Thelma Dorothy Coyne Long (née Coyne; 14 October 1918 – 13 April 2015) was an Australian

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 and one of the female players who dominated Australian tennis from the mid-1930s to the 1950s. During her career, she won 19 Grand Slam tournament titles. In 2013, Long was inducted into the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...

Tennis career

At the

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

, Long won singles titles in 1952 and 1954 and was a singles finalist in 1940, 1951, 1955 and 1956. In women's doubles, she won 10 titles with

Nancye Wynne Bolton Nancye Wynne Bolton (née Wynne; 2 December 1916 – 9 November 2001) was an Australian tennis player. She won the women's singles title six times at the Australian Championships, third only to Margaret Court's and Serena Williams' 11 and 7 t ...

(1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1952) and two titles with

Mary Bevis Hawton Mary Renetta Hawton (née Bevis; 4 September 1924 – 18 January 1981) was a tennis player from Australia. Her career ranged from the 1940s to the 1950s. Hawton won the women's doubles title at the Australian Championships five times. In 1958 s ...

(1956 and 1958). Long was a women's doubles finalist with Bolton in 1946 and 1950. She won mixed doubles titles in 1951, 1952 and 1955 with George Worthington and in 1954 with

Rex Hartwig Rex Noel Hartwig (2 September 1929 – 30 December 2022) was an Australian tennis player. Early life Rex Hartwig was born on 2 September 1929 in Culcairn, New South Wales. Both parents played tennis and at age 10 he won a local tournament wit ...

. She was a mixed doubles finalist in 1948 with

Bill Sidwell Oswald William Thomas Sidwell (16 April 1920 – 19 August 2021) was an Australian tennis player. Sidwell reached five Grand Slam doubles finals, winning once, at the 1949 U.S. National Championships with compatriot John Bromwich. He also pl ...

. At

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, Long was a women's doubles finalist in 1957 with Hawton and a mixed doubles finalist in 1952 with

Enrique Morea Enrique Jorge Morea (11 April 1924 – 15 March 2017) was an Argentine tennis player. Morea reached the singles semifinals of the French Championships in 1953, beating Mervyn Rose and Gardnar Mulloy and then losing to Ken Rosewall. At th ...

. At the age of 52, Long teamed with Lorraine Coghlan to lose in the first round of women's doubles at Wimbledon in 1971. At the

French Championships The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam tennis events eve ...

, Long was a women's doubles finalist in 1958 with Hawton, won the mixed doubles title in 1956 with Luis Ayala, and was a mixed doubles finalist in 1951 with

Mervyn Rose Mervyn Gordon Rose AM (23 January 1930 – 23 July 2017) was an Australian male tennis player who won seven Grand Slam titles (singles, doubles and mixed doubles). Career Rose was born in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, and turned professiona ...

. At the 1953 tournament 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 ...

, Long won the singles title (defeating Anita Kanter 7–5, 6–2 in the final) and the women's doubles title with Kanter. According to Lance Tingay of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', Long was ranked in the world top 10 in 1952 and 1954 (no rankings issued from 1940 to 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 7 in these rankings in 1952. Long became a teaching professional in 1960 and spent many years coaching junior players in New South Wales. In 1985, her achievements were recognised by Tennis NSW when she was awarded Life Membership of the State Association.

Honours and awards

On 30 August 2000, Long was awarded the

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

. She was inducted into the

Australian Tennis Hall of Fame The Australian Tennis Hall of Fame was established in 1993 by Tennis Australia under the leadership of then-president Geoff Pollard. Described by Tennis Australia as "one of the highest honours Australian tennis players can receive", inductees ar ...

in a ceremony at

Melbourne Park Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Since 1988, Australia's bicentenary, Melbourne Park has been home of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament play ...

during the Australian Open on

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

in 2002. In 2013, she was inducted into the

Personal life

She was born in Sydney, Australia on 14 October 1918, the only child of Tom and Dorrie Coyne and was schooled at the

Sydney Girls High School Sydney Girls High School (abbreviated as SGHS or Sydney Girls) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex school, single-sex Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective secondary school, secondar ...

On 30 January 1941, she married Maurice Newton Long of Melbourne. The marriage did not continue after the end of the Second World War. In May 1941, during the Second World War, Long joined the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

as a transport driver and worked in Melbourne. On 19 February 1942, she joined the Australian Women's Army Service (AWAS) and rose to the rank of captain in April 1944. For her service in the AWAS, she was awarded the

War Medal 1939–1945 The War Medal 1939–1945 is a campaign medal which was instituted by the United Kingdom on 16 August 1945, for award to citizens of the British Commonwealth who had served full-time in the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy for at least 28 days ...

and Australia Service Medal 1939–1945. Long worked as a volunteer at the

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

, and she received the Volunteer Service Award in 1999. Coyne died on 13 April 2015 at the age of 96.

Grand Slam tournament finals

Singles: 6 (2 wins, 4 losses)

Doubles: 16 (12 wins, 4 losses)

Mixed doubles (5 wins, 3 losses)

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

. ¹ In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.
^2,3 Coyne did not play. Her opponent got a walkover.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coyne Long, Thelma 1918 births 2015 deaths Australian Championships (tennis) champions Australian female tennis players Australian Army officers Australian Army personnel of World War II French Championships (tennis) champions Sportswomen from New South Wales Tennis players from Sydney Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Women in the Australian military Australian Championships (tennis) junior champions People educated at Sydney Girls High School 20th-century Australian sportswomen