Sports
Darlene Hard, three-time major tennis champion, dies at 85
Darlene Hard, an aggressive serve and volley player who won three major singles titles and 18 major doubles titles in a Hall of Fame tennis career, has passed away. She was 85.
She died Thursday at Northridge Hospital in the Los Angeles area after a short illness, according to Mona Cravens, director of student publications at the University of Southern California, where Hard has worked for 45 years.
Hard appeared in seven major singles finals and won titles at the 1960 French Championships and the 1960 and 61 US Championships, the tournaments preceding the French and US Opens. She was a Wimbledon finalist in 1957 (loss to Althea Gibson) and 59, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Championships in 1962.
She had even more success in doubles. She won three French titles, four Wimbledon titles (including 1957 with Gibson) and six American Championships with eight different partners. In the mixed doubles she won twice at the French and three times at Wimbledon, partnering with Rod Laver for titles in 1959 and ’60.
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Hard was in the US top 10 every year between 1954 and 1963, including as No. 1 four times. She rose to No. 2 in the world in 1960 and ’61.
She helped the US win the Wightman Cup titles against Great Britain four times and played on the winning US Fed Cup team in 1963.
Played hard at Pomona College in 1957, competed in the first intercollegiate championship in 1958 and won the national title. She was inducted into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 1974. She was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.
She became a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1973.
Darlene Ruth Hard was born on January 5, 1936 in Los Angeles. She learned her power play through her mother, Ruth, on public courts in Southern California. She came at a time when the women’s game was moving from long baseline rallies to an all-court style that suited Hard’s aggressiveness.
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Most of Hard’s success came during the amateur era of tennis. The professional era began in 1968 and Hard played only briefly as a pro in the 1969 US Open. She won her last doubles title that year in New York at age 33, six years after she retired from serious competition to teach tennis. She lost in the second round of singles.
Cravens met Hard when she and her husband took tennis lessons from the retired champion, who remained silent about her achievements. It wasn’t until Cravens went to the library and did some pre-Internet research that she discovered Hard’s distinguished career.
She was gruff on the outside but a real softy on the inside, said Cravens, who became a good friend of Hard.
Cravens later offered Hard a job at USC, where she did everything from maintenance on the university’s computer systems to design work for the El Rodeo yearbook and the Daily Trojan newspaper.
She had a very good eye for design, Cravens said Friday. She was very dedicated to everything she did.”
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Hard is survived by her sister, Claire Brundage. She was briefly married and had no children.
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