Ruth Sanders Cordes (August 20, 1890 — February 11, 1968) was a top-level American amateur tennis player.

Biography

Born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, Sanders Cordes graduated from Hughes Center High School and from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

in 1912. At the

Cincinnati Open The Cincinnati Open (also known as the Cincinnati Masters) is an annual professional tennis event held in Cincinnati, United States. Due to previous sponsorship, it has also been known as: the Thriftway ATP Championships, the Great American I ...

, she was 27-7 in 12 appearances in women's singles, winning five singles titles: 1913, 1914, 1920, 1922 and 1923. Her only loss in a singles final came in 1915, when he lost to Molla Bjurstedt. She also reached six singles quarterfinals, won a doubles title (1911) and reached two doubles finals (1915 & 1920). At the 1917 National Clay Court Championship, held in Cincinnati in July that year, Sanders won the singles title (defeating Winifred Swarts Ellis in the final), paired with Marie Gregg to take the women's doubles title (defeating Ellis and Adele Levy in the final), and paired with future husband Howard F. Cordes to take the mixed doubles title (over Leonora Hofer and

Chuck Garland Charles Stedman Garland (October 29, 1898 – January 28, 1971) was an American tennis player who won the 1920 The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon men's doubles title with Richard Norris Williams. He reached the singles semi finals at Wimbl ...

). Sanders married Cordes the following month on August 14, 1917. In 2003, she was posthumously inducted into the Cincinnati Tennis Hall of Fame, alongside

Bill Talbert William Franklin Talbert (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 1999) was an American tennis player and administrator. Tennis career He was ranked in the U.S. top 10 from 1941 to 1954, and he was ranked World No. 3 in 1949 by John Olliff of ''The D ...

Tony Trabert Marion Anthony Trabert (August 16, 1930 – February 3, 2021) was an American amateur world No. 1 tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker. Trabert was ranked world No. 1 amateur by many ...

, Barry MacKay, Clara Louise Zinke and others.

References

*''From Club Court to Center Court'' by Phillip S. Smith (2008 Edition; ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cordes, Ruth Sanders 1890 births 1968 deaths American female tennis players Cincinnati Bearcats women's tennis players Tennis players from Cincinnati 20th-century American sportswomen