Margaret Osborne duPont (born Margaret Evelyn Osborne; March 4, 1918 – October 24, 2012) was a world No. 1 American female tennis player.
DuPont won a total of 37 singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles major titles, which places her fourth on the all-time list, despite never entering the Australian Championships. She won 25 of those major titles at the U.S. Championships, which is an all-time record.
DuPont won six Grand Slam tournament singles titles. She saved match points in the final of the 1946 French International Championships (versus Pauline Betz) and in the final of the 1948 U.S. National Championships (versus Louise Brough). The 48 games played during the 1948 final remain the most played in a women's singles final at that tournament.
DuPont teamed with Brough to win 20 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, tied with Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver for the most Grand Slam titles ever won by a women's doubles team. DuPont and Brough won nine consecutive titles at the U.S. National Championships from 1942 through 1950. They won that tournament in 12 of the 14 years they entered as a team. Their 12 titles is an all-time record for a women's doubles team at the U.S. National Championships, well-surpassing the four career titles won by the teams of Navratilova and Shriver, Doris Hart and Shirley Fry, and Sarah Palfrey Cooke and Alice Marble. DuPont won 13 women's doubles titles, 10 of which were in succession from 1941 through 1950, at the U.S. National Championships. Both of those are all-time records.
DuPont's nine mixed doubles titles at the U.S. National Championships is more than any other player. Four of those titles were in partnership with William Talbert, which is a record for a mixed doubles team at the U.S. National Championships. One each with Ken McGregor and Ken Rosewall, and three were with Neale Fraser.
According to John Olliff and Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, duPont was ranked in the world top 10 from 1946 through 1950, and in 1953-1954, and in 1956-1957. She was ranked world No. 1 from 1947 through 1950. No rankings were issued from 1940 through 1945.[3][4]
DuPont was included in the year-end top 10 rankings issued by the United States Lawn Tennis Association in 1938, from 1941 through 1950, and in 1953, 1956 and 1958. She was the top ranked U.S. player from 1948 through 1950.[5]
From 1938 through 1958, DuPont went undefeated in 10 Wightman Cup competitions, winning 10 singles and nine doubles matches. She also was the captain of the U.S. team nine times, and won eight.
Margaret married William duPont, Jr. on November 26, 1947[6] and later interrupted her career to give birth to a son, William duPont III on July 22, 1952. She is one of the few women to win a major title after childbirth. DuPont never played the Australian Championships because her husband would not let her.
They didn't start to invite people down there and pay their expenses until I got married, and that was wintertime and Will's vacation time, and I just never got to go. He threatened to divorce me if I went to Australia, so I never went. He had that respiratory trouble, and he wanted me to come to California with him. He thought I should be with him. That was that.[7]
She later divorced duPont in 1964 and formed a life partnership with fellow player Margaret Varner Bloss.[8]
DuPont died on October 24, 2012, while in hospice care in El Paso, Texas, at age 94.[1]
She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967. The Delaware Sports Hall of Fame inducted DuPont in 1999.[9] In 2010, she was inducted into the US Open Court of Champions.[10]
R = tournament restricted to French nationals and held under German occupation.
1In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.
