Lili de Alvarez (Lilí de Álvarez) (9 May 1905 – 8 July 1998) was a Spanish multi-sport competitor, an international tennis champion, an author, and a journalist.
Elia Maria González-Álvarez y López-Chicheri was born at the Hotel Flora in Rome, Italy, during a stay by her affluent Spanish parents. She was raised in Switzerland and from an early age began competing in a variety of sports. At age eleven, she won her first ice skating competition, and then at age 16, she won the St. Moritz ice skating championship. She won her first tennis tournament at age fourteen. An all-around sportsperson, Alvarez was an alpine skier, equestrian, and an auto racer who won the "Campeonato de Cataluna de Automovilismo" at age nineteen.
Alvarez was a pioneer in women's tennis in Spain and was her country's most dominant player during the 1920s. Between 1926 and 1928, she reached three consecutive singles finals at Wimbledon. According to American Helen Wills Moody, who defeated Alvarez twice in Wimbledon singles finals, Alvarez' game was an "unusually daring one".
In 1929, Alvarez teamed up with the Dutch player Kea Bouman to win the women's doubles title at the French Championships. The following year, Alvarez won the singles title at the Italian Championships, an accomplishment that was not repeated by another female Spaniard for 63 years until Conchita Martínez won the Italian Open in 1993. Alvarez and Bill Tilden were the runners-up in the mixed doubles competition at the 1927 French Championships.
In 1927, Alvarez authored a book in English published in London under the title Modern Lawn Tennis.
In 1931, she shocked the staid tennis world by playing at Wimbledon in a divided tennis skirt specially made by designer Elsa Schiaparelli that was the forerunner of shorts. That year, Alvarez began reporting on the political events in Spain for the British newspaper, the Daily Mail.
According to Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Alvarez was ranked in the world top ten from 1926 through 1928 and in 1930 and 1931, reaching a career high of World No. 2 in those rankings in 1927 and 1928.[1]
In 1934, Alvarez married the Count of Valdene, a French aristocrat and diplomat, and played for three years on the international tennis circuit as "Countess Valdene". In 1939, she lost her only child and the couple soon separated. She returned home to Spain in 1941 where she continued to be active in sports and began writing on religious and feminist topics, publishing her book Plenitud (Fullness) in 1946. She actively supported the worldwide feminist movement and in 1951 gave a speech entitled "La batalla de la feminidad" at the Hispanic-American Feminist Congress. Over the years, she wrote several more books.
Alvarez died in Madrid in 1998.
Contents |
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1926 | Wimbledon | Kitty McKane Godfree | 6–2, 4-6, 6–3 |
| 1927 | Wimbledon (2) | Helen Wills Moody | 6–2, 6–4 |
| 1928 | Wimbledon (3) | Helen Wills Moody | 6–2, 6–3 |
| Tournament | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | Career SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Championships | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 |
| French Championships | 1R | A | QF | A | A | SF | SF | 3R | A | A | 1R | SF | SF | 0 / 8 |
| Wimbledon | A | F | F | F | 4R | 1R | 3R | A | A | A | 2R | 4R | 4R | 0 / 9 |
| U.S. Championships | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 |
| SR | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 17 |
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.