Морин Коннолли: "Маленькая Мо" и её триумф в теннисе

American tennis player

Maureen Catherine Connolly Brinker (née Connolly; September 17, 1934 – June 21, 1969), known as "Little Mo", was an American tennis player, the winner of nine major singles titles in the early 1950s. In 1953, she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam (all four major tournaments during the same calendar year). She is also the only player in history to win a title without losing a set at all four major championships. The following year, in July 1954, a horseback riding accident seriously injured her right leg and ended her competitive tennis career at age 19. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 34.

Connolly was born in San Diego, California on September 17, 1934, the first child of Martin and Jessamine Connolly. Her parents divorced when she was age 3, and she was raised by her mother and an aunt. She loved horseback riding as a child, but her mother was unable to pay the cost of riding lessons. So, she took up the game of tennis. Connolly's tennis career began at the age of 10 on the municipal courts of San Diego. Her first coach, Wilbur Folsom, encouraged her to switch from a left handed grip to a right handed one, and she soon became a baseline specialist with tremendous power and accuracy. When she was age 11, Connolly was dubbed "Little Mo" by San Diego sportswriter Nelson Fisher, who compared the power of her forehand and backhand to the firepower of the USS Missouri, known colloquially as "Big Mo". Her coach at the time was Eleanor Tennant. Connolly won her first Wimbledon title in 1952, defeating Louise Brough in the final. She had arrived at the tournament with a shoulder injury but refused to withdraw when Tennant instructed her to do so. The ensuing argument resulted in the end of their partnership. For the 1953 season, she hired a new coach, the Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman, and she entered all four Grand Slam tournaments for the first time. She defeated Julie Sampson in the Australian Championships final and Doris Hart in the finals of the French Championships, Wimbledon, and the U. S. Championships to become the first woman, and only the second tennis player after Don Budge, to win the world's four major titles in the same year, commonly known as a Grand Slam. She lost only one set in those four tournaments. Connolly won the last nine Grand Slam singles tournaments she played, including 50 consecutive singles matches. During her Wightman Cup career from 1951 through 1954, she won all seven of her singles matches. Connolly's achievements made her the darling of the media and one of the more popular personalities in the U. S.; she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press for three straight years, from 1951 through 1953. In 1954, Connolly did not defend her title at the Australian Championships, but successfully defended her French and Wimbledon championships.

Two weeks after she won her third straight Wimbledon title, she was horseback riding in San Diego on July 20, 1954. A passing concrete mixer truck frightened her horse Colonel Merryboy, which pinned Connolly between the horse and truck. She was thrown and suffered a compound fracture to her right fibula, which ultimately ended her tennis career at age 19. She had intended to turn professional after the 1954 U. S. National Championships. She officially retired from tennis in February 1955 when she announced her impending marriage to Norman Brinker. Connolly retained Melvin Belli as counsel and sued the concrete mixer company. They had two daughters, Cindy and Brenda, Connolly recognized the downside of her tennis career, writing "I have always believed greatness on a tennis court was my destiny, a dark destiny, at times, where the court became my secret jungle and I a lonely, fear stricken hunter. I was a strange little girl armed with hate, fear, and a Golden Racket."

In 1966, Connolly was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. On June 4, 1969, she underwent a third operation for a stomach tumor at Baylor Hospital in Dallas.

According to John Olliff and Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Connolly was ranked in the world top 10 from 1951 through 1954, reaching a career high of world number one in those rankings from 1952 through 1954. Connolly was included in the year end top 10 rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association from 1950 through 1953. She was the top ranked U. S. player from 1951 through 1953. Connolly was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1969 and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1956, she was inducted by the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame honoring San Diego's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface. Since 1973, the Maureen Connolly Challenge Trophy is played, a yearly competition between the best female tennis players age 18 and younger from the United States and Great Britain. Brinker Elementary School in Plano, Texas is named in honor of her. The school was dedicated on November 20, 1988. Connolly was portrayed by Glynnis O'Connor in Little Mo, a television movie that aired on September 5, 1978. In 2019, the United States Postal Service released a commemorative Forever stamp in her honor.

ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScore RefWin 1951 U. S. Championships Grass Shirley Fry 6–3, 1–6, 6–4 Win 1952 Wimbledon Grass Louise Brough 6–4, 6–3 Win 1952 U. S. Championships (2) Grass Doris Hart 6–3, 7–5 Win 1953 French Championships Clay Doris Hart 6–2, 6–4 Win 1953 Wimbledon (2) Grass Doris Hart 8–6, 7–5 Win 1953 Australian Championships Grass Julia Sampson Beryl Penrose Mary Bevis Hawton 6–4, 6–2 Loss 1953 French Championships Clay Julia Sampson Doris Hart Shirley Fry 4–6, 3–6 Loss 1953 Wimbledon Grass Julia Sampson Doris Hart Shirley Fry 0–6, 0–6 Loss 1953 French Championships Clay Mervyn Rose Doris Hart Vic Seixas 6–4, 4–6, 0–6 Win 1954 French Championships Clay Lew Hoad Jacqueline Patorni Rex Hartwig 6–4, 6–3

Tournament 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 SR W L Win % Australian Championships A A A A W A 1 / 1 5–0 French Championships A A A A W W 2 / 2 10–0 Wimbledon A A A W W W 3 / 3 18–0 U. S. Championships 2R 2R W W W A 3 / 5 20–2 Win–loss1–11–16–012–022–011–09 / 1153–2