Lottie Dod Wins Wimbledon and Keeps Changing Sports

In the summer of 1887, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Dod entered the Wimbledon Championships after collecting prestigious singles victories across England and Ireland. Born into a prosperous Cheshire family whose fortune in the cotton trade freed its members from regular employment, Dod grew up playing lawn tennis on newly constructed courts near the family estate in Bebington. At the 1887 tournament, she swept through the All-Comers field without losing a set to challenge defending champion Blanche Bingley. Dod won the deciding match 6-2, 6-0 becoming the youngest ladies singles champion in Wimbledon history.

Dod established a formidable tennis record over the next six years, dropping only a single open singles match after turning fifteen. Observers described her style as unusual for the era: she employed a modern single-handed racquet grip, hit the ball unusually firmly, and struck groundstrokes just before the top of the bounce, though she still served underhand. Facing Bingley, who later competed as Blanche Hillyard, in repeated championship encounters, Dod collected Wimbledon titles in 1888, 1891, 1892, and 1893. When she retired from competitive tennis after 1893, she had earned five Wimbledon singles crowns, including three consecutive triumphs, a streak later surpassed when Suzanne Lenglen captured five consecutive singles titles starting in 1919.