- Françoise Durr
Françoise Durr (born December 25, 1942, in
Algiers ,Algeria ) is a formertennis player fromFrance . She won 26 singles titles and 60 doubles titles. She was ranked World No. 3 in 1967 and was nine times ranked in the world's top ten from 1965 through 1976. She finished second toBillie Jean King in annual prize money won in 1971.Grand Slam tournaments
Durr is best remembered for winning the singles title at the 1967 French Championships. She defeated
Maria Bueno in a quarterfinal before defeatingLesley Turner Bowrey in the final.Mary Pierce in 2000 is the only French woman to have won the women's singles title at the French Championships since Durr.In addition to her singles championship, Durr won seven Grand Slam women's doubles titles and four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She was the runner-up in eleven Grand Slam women's doubles events and four Grand Slam mixed doubles events.
Durr won eight doubles titles at the French Championships during her career. The first of Durr's record-tying five consecutive women's doubles titles was in 1967. (The record is shared with
Martina Navratilova andGigi Fernandez , with separate partners.) Durr teamed withAnn Haydon Jones to win the titles in 1968 and 1969 and withGail Sherriff Chanfreau in 1967, 1970, and 1971. Durr was the runner-up in women's doubles in 1965 withJeanine Lieffrig , in 1973 withBetty Stove , and in 1979 withVirginia Wade . Durr teamed withJean Claude Barclay to win the mixed doubles title in 1968, 1971, and 1973. They were runner-ups in 1969, 1970, and 1972.Durr won two doubles titles at the U.S. Open during her career. She won the women's doubles title in 1969 with
Darlene Hard and in 1972 with Stove. Durr was the runner-up in that event in 1971 with Chanfreau and in 1974 with Stove. Durr was the runner-up in mixed doubles in 1969, teaming withDennis Ralston .Durr won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 1976 with
Tony Roche . Durr was the runner-up in women's doubles at Wimbledon in 1965 with Lieffrig, 1968 with Jones, 1970 with Wade, 1972 withJudy Tegart Dalton , and 1973 and 1975 with Stove.Grand Slam singles finals
Win (1)
Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.
Other tournaments and team competitions
Durr defeated the reigning Wimbledon and
French Open championEvonne Goolagong Cawley 6–4, 6–2 to win the 1971 Canadian Open.Durr was an integral member of France's
Fed Cup team in 1963-1967, 1970, 1972, and 1977-1979. Her career win-loss record was 16-8 in singles and 15-9 in doubles.Trivia
* Durr played with unorthodox grips and strokes.
* Durr was the first woman to travel the tennis circuit with her dog, named Topspin, who became a star by carrying Durr's racquet onto court.
Career and awards after retiring from the tour
In 1993, Durr was appointed the first Technical Director of Women's Tennis for the French Tennis Federation (FFT). She was the captain of the French
Fed Cup team from 1993 through 1996 and the co-captain of the team withYannick Noah in 1997 when they won the competition. She retired from the FFT in February 2002 [ cite web|url=http://www.fft.fr/web2001/FFTnews/2002/Fevrier/1/durr.html |title=Françoise Dürr's retirement from the FFT archives |accessdate=2007-02-03 |publisher=Fédération Française de Tennis |language=French ] .Durr received the WTA Tour's Honorary Membership Award in 1988 for her contributions to the founding, development, and direction of women's professional tennis. In 2003, Durr was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame . She received the Fed Cup Award of Excellence in 2005, presented jointly by theInternational Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.See also
* Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final
Notes and references
External links
*wta|id=40134|name=Françoise Durr
* [http://www.tennisfame.com/famer.aspx?pgID=867&hof_id=99 International Tennis Hall of Fame profile]
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