike other women players of her day, she possessed a hard American twist serve that she often followed with secure volleys. Her ground strokes were not always as powerful as those of her backcourt rivals, but her agility and determination in the attack made up for anything she lacked.

Few women had attempted to play this type of game before, and Alice seemed to draw inspiration from the male players of her day, such as Fred Perry and Don Budge, as she leapt for overheads and constantly hit the ball on the rise.

Alice’s first taste of major success came in 1936, when she won the U.S. National Championship, beating Helen Jacobs in the final. Three more U.S. National Championship victories came in 1938, 1939, and 1940.

In 1939, Alice won not only the singles but also the doubles and the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, the British national championship. In 1939 and 1940, Alice Marble was totally dominant and received the Associated Press female athlete of the year award in both years.

In 1940, Alice turned professional and toured with Mary Hardwick, Donald Budge, and Bill Tilden. She also made her debut as a singer, performing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in were chosen. She died on December 13, 1990, in Palm Springs, California.

Summary

Alice Marble’s dominance was based on her strong serve and incisive volleys. Her style paved the way for postwar women champions such as Margaret Osborne and Louise Brough. If the war years had not intervened, it is certain that Alice would have won even more major titles. She overcame not only some illustrious rivals but also severe ill health. Alice was a pivotal figure in women’s tennis in the twentieth century.

Bibliography

Davidson, Sue. Changing the Game: The Stories of Tennis Champions Alice Marble and Althea Gibson. Seattle, Wash.: Seal Press, 1997.

Fein, Paul. Tennis Confidential: Today’s Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies. Dulles, Va.: Potomac Books, 2008.

Gray, Frances Clayton, and Yanick Rice Lamb. Born to Win: The Authorized Biography of Althea Gibson. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.