Obit of the Day: Tennis Champion on the Side (Court)Patricia Canning Todd had a number four world-ra

Obit of the Day: Tennis Champion on the Side (Court)Patricia Canning Todd had a number four world-ranking and was the defending champion at the French Championship (now the French Open) in 1948 when she and her semi-final opponent were asked to play off of center court. The new court had less linesman and was smaller than the prestigious center position. So Mrs. Todd refused to play,  stating to the media that “I’m the defending champion, and I don’t see why I can’t play in center court instead of another women’s singles match.” French officials did not agree and declared the match forfeit to her opponent, Nelly Landry, the eventual champion.*Mrs. Todd did not leave France without some hardware, though, winning the title in both traditional and mixed doubles. Those would be the last Grand Slam trophies she would hoist in her career to go along with her 1947 French singles title and a 1947 Wimbledon doubles title.Born and raised in Alameda, Calfornia, Mrs. Todd started playing tennis when she was eight years old at the public courts with a five dollar racket. By the time she was ten she received an honorary membership at the Clairemont Hotel Tennis Club in nearby Berkeley. She would spend days there, dropped by her mother in the morning and picked up in the evening.She became a professional as a teenager and would play for nearly two decades. Along with her major titles Mrs. Todd also won tournaments in South America, the U.S., and Asia. In 1950, she played in the Championships of India, the first-ever tournament in the country’s history to feature women. She would retire from singles play in the early 1950s but continue in doubles until the late 1950s. Her success earned her a nomination to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005 but she could not garner the necessary 75% of the vote to gain induction.Patricia Canning Todd, who was ranked in the top ten worldwide from 1946-1952, died on September 5, 2015 at the age of 93. * In a 2004 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune Mrs. Todd stated that she did not play the match because an official moved the start time of the semi-final to “now” and Mrs. Todd was unavailable because she was eating lunch. This contradicts the version she told the press in 1948. There is no other information confirming the lunch story.Sources: NY Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Wikipedia(Image of Patricia Canning Todd playing in Wimbledon in 1946, copyright of the Associated Press and courtesy of prosportslive.com)Also of interest on Obit of the Day:Arthur Ashe  -- source link

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