Web Page No 2448

12^th February  2018

 First Picture: Christine winning the French Open

Second Picture: The Truman/Janes family

Third Picture: Christine and Angela Mortimer at Wimbledon 2011

Fourth Picture: Christine Truman today.

Christine Truman

Christine Truman Janes MBE was born 16^th  January 1941and was one of the great hopes for British tennis in the 1950’s. It is a sobering thought that when Serena Williams won the French Open, she received about £1,278,000. Give or take a few pounds. When teenager Christine Truman triumphed at the same tournament in 1959, with Yul Brynner among the spectators, she received just £40 in expenses as this was still the era of the amateur.

That £40 wasn’t just for the 6-4, 7-5 win over Hungarian Zsuzsa Körmöczy because for a few weeks, the 18-year-old British girl had been queen of the courts, taking the Italian and Swiss titles before conquering Paris. By the time she got to Paris in 1959 she was pretty much a star already. It might still be an amateur sport, but Slazenger helped by supplying her rackets and shoes and her dresses were being made ever since she became British junior champion of 1956 and 1957.

In 1957, the year she had been a debutante, she’d been a semi-finalist at Wimbledon and was beaten by the eventual champion Althea Gibson. In 1958 she went out in the fourth round, but it was a great year. She caused a sensation by beating Althea Gibson in the Wightman Cup, helping bring the crown back to Britain after 21 consecutive defeats by the US.

In 1959, at Wimbledon, The Sydney Morning Herald’s correspondent called her the Fair Giant. (She’s 6ft 1in.) Meanwhile another observer wrote that Christine was really two different people. On the courts she is a killer; off the courts a sweet, charming and unsophisticated girl. However, there’s no fairy-tale ending. Christine goes out in the fourth round. Later that year, though, she reaches the final of the US National Championships at Forest Hills in New York, this was the forerunner of the US Open.

The following year, she loses her Wimbledon semi-final round to Maria Bueno. Then, 1961 the tournament at the All England Lawn Tennis Club brings something special. It’s an all-British final in the ladies’ singles: Christine against Angela Mortimer.

For a long time it looks as if the 20-year-old from Essex, the younger girl being the darling of the crowd, will give them what they want. She goes a set and is 4-3 up. Then she slips, reigniting an Achilles injury of old, she loses concentration because of the fall, and goes down 6-4, 4-6, 5-7. Christine received lots of sympathy, including boxes of chocolates and flowers sent by well-wishers and 2,000 or so letters of commiseration. There was even a telegram from Sir Winston Churchill. There won’t ever be another Wimbledon final appearance for her, though she does reach the semis in 1965; and there’s another semi in France.

She acknowledges her best years were between the ages of 16 and 21. “I never really regained that. I was never again in the 110% zone of concentration and dedication as I was then. The reason was simple I met boyfriends! I was engaged at 21and unengaged at 22.”

In 1967 she married Gerry Janes, who’d played rugby for Wasps, and the first of their four children arrived in 1970, one of their children is the former pro tennis player Amanda Keen. . Christine says she “sort of petered out”, tennis-wise, in the middle of that decade. “I know I played Martina Navratilova in her first Wimbledon. (Christine lost 1-6, 4-6.) I could tell straight away she was something special. She was fast, she was powerful, she was good!”

In 1974 she reached the third round, where she was defeated by fellow Britain Lesley Charles. Christine then adopted another career and became a Wimbledon-time fixture on BBC radio for over 34 years.

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Peter

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News and Views:

ON THIS DAY 12^th February 1960-1965

On 12/02/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was Some Like It Hot. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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