Alice Marble
Singles, Doubles & Mixed Doubles Champion
Tennis · Grand Slam Champion
Alice Marble
A San Francisco product who swept singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles at both the U.S. Championships and Wimbledon, becoming the first woman ever to hold all three crowns at both events in the same year.
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U.S. Women's Singles Titles
0
Wimbledon Singles Title
1939
First Woman to Sweep the U.S. & Wimbledon Triple Crown in One Year
The Backstory
A San Francisco Original
Golden Gate Park Roots
Learned the game at age 13 on the public courts of Golden Gate Park, after having served as the official mascot of the San Francisco Seals baseball team at age 12. She also played basketball and ran track at San Francisco Polytechnic High School.
Dominant at Forest Hills
Won the U.S. women's singles title in 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1940, adding doubles titles in 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940, and mixed doubles titles in 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1940.
Champion at Wimbledon
Won the Wimbledon singles title in 1939, the doubles title in 1938 and 1939, and the mixed doubles title in 1937, 1938, and 1939.
A Historic 1939
Became the first woman in the sport's history to hold three Wimbledon titles and three U.S. titles in the same calendar year.
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See Alice Marble in Action
1936 → 1940
Career Timeline
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Age 13
Learns tennis at Golden Gate Park
Took up the sport on San Francisco's public courts after being the San Francisco Seals' mascot at age 12.
Major Championships
Four singles titles and repeated doubles and mixed doubles success.
Women's singles champion — 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940
Women's doubles champion — 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940
Mixed doubles champion — 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940
Every award, on the record
Honors & Awards
U.S. Women's Singles Champion
Won the U.S. singles title four times.
Wimbledon Singles Champion
Won the Wimbledon women's singles title.
Wimbledon & U.S. Triple Crown
First woman in tennis history to sweep singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships in the same year.
More To Know
Deeper Cuts on Alice Marble
Beyond her singles crowns, Marble amassed 18 Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined, plus 45 career titles overall.
The Associated Press named her its Female Athlete of the Year in both 1939 and 1940.
After turning professional in 1940, she earned more than $100,000 touring exhibition matches before retiring from competition in 1947.
She later worked in publishing as an associate editor at DC Comics, where she created the "Wonder Women of History" feature spotlighting accomplished women from the past.
In a 1950 magazine editorial, she publicly urged tennis officials to let Althea Gibson compete, helping pave the way for Gibson to become the first Black player in a Grand Slam tournament.
She spent her later years teaching tennis in Palm Desert, where one of her students was a young Billie Jean King.
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