Marguerite BROQUEDIS

Marguerite Broquedis played in the 1912 Olympics, winning two medals, and returned to the Olympics in 1924, after her marriage, as Mrs. Billout. She won her 1912 singles gold medal by a bit of gamesmanship: when trailing she left the court to change her shoes, and after returning, her opponent Dora Köring was completely out of rhythm and lost the match. Broquedis was French ladies’ singles champion in 1913-14, won the ladies’ doubles in 1924, with Yvonne Bourgeois, and was mixed doubles champion in 1911, with André Gobert, and 1924, with Jean Borotra. All of those championships were won when the French title was a closed competition. In 1927 she won what is considered her only Grand Slam title when, by then as Mrs. Bordes, she and Borotra won the French mixed doubles after it had become an open competition. Broquedis also won the 1912 World Hard Court Title, which was, at that time, played on clay. Indoors she won multiple French titles – ladies’ singles in 1910, 1912-13, 1922, 1925, and 1927; ladies’ doubles in 1925, with Bourgeois; and mixed doubles in 1913 (with William Laurentz) and 1922 and 1925 with Borotra.

Termed "The Goddess" for her pinup looks, Broquedis is actually best known as the last player to have defeated Suzanne Lenglen in a full match, which she did in May 1914 in the French Closed Final. Lenglen was only 15-years-old at the time and lost only one other known match, when she withdrew from illness in 1921 while playing Molla Bjurstedt-Mallory.