Maureen Connolly: A name, a legend, a tennis playing institution

Wimbledon: Maureen Connolly in action at All England Club, London

That year, Maureen Connolly was truly at the peak of her career with fame and recognition pouring in from far and wide. ‘Little Mo’, the name by which she was popularly known by then, became the much-loved and well-deserving darling of the fans who fell in love with her power-packed and effervescent style of play. Credit then does need to be given to her coaches, each playing a pivotal part in shaping her career and thereby enabling her to fulfill the potential of her inherent talent.

Maureen’s association with coaches too is an intriguing aspect, for each of her three coaches were highly sought after names of that era. In her nine-year long professional tennis life-span, Maureen engaged three different coaches starting with Americans Wilbur Folsom and Eleanor Tennant (Teach). The former was instrumental in changing her from a left-handed player to a right-handed one, alongside transitioning her game to an A-class base-liner. And the latter, under whose guidance she went on to compile an absolutely stunning record of winning 56 consecutive matches in a single year in 1939. Harry Hopman, the Australian, was also seen as the biggest positive influence in Maureen’s Grand Slam triumph in 1953.

Where 1953 saw Maureen reach and soar to an unparalleled status quo in the tennis world, 1954 marred her tennis sizzle in the most freakish way when the horse she was riding, spooked by a cement mixing lorry, threw her off and crushed her right leg badly. The incident occurred just weeks after she had defended her Wimbledon title, leaving her fans quite adrift with nothing but memories of her last major win to hold on to.

Over the years, as the trajectory of the sport changed with newer records being clinched, Maureen Connolly started to fade away, becoming a passé of sorts. Her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in the year 1968 brought her back into focus for quite a while, as did the echoing footsteps of the news of her premature passing the very next year, in 1969. But for many years now, Maureen Connolly’s name hasn’t been raised at all much, though the sport’s history pages are never too far away to bring her back into the limelight where, with the racquet in her hand, she once ruled.