Another sport acceptable for women in the early 1900s was tennis. Tennis was an Olympic sport through the 1924 Games and then was not played until its reinstatement in 1988; conflict over where to draw the line between amateurism and professionalism caused the disappearance of the sport for those years.
One of the greatest tennis players of the first half of the twentieth century was Helen Wills. Wills came from Centreville, California, and she was born in 1905. She played right-handed with great power, a skill she developed by practicing against men. Her nickname was ‘Little Miss Poker Face’ because she played with unruffled poise, completely focused on the game. This focus and her skills combined to make her one of the greatest tennis players in the world. She won her first U.S. national title in 1923. The following year at the 1924 Paris Games Willis won a gold medal for singles and doubles; she was the first woman to do so. She won the U.S. title six more times, the French title four times, and Wimbledon eight times, a feat not surpassed until 1990. In 1928 she was the first player to win three major titles: French, Wimbledon, and U.S. Her tennis ability was so great that between the years 1927 and 1932, she never lost a singles match. During her career, her overall match record was 398-35.
