Louise Brough

Althea Louise Brough Clapp (née Brough; March 11, 1923 – February 3, 2014) was an American tennis player. In her career between 1939 and 1959, she won six Grand Slam titles in singles as well as numerous doubles and mixed-doubles titles. At the end of the 1955 tennis season, Lance Tingay of the London Daily Telegraph ranked her world No. 1 for the year.

Biography Louise Brough was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1923. Her family moved to Beverly Hills, California when she was four years old.

In women's doubles, Brough never failed to reach the quarterfinals at the 32 Grand Slam tournaments she played during her career. She reached the semifinals 29 times and the final 28 times. She usually teamed with her longtime friend Margaret Osborne duPont. She also had three match points in the 1954 final against Doris Hart, the first at 5–4 in the third set and two more at 6–5 in that set. She taught juniors in California for the following 20 years. She was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967. Occasionally she played in local tournaments in California and in senior tournaments, winning the doubles title at the U.S. Hard Court Senior Championships alongside Barbara Green Weigandt in 1971 and 1975. Her husband died in 1999. She died at her home in Vista, California, on February 3, 2014, at the age of 90 and left no children. She left one of her Wimbledon trophies to her alma mater, Beverly Hills High School.

Grand Slam finals Singles: 14 (6 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Doubles: 28 (21 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 11 (8 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles Tournament 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 19461 19471 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 CareerSR Win–loss Australian ChampionshipsAANHNHNHNHNHAAA WAAAAAAAAA 1 / 1 3–0 French ChampionshipsNHRRRRA W WA W FAAAAAAAAA 3 / 4 14–1 Wimbledon NH NH NH NH NH NH WF W W WFFA WASFAAA 5 / 9 39–4 US ChampionshipsQFQF W W W W W W W W WA F F F W W WAQF 12 / 18 65–6 SR0 / 10 / 11 / 11 / 11 / 11 / 13 / 32 / 32 / 23 / 33 / 40 / 10 / 20 / 11 / 21 / 11 / 21 / 10 / 00 / 1 21 / 32 Win–loss1–11–15–04–04–04–012–013–110–013–014–14–16–24–19–14–07–14–00–02–1 Total: 121–11

Mixed doubles

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.