Prominently on display in the trophy room at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club is a cabinet with 380 gold balls inside.
That’s one each for the number of age group championships Dorothy “Dodo” Cheney has won since recently adding the national 90-over age group title to her massive collection, which started with a small trophy when she was just 11 years old.
No one has won more.
“That got me going and I’ve only missed a couple of weeks due to injuries since,” said the spry 93-year-old Cheney who admits she gets a little knee and back pain these days but hasn’t let that slow her down.
Although the majority of her awards are in the age group competition she has dominated, Cheney was on the top of the world in 1938 when she captured the Australian Open singles title with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Dorothy Stevenson.
Cheney was a three-time runner-up in the Grand Slam doubles, teaming with different partners in Australia in 1938, the U.S. Championships in both 1940 and 1941. She was a member of the victorious U.S. Wightman Cup teams from 1937-1939 and four-time runner-up in the Grand Slam mixed doubles.
Cheney was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004.
She got her nickname when her two older brothers were young and couldn’t pronounce Dorothy, saying “Dodo” instead. “I’m not a Dorothy,” she said with a chuckle, “I’m Dodo.”
Posted on March 8, 2010 by anthony
