Mary Isabella "May" Langrishe (31 December 1864 – 24 January 1939) was an Irish tennis player. In the most important tennis tournaments of the late 19th century she won the singles title at the presitigous Irish Championships held at the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club three times in 1879, 1883 and 1886, the Northern Championships in 1880, and was a semi finalist at the Wimbledon Championships in 1891.[1][2][3] She was active between 1879 and 1892 and won 20 career singles titles.
Career
Langrishe was born in Ireland on 31 December 1864, one of five daughters of Sir James Langrishe and his wife Adela de Blois Eccles.[4][5] She was the great-great-granddaughter of Sir Hercules Langrishe.[4] In 1879, she won the first Irish Championships at the age of 14[6] where she defeated Miss D. Meldon 6-2, 0-6, 8-6 in the finals.[7] She won the singles title again in 1883 and 1886, and the doubles title with her sister Beatrice in 1884.
In the mid summer of 1890 she competed at the Bournemouth Open for the third and final time, winning the title against Connie Bryan. In September she successfully defended her Sussex Championships title, against Maud Shackle winning in straight sets. At the end of that month she won South of England title for the second and final time against Edith Coleridge Cole. In July 1891 at only her second appearance at the Wimbledon Championships, Langrishe reached the semifinals of the all-comers tournament, where she was beaten by Blanche Hillyard,[9] In 1892 she played her final tournament at the Sussex Championships where she defaulted in the first round.
Following her retirement from tennis she went to live in Dorset, England. May Langrishe died on 24 January 1939[8] at her home Hammonds Mead House, Charmouth, the same house in which Maud Watson would die seven years later.[10]
References
^Robertson, Max (1974). The Encyclopedia of Tennis. London: Allen & Unwin. pp. 266, 267. ISBN9780047960420.
^Meyers, A. Wallis (1903). Lawn Tennis at Home and Abroad. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons. p. 55.