Molla Mallory
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Anna Margarethe "Molla" Bjurstedt Mallory (March 6, 1884 – November 22, 1959 in Stockholm) was a Norwegian-born American tennis player.
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[edit] Tennis Career
Although she had won a bronze medal in singles for Norway at the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, and was the champion of her homeland, Mallory was relatively unknown when she arrived in New York City to begin work as a masseuse in 1915. She entered the U.S. Indoor Championships that year unheralded and beat defending champ Marie Wagner 6-4, 6-4, which was the first of her five singles titles. She also won the title in Cincinnati that year.
Mallory had less in the way of stroke equipment than most tennis champions. But the sturdy, Norwegian-born woman, the daughter of an army officer, was a fierce competitor, running with limitless endurance.
She was a player of the old school. She held that a woman could not sustain a volleying attack in a long match; therefore, she relied on her baseline game, consisting of strong forehand attacks and a ceaseless defense that wore down her opponents. She took the ball on the rise and drove it from corner to corner to keep her opponent on the constant run. Her quick returns made her passing shots extremely effective.
Her second round match with Suzanne Lenglen at the U.S. Championships in 1921 brought Mallory her greatest celebrity. Mallory won the first set 6-2, playing with a fury that took her opponent by surprise, running down balls that wore out the French girl, and hitting forehand winners down the line. Lenglen, out of breath from running, began to cough and weep. Eventually she walked to the umpire’s stand after two points of the second set and informed the official that she was ill and could not continue. This match ranks among the most sensational dramas ever recorded on the tennis court.
Lenglen avenged the loss by defeating Mallory 6-2, 6-0 in the 1922 Wimbledon final.
Mallory won the singles title at the U.S. Championships a record eight times (1915-1922 and 1926 at age 42), and in 15 years at the tournament, her worst finish was a quarterfinal loss in 1927 at age 43.
Mallory yielded her string of consecutive titles to Helen Wills Moody in 1923, losing 6-2, 6-1. In 1926, Mallory hit one of the heights of her career when she came back from 0-4 in the third set of the final against Elizabeth Ryan, saving a match point in winning her eighth championship.
Mallory was ranked in the world top ten in 1925, 1926, and 1927 (the first three years of those rankings). She was ranked in the U.S. top ten 13 times between 1915 and 1928 and was top ranked in 1915, 1916, 1918 through 1922, and 1926.
Her farewell to the U.S. Championships was as a 45-year-old semifinalist in 1929.
She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1958.
[edit] Grand Slam singles finals
[edit] Wins (8)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1915 | U.S. Championships |  Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman |
4-6, 6-2, 6-0 |
| 1916 | U.S. Championships | Louise Raymond |
6-0, 6-1 |
| 1917 | U.S. Championships | Marion Vanderhoef |
4-6, 6-0, 6-2 |
| 1918 | U.S. Championships | Eleanor Goss |
6-4, 6-3 |
| 1920 | U.S. Championships | Marion Zinderstein |
6-3, 6-1 |
| 1921 | U.S. Championships | Mary Browne |
4-6, 6-4, 6-2 |
| 1922 | U.S. Championships | Helen Wills Moody |
6-3, 6-1 |
| 1926 | U.S. Championships | Elizabeth Ryan |
4-6, 6-4, 9-7 |
[edit] Runner-ups (4)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1921 | World Hard Court Championships |  Suzanne Lenglen |
6-2, 6-3 |
| 1922 | Wimbledon | Suzanne Lenglen |
6-2, 6-0 |
| 1923 | U.S. Championships | Helen Wills Moody |
6-2, 6-1 |
| 1924 | U.S. Championships | Helen Wills Moody |
6-1, 6-3 |
[edit] Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
| Tournament | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | Career SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Championships | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 |
| French Championships1 | R | R | R | A | A | A | NH | NH | NH | NH | NH | A | F | A | A | NH | A | A | A | 2R | A | 0 / 2 |
| Wimbledon | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | NH | NH | NH | NH | A | SF | QF | F | QF | 2R | A | SF | 3R | 1R | 3R | 0 / 10 |
| U.S. Championships | A | A | A | A | A | A | W | W | W | W | SF | W | W | W | F | F | SF | W | QF | SF | SF | 8 / 15 |
| SR | 0 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 1 / 1 | 1 / 1 | 1 / 1 | 1 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 1 / 2 | 1 / 3 | 1 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 1 | 1 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 2 | 8 / 27 |
NH = tournament not held.
R = tournament restricted to French nationals.
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
1Through 1923, the French Championships were open only to French nationals. The World Hard Court Championships (WHCC), actually played on clay in Paris or Brussells, began in 1912 and were open to all nationalities. The results from that tournament are shown here from 1912 through 1914 and from 1920 through 1923. The Olympics replaced the WHCC in 1924, as the Olympics were held in Paris. Beginning in 1925, the French Championships were open to all nationalities, with the results shown here beginning with that year.
