Rita Bentley (16 July 1931 - 26 October 2016), Rita Lauder after marriage, was a British

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player of the 1950s and 1960s. She also played

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and represented the England women's national team. A native of

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, Bentley was a member of Great Britain's 1966 Wightman Cup team, in a squad which included

Ann Haydon-Jones Ann Shirley Jones, (born Adrianne Haydon; 17 October 1938), also known as Ann Haydon-Jones, is a British former table tennis and lawn tennis champion. She won eight Grand Slam tennis championships in her career: three in singles, three in wome ...

and

Virginia Wade Sarah Virginia Wade (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional tennis player. She won three major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all fo ...

. She was used for the deciding doubles rubber, which the Americans won. Bentley twice reached the singles round of 16 at Wimbledon and was the

All England Plate The All England Plate, also referred to as the Wimbledon Plate, was a tennis competition held at the Wimbledon Championships which consisted of players who were defeated in the first or second rounds of the Tennis singles, singles competition. The ...

winner in 1961. Other career titles include the

Queen's Club The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "HSBC Championships" for spo ...

in 1962 and the

Canadian Championships Canadian Championships refers to a number of national-level competition in Canada. It may refer to: * Canadian Championship, the national championship tournament for professional soccer * Canadian Figure Skating Championships * Canadian Professiona ...

in 1966. She was a singles quarter-finalist at both the 1963 Australian Championships and 1967 U.S. National Championships.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bentley, Rita 1931 births 2016 deaths English female tennis players British female tennis players English female field hockey players Sportspeople from Blackpool Tennis players from Lancashire 20th-century English sportswomen