Sarah Palfrey Cooke

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Sarah Hammond Palfrey Fabyan Cooke Danzig (born September 18, 1912 in Sharon, Massachusetts, USA – died February 27, 1996 in New York) was a female tennis player from the United States.

Cooke twice won the singles title at the U.S. Championships, the second time in 1945 at the age of 32. She was only the second mother to have won the title. (Hazel Wightman was the first.) Cooke won the 1945 title after being down 4–3 in the third set to Pauline Betz, with Betz serving. Betz was the three time defending champion and would have won six consecutive titles had Cooke not defeated her in the 1941 and 1945 finals.

Cooke is one of the only women, if not the sole woman, to appear on a top level male championship honor roll. Because of the manpower crisis during World War II, she and husband Elwood Cooke were permitted to enter the men's doubles of the Tri-State Championships in Cincinnati in 1945. They reached the final, losing to Hal Surface and Bill Talbert.

Cooke won a total of 16 Grand Slam championships in women's doubles (11) and mixed doubles (5). She teamed with Betty Nuthall to win the 1930 U.S. Championships and with Helen Jacobs to win the 1932, 1934, and 1935 editions of those championships. Cooke and Alice Marble won the U.S. Championships in 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940. At Wimbledon, Cook and Marble won the 1938 and 1939 women's doubles championship. Cooke's final U.S. women's double's championship was in 1941 with Margaret Osborne. In mixed doubles, Cooke teamed with four different partners to win U.S. championships: Fred Perry in 1932, Enrique Maier in 1935, Don Budge in 1937, and Jack Kramer in 1941. Cooke also won the mixed doubles title at the 1939 French Championships, teaming with her future husband Elwood Cooke. Sarah and Marble were undefeated in doubles for 4 years (1937-1940).

In 1947, Cooke turned pro and went on a "barnstorming" tour of one night stands with Betz, who had been stripped of her amateur status by the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) for merely inquiring about the possibility of creating a tour for professionals. They earned about US $10,000 each.

Cooke and Marble lobbied the USLTA to remove the color bar and allow Althea Gibson to play at heretofore whites-only tournaments beginning in 1950. "She [Cooke] was calmly persuasive, had clout as an ex-champ, and got Althea into the U.S. Championships in 1950," said Gladys Heldman, founder of the women's professional tennis tour.

Cooke was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1963.

Contents

[edit] Grand Slam record

  • U.S. Championships
    • Singles champion: 1941, 1945
    • Singles finalist: 1934, 1935
    • Doubles champion: 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941
    • Doubles finalist: 1936
    • Mixed champion: 1932, 1935, 1937, 1941
    • Mixed finalist: 1933, 1936, 1939

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (2)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1941 U.S. Championships Pauline Betz 7–5, 6–2
1945 U.S. Championships (2) Pauline Betz 3–6, 8–6, 6–4

[edit] Runner-ups (2)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1934 U.S. Championships Helen Jacobs 6–1, 6–4
1935 U.S. Championships Helen Jacobs 6–2, 6–4


[edit] Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Tournament 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Career SR
Australia A A A A A A A A A A A A A NH NH NH NH NH 0 / 0
France A A A A A A 3R A A A A QF NH R R R R A 0 / 2
Wimbledon A A 2R A 4R A QF A 2R A QF SF NH NH NH NH NH NH 0 / 6
United States 1R 3R 3R 3R 2R QF F F 1R 1R SF QF 3R W A QF A W 2 / 16
SR 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 3 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 3 0 / 1 1 / 1 0 / 0 0 / 1 0 / 0 1 / 1 2 / 24

NH = tournament not held.

R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.

A = did not participate in the tournament.

SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

[edit] See also