Margaret duPont

Margaret duPont is a former American tennis player. She holds the record for the fourth most major championships won. In her career, she managed to accumulate nearly forty championships in doubles, mixed and singles. She did all that without entering the Australian Open. She is considered to be a cerebral player and is one-half of a successful doubles team that managed to win a record number of games.

Born Margaret Evelyn Osborne in March 04, 1918 in Oregon, she became Margaret duPont in 1947 when she married William duPont. In her entire career, duPont won a total of 37 major championships – 31 of those championships were doubles. She teamed up with Louise Brough and the two of them set a record of winning 20 major titles (3 French, 5 Wimbledon and 12 US). The equally impressive doubles team of Martina Navratilova and Shriver later on tied their record during the late 1980s. duPont and Brough’s doubles winning streak was only broken by the team of Doris Hart and Shirley Fry.

duPont set a longevity record for a female player staying on the World Top 10 ranking. She enter the Top 10 in 1938 when she took the No. 7 spot. Two decades later, she was still ranked at No. 5. She was ranked No. 1 several times once in 1946, then from1947 to 1950 and again in 1957. She holds the finest Wightman Cup Record. She won 10 singles and 9 doubles. She also served as the captain for the US team nine times – they won 8 out of 9 times.

duPont took some time off to give birth to her son. She is known as being one of the handful of women who came back and win major titles after giving birth. She entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967 and the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 1999.