Lili de Alvarez (9 May 1905 – 8 July 1998) was a
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
multi-sport competitor, an international
tennis championTennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, an
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and a
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Elia Maria González-Álvarez y López-Chicheri was born at the Hotel Flora in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, during a stay by her affluent Spanish parents. She was raised in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and from an early age began competing in a variety of sports. At age eleven, she won her first
ice skatingIce skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
competition, and then at age 16, she won the
St. MoritzSt. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
ice skating championship. She won her first tennis tournament at age fourteen. An all-around sportsperson, Alvarez was an
alpine skierAlpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
,
equestrianEquestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, and an
auto racerAuto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...
who won the "
Campeonato de Cataluna de Automovilismo" at age nineteen.
Alvarez was a pioneer in women's tennis in Spain and was her country's most dominant player during the 1920s. Between 1926 and 1928, she reached three consecutive singles finals at
WimbledonThe Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
. According to American
Helen Wills MoodyHelen Newington Wills Roark , also known as Helen Wills Moody, was an American tennis player. She has been described as "the first American born woman to achieve international celebrity as an athlete."-Biography:...
, who defeated Alvarez twice in Wimbledon singles finals, Alvarez' game was an "unusually daring one".
In 1929, Alvarez teamed up with the
DutchThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
player
Kea BoumanKornelia "Kea" Bouman was a female tennis player from the Netherlands. She won the singles title at the 1927 French Championships, beating Irene Bowder Peacock of South Africa in the final...
to win the women's doubles title at the French Championships. The following year, Alvarez won the singles title at the
Italian ChampionshipsThe Italian Open is an annual tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is the most prestigious red clay tennis tournament in the world after the French Open, with the men's competition being an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, and the women's...
, an accomplishment that was not repeated by another female Spaniard for 63 years until
Conchita MartínezInmaculada Concepción Martínez Bernat is a former professional tennis player from Monzón, Aragón, Spain. She is the only Spanish woman to have won the singles title at Wimbledon, when she beat Martina Navrátilová in the 1994 Women's Singles. She also was the singles runner-up at the 1998...
won the Italian Open in 1993. Alvarez and
Bill TildenWilliam Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...
were the runners-up in the mixed doubles competition at the 1927 French Championships.
In 1927, Alvarez authored a book in English published in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
under the title
Modern Lawn Tennis.
In 1931, she shocked the staid tennis world by playing at Wimbledon in a divided tennis
skirtA skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...
specially made by designer
Elsa SchiaparelliElsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators...
that was the forerunner of
shortsShorts are a bifurcated garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, circling the waist, and covering the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to or even below the knee, but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they are a shortened...
. That year, Alvarez began reporting on the
political eventsThe Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
in Spain for the British newspaper, the
Daily MailThe Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
.
According to Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Alvarez was ranked in the world top ten from 1926 through 1928 and in 1930 and 1931, reaching a career high of World No. 2 in those rankings in 1927 and 1928.
In 1934, Alvarez married the Count of Valdene, a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
aristocrat and diplomat, and played for three years on the international tennis circuit as "Countess Valdene". In 1939, she lost her only child and the couple soon separated. She returned home to Spain in 1941 where she continued to be active in sports and began writing on religious and feminist topics, publishing her book
Plenitud (
Fullness) in 1946. She actively supported the worldwide
feminist movementThe feminist movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment and sexual violence...
and in 1951 gave a speech entitled "
La batalla de la feminidad" at the Hispanic-American Feminist Congress. Over the years, she wrote several more books.
Alvarez died in
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
in 1998.
Runner-ups (3)
| Year |
Championship |
Opponent in Final |
Score in Final |
| 1926 |
WimbledonThe Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
|
 Kitty McKane Godfree |
6–2, 4-6, 6–3 |
| 1927 |
Wimbledon (2) |
 Helen Wills MoodyHelen Newington Wills Roark , also known as Helen Wills Moody, was an American tennis player. She has been described as "the first American born woman to achieve international celebrity as an athlete."-Biography:...
|
6–2, 6–4 |
| 1928 |
Wimbledon (3) |
Helen Wills Moody |
6–2, 6–3 |
Grand Slam singles tournament timeline
| Tournament | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | Career SR |
Australian ChampionshipsThe Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
|
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
0 / 0 |
| French Championships |
1R |
A |
QF |
A |
A |
SF |
SF |
3R |
A |
A |
1R |
SF |
SF |
0 / 8 |
WimbledonThe Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
|
A |
F |
F |
F |
4R |
1R |
3R |
A |
A |
A |
2R |
4R |
4R |
0 / 9 |
| U.S. Championships |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
A |
0 / 0 |
| SR |
0 / 1 |
0 / 1 |
0 / 2 |
0 / 1 |
0 / 1 |
0 / 2 |
0 / 2 |
0 / 1 |
0 / 0 |
0 / 0 |
0 / 2 |
0 / 2 |
0 / 2 |
0 / 17 |
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
See also