Simonne Mathieu

French tennis player

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro

French tennis player

A.K.A.

Simone Mathieu Simone Passemard

A.K.A.

Simone Mathieu Simone Passemard

Places

France

was

Athlete Tennis player

Work field

Sports

Gender

Female

Birth

31 January 1908, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

Death

7 January 1980Chatou, France (aged 71 years)

Star sign

Aquarius

Family

Spouse:

René Mathieu

The details

Biography

Simonne Mathieu ([simɔn matjø]; 31 January 1908 – 7 January 1980) was a female tennis player from France, born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine who was active in the 1930s. Her first name is spelled "Simone" in many sources.

Career

Mathieu is best remembered for winning the singles title at the French Championships in 1938 and 1939 and for reaching the final of that tournament an additional six times, in 1929, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, and 1937. In those finals, she lost three times to Hilde Krahwinkel, twice to Helen Wills Moody, and once to Margaret Scriven.

Mathieu won 11 Grand Slam doubles championships: three women's doubles titles at Wimbledon (1933–34, 1937), six women's doubles titles at the French Championships (1933–34, 1936–39), and two mixed-doubles titles at the French Championships (1937–38). She completed the rare triple at the French Championships in 1938, winning the singles, women's doubles, and mixed-doubles titles.

Mathieu's 13 Grand Slam titles are second only to Suzanne Lenglen's 31 among French women.

According to A. Wallis Myers and John Olliff of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail respectively, Mathieu was ranked in the world top 10 from 1929 through 1939 (no rankings were issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of world No. 3 in 1932.

The winners' trophy of the women's doubles event at the French Open is named in her honour as the Coupe Simonne-Mathieu.

During World War II, Captain Mathieu was founder of the Corps Féminin Français, the women's volunteer branch of the Free French Forces, similar to the British Auxiliary Territorial Service. Mathieu was succeeded in that position by Captain Hélène Terré. For their service, each woman was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor.

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.

In November 2017, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) announced that the third show-court at Roland Garros will be named Court Simonne-Mathieu in her honor.

Grand Slam tournaments finals

Singles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1929	French Championships	Clay	Helen Wills	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1932	French Championships	Clay	Helen Wills	5–7, 1–6
Loss	1933	French Championships	Clay	Margaret Scriven	2–6, 6–4, 4–6
Loss	1935	French Championships	Clay	Hilde Krahwinkel	2–6, 1–6
Loss	1936	French Championships	Clay	Hilde Krahwinkel	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1937	French Championships	Clay	Hilde Krahwinkel	2–6, 4–6
Win	1938	French Championships	Clay	Nelly Landry	6–0, 6–3
Win	1939	French Championships	Clay	Jadwiga Jędrzejowska	6–3, 8–6

Doubles: 13 (9 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1930	French Championships	Clay	Simone Barbier	Elizabeth Ryan Helen Wills	3–6, 1–6
Win	1933	French Championships	Clay	Elizabeth Ryan	Sylvie Jung Henrotin Colette Rosambert	6–1, 6–3
Win	1933	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Elizabeth Ryan	Freda James Billie Yorke	6–2, 9–11, 6–4
Win	1934	French Championships	Clay	Elizabeth Ryan	Helen Jacobs Sarah Palfrey	3–6, 6–4, 6–2
Win	1934	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Elizabeth Ryan	Dorothy Andrus Sylvie Jung Henrotin	6–3, 6–3
Loss	1935	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Hilde Krahwinkel	Freda James Kay Stammers	1–6, 4–6
Win	1936	French Championships	Clay	Billie Yorke	Jadwiga Jędrzejowska Susan Noel	2–6, 6–4, 6–4
Win	1937	French Championships	Clay	Billie Yorke	Dorothy Andrus Sylvie Jung Henrotin	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Win	1937	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Billie Yorke	Phyllis King Elsie Goldsack	6–3, 6–3
Win	1938	French Championships	Clay	Billie Yorke	Nelly Adamson Arlette Halff	6–3, 6–3
Loss	1938	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Billie Yorke	Sarah Palfrey Alice Marble	2–6, 3–6
Loss	1938	US Championships	Grass	Jadwiga Jędrzejowska	Sarah Palfrey Alice Marble	8–6, 4–6, 3–6
Win	1939	French Championships	Clay	Jadwiga Jędrzejowska	Alice Florian Hella Kovac	7–5, 7–5

Mixed doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1937	French Championships	Clay	Yvon Petra	Marie-Luise Horn Roland Journu	7–5, 7–5
Loss	1937	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Yvon Petra	Alice Marble Don Budge	1–6, 4–6
Win	1938	French Championships	Clay	Dragutin Mitić	Nancye Wynne Bolton Christian Boussus	2–6, 6–3, 6–4
Loss	1939	French Championships	Clay	Franjo Kukuljević	Sarah Palfrey Elwood Cooke	6–4, 1–6, 5–7

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

**Key**
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	A	NH

(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)

Tournament	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929	1930	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939	1940	1941 – 1944	1945	1946	Career SR
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	NH	NH	A	0 / 0
French Championships	QF	QF	3R	A	F	QF	QF	F	F	SF	F	F	F	W	W	NH	R	A	A	2 / 14
Wimbledon	A	1R	2R	A	3R	SF	SF	SF	QF	SF	QF	SF	SF	QF	QF	NH	NH	NH	1R	0 / 14
US Championships	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	QF	1R	A	A	A	A	0 / 2
SR	0 / 1	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 0	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	1 / 3	1 / 3	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 1	2 / 30

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

In 1946, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 20 Mar 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Simonne Mathieu

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Quick Facts

Biography

Career

Grand Slam tournaments finals

Singles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Doubles: 13 (9 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline