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Jenny Staley Hoad

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Jenny Staley Hoad
Full nameJennifer Staley Hoad
Country (sports) Australia
Born(1934-03-03)3 March 1934
Melbourne, Australia
Died13 February 2024(2024-02-13) (aged 89)
Fuengirola, Spain
PlaysLeft-handed
Singles
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenF (1954)
French OpenQF (1956)
Wimbledon4R (1955, 1956)
US Open2R (1956)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenSF (1955)
WimbledonSF (1955)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian OpenF (1955)
French OpenF (1955)
WimbledonSF (1955)

Jenny Staley Hoad (3 March 1934 – 13 February 2024) was an Australian tennis player who was mainly active in the 1950s.

Career

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In January 1951 Staley won the junior doubles title at the Australian Championships partnering Margaret Wallis.[1][2] In 1953 she also won the junior Australian singles title.[3]

As Jenny Staley she reached the singles final of 1954 Australian Championships, played in Sydney, but lost in straight sets to top-seeded Thelma Coyne Long.[4] In November 1954 she reached the final of the New South Wales Championships which she lost in three sets to Beryl Penrose.[5] In December 1954 she was runner-up to Coyne Long at the Victorian Championships, played in Kooyong.[6]

Staley won the women's singles title at the South Australian Championships at Memorial Drive Park in Adelaide in January 1955 defeating Fay Muller in the final in straight sets.[6]

At the 1955 Australian Championships she partnered her then boyfriend Lew Hoad in the mixed event and were runners-up to Thelma Coyne Long and George Worthington.[7] Her best singles performance at the Wimbledon Championships was reaching the fourth round in 1955, losing to eight-seeded Angela Buxton, and 1956 when she was defeated by fifth-seeded and eventual champion Shirley Fry.[8]

Personal life

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Lew Hoad and Jennifer Staley (right) at the Davis Cup Ball on 30 December 1953

Lew Hoad proposed to Staley on her 21st birthday party in March 1955, and they planned to announce their engagement in June in London while both were on an overseas tour.[9] After arriving in London Staley discovered that she was pregnant, and the couple decided to get married straight away. The marriage took place the following day on 18 June 1955 at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon in London on the eve of Wimbledon.[10][11][12] They had two daughters and a son. After Hoad's retirement they moved to Fuengirola, Spain, near Málaga, where they constructed and operated the tennis resort Lew Hoad's Campo de Tenis for more than 30 years, entertaining personal friends that included actors Stewart Granger, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Peter Ustinov, Deborah Kerr and her husband Peter Viertel, Kirk Douglas, singer Frank Sinatra and saxophonist Stan Getz.[13][14][15] Lew Hoad was diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of leukemia on 13 January 1994, which caused his death on 3 July 1994, at the age of 59.[16][17]

Jenny Hoad sold the club in April 1999 but continued to live at the accompanying residential complex.[18] In 2002, she published My Life with Lew with Jack Pollard.

Jenny Staley Hoad died in Fuengirola, Spain on 13 February 2024, at the age of 89.[19]

Grand Slam tournament finals

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Singles: (1 runner-up)

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Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1954 Australian Championships Grass Australia Thelma Coyne Long 3–6, 4–6

Mixed doubles: (2 runner-ups)

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Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 1955 Australian Championships Grass Australia Lew Hoad Australia Thelma Coyne Long
Australia George Worthington		 2–6, 1–6
Loss 1955 French Championships Clay Chile Luis Ayala United States Darlene Hard
South Africa Gordon Forbes		 7–5, 1–6, 2–6

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

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Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

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Tournament 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958–67 1968 1969–71 1972 SR
Australian Open 2R 2R F SF A QF A A A A 0 / 5
French Open A A A 2R QF 2R A A A A 0 / 3
Wimbledon A A A 4R 4R 1R A 2R A Q1 0 / 4
US Open A A A A 2R A A A A A 0 / 1
Strike rate 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 0 0 / 1 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 13

References

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  1. ^ "Tennis". Border Morning Mail. 30 January 1951. p. 7 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "Girls' Doubles Honour Roll". Australian Open. Tennis Australia.
  3. ^ "Girls' Singles Honour Roll". Australian Open. Tennis Australia.
  4. ^ "Rose aims at Wimbledon crown next". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 2 February 1954. p. 16.
  5. ^ "Form Poor In Tennis Title Final". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. National Library of Australia. 22 November 1954. p. 7.
  6. ^ a b Hughes, G.P., ed. (1956). Dunlop Lawn Tennis Annual and Almanack 1956. Cheltenham & London: Dunlop Sports Co. Ltd. p. 206.
  7. ^ "Australian Open players archive – Jennt Staley". Tennis Australia.
  8. ^ "Wimbledon players archive – Jenny Hoad". AELTC.
  9. ^ Hoad (2002), p. 28
  10. ^ Hoad (2002), pp. 29–32
  11. ^ "2-day honeymoon-then tennis". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 20 June 1955. p. 5.
  12. ^ "Tennis Star Takes Bride In London". Reading Eagle. 19 June 1955.
  13. ^ "Luxury "Campo de Tennis"". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 11 June 1969. p. 2.
  14. ^ "After seven years in Spain Lew Hoad now feels..." The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 10 April 1974. p. 17. Archived from the original on 11 March 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  15. ^ Hoad (2002), pp. 120–126
  16. ^ "Tennis legend Lew Hoad dies". The Canberra Times. National Library of Australia. 5 July 1994. p. 1.
  17. ^ "Lew Hoad, 59, Tennis Champion of the 1950s". The New York Times. 5 July 1994.
  18. ^ Hoad (2002), p. 208
  19. ^ "Obituary: Jenny Staley Hoad – 1934–2024". Tennis Threads. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
Sources
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