The tennis world lost a legendary champion and Hall of Famer this week in Louise Brough Clapp, who passed away in Vista, California at age 90.  A former world No. 1, Brough Clapp won a total of 35 major titles across singles (six), doubles (21), and mixed doubles (eight) during a career that peaked in the 1940s and 1950s.  She is tied for fifth all-time in that category, trailing only Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, and Margaret Osborne duPont.

Brough Clapp claimed no fewer than 20 of her 21 major doubles titles while partnering Osborne duPont, including nine consecutively at the US Open from 1942 through 1950.  That streak still stands as the longest consecutive titles run in any event at any major.  As impressive as it was, Brough Clapp may have shone most brightly at Wimbledon, where the slick grass rewarded her outstanding volleys.  In 1950, she swept all three of the titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.  Between 1946 and 1955, moreover, she contested 21 of the 30 Wimbledon finals in those three events.  

Ranked in the top 10 from 1946 through 1957, Brough Clapp reached the No. 1 ranking in 1955.  Twelve years later, she was enshrined in the Tennis Hall of Fame as one of the greatest American women ever to pursue this sport.  Brough Clapp's fame continued to resonate through time, moreover.  In 2010, she returned to Wimbledon to celebrate the 60th anniversary of her triple titles there in 1950.  

A champion not just for her time but for all time, Louise Brough Clapp wrote one of the earliest chapters in the long, splendid history of tennis in the United States.