PLAYER PROFILE

Nancye Bolton

  • Born10 June 1916
  • Birth PlaceMelbourne, Vic
  • PlaysRight-handed
  • Playing StatusDeceased
  • Australian Tennis Hall Of Fame2001
  • International Tennis Hall Of Fame2006

Singles champion
Australian 1937, 1940, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951

Doubles champion
Australian 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952

Mixed doubles champion
Australian 1940, 1946, 1947, 1948

Nancye Bolton is remembered for winning 20 Australian titles; the only woman to win more is Margaret Court with 23. In 1940, 1947 and 1948 she pulled off the rare feat of winning the singles, doubles and mixed titles. In 1938, aged 22, Nancye Wynne became the first Australian woman to play a Grand Slam final abroad, at the US Championship in Forest Hills, losing to American great Alice Marble. Bolton attained a career-high ranking of No.4 in 1947 and stayed in that position until 1949. She was renowned for her powerful forehand and competitive grit. Widowed during the war, she returned to tennis after a break of several years and won a hat-trick of postwar titles (1947-49) without conceding a set. The Melburnian won her last Australian singles title in 1951 aged 34.

Nancye Bolton in the news

Tennis legend Thelma Long passes away
Australia's Thelma Coyne Long competes against Maureen Connolly of the USA in the semifinal of the Women's Singles in the Surrey Championships at Surbiton, Surrey, UK on 29 May 1952; Douglas Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
14 April, 2015

Australian tennis legend Thelma (Coyne) Long passed away at her home in Sydney on Tuesday, aged 96.
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