Portal:Tennis/Selected biography/34
Suzanne Lenglen (24 May 1899 – 4 July 1938) was a French tennis player who won 31 Championship titles between 1914 and 1926. She dominated women's tennis from the end of World War I until 1926 when she turned professional. A flamboyant, trendsetting athlete, she was the first female tennis celebrity and one of the first international female sport stars, named La Divine (the divine one) by the French press. Lenglen's 241 titles, 181 match winning streak and 341–7 (97.99%) match record are hard to imagine happening in today's tennis atmosphere.
In 1926 she became the first major female tennis star to turn professional. Lenglen was paid US$50,000 by American entrepreneur Charles C. Pyle to tour the United States in a series of matches against Mary K. Browne.
The second court at the Roland Garros Stadium, site of the French Open, is named Court Suzanne Lenglen in her honour and the trophy awarded to the winner of the Women's Singles competition at the French Open is named the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
Lenglen was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1978.