Ryan, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Montague Ryan “Bunny”
Born: February 08, 1892
Died: July 08, 1979
Hometown: Anaheim, California, United States
Citizenship: United States
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1972

Grand Slam Record
Wimbledon     Singles finalist     1921, 30
Doubles     1914, 19-23, 25-27, 30, 33-34
Doubles finalist     1932
Mixed     1919, 21, 23, 27-28, 30, 32
Mixed finalist     1920, 22, 25

U.S.     Singles finalist     1926
Doubles     1926
Doubles finalist     1925, 36
Mixed     1926, 33
Mixed finalist     1934

French     Doubles     1930, 32-34
Doubles finalist     1931
Mixed finalist     1934

Tournament Record
Wightman Cup           1926

Italian     Singles     1933
Doubles     1934
Doubles finalist     1933, 35
Mixed     1934

Elizabeth Montague “Bunny” Ryan, a magnificent doubles player who long held the major tournament record for total championships–19 at Wimbledon between 1914 and 1934–dearly wished to win a major in singles. But she missed out in three finals losing to Suzanne Lenglen (1921) and Helen Wills Moody (1930) at Wimbledon, and coming closest in 1926, a heartbreaker at the U.S.

In the most elderly of major finals, Ryan, 34, led Molla Mallory, 42, 4-0 in the third, and had a match point in the 13th game only to fall, 4-6, 6-4, 9-7, at Forest Hills.

It may be that she was a bit too stout (at 5-foot-51/2, 145 pounds) and slow of foot to equal her doubles success on the singles court. Still, with superb anticipation and tactics, she won numerous singles titles, including the last played in Imperial Russia in 1914. “I got the last train out as the war [World War I] descended,” she later recalled.

Her 12 Wimbledon doubles titles (and 13 finals) are the tourney records, as are five straight with Lenglen (1919-23), plus 1925, and six straight doubles titles (1914-23 no play World War I, 1915-18). She won a record seven mixed (of a record 10 finals) with five different partners three with Randolph Lycett. She and Lenglen never lost (31-0) at the Big W.

Yet standing is Ryan’s Wimbledon doubles record of 50 straight match victories from 1914 to the 1928 final. She first played Wimbledon in 1912, reaching the quarters in singles, and was to set a championship longevity record: 20 between first and last titles (1914-34). Only Billie Jean King (224) and Martina Navratilova (229) won more matches at Wimbledon, where Ryan was 189-29: 61-15 in singles, 77-4 in doubles, 80-10 in mixed.

Ryan, a right-hander with a severe chop, volley and drop shot, was born February 5, 1892, in Anaheim, CA, and while she played for her native land in the 1926 Wightman Cup, she spent most of her life as a London resident. She did work as a teaching pro for a time in the U.S. Intensely protective of her Wimbledon record of 19 titles (of 25 finals) she was uncomfortable sharing it with King when Billie Jean tied her by winning the singles in 1975. She was undoubtedly pleased not to see herself eclipsed.

Ryan collapsed and died July 8, 1979, at her beloved Wimbledon, the day before King got No. 20 by winning the doubles with Navratilova. Twice she played enough in the U.S. to make the Top Ten rankings, No. 2 in 1925 and 1926. She was in the World Top Ten five times between 1924 and 1930, No. 3 in 1927. She entered the Hall of Fame in 1972.

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