Bobbie Heine Miller
![]() | |
Full name | Ester Laurie Heine Miller |
---|---|
Country (sports) | ![]() |
Born | Greytown, Colony of Natal | 5 December 1909
Plays | Right-handed |
Singles | |
Highest ranking | No.5 (1929) |
Grand Slam singles results | |
French Open | SF (1927) |
Wimbledon | QF (1929) |
Doubles | |
Grand Slam doubles results | |
French Open | W (1927) |
Wimbledon | F (1927) |
Grand Slam mixed doubles results | |
French Open | 3R (1929) |
Wimbledon | SF (1927, 1929) |
Ester Laurie "Bobbie" Heine Miller (born 5 December 1909) is a retired South African tennis player. She was born in Greytown. She won the doubles title at the 1927 French Championships partnering Irene Bowder Peacock. In 1929 she was ranked No. 5 in the World.[1] Her brother was South African cricketer Peter Heine.
Tennis career
Heine taught herself to play tennis by hitting the ball against the wall of her father's butcher shop in Winterton.[2] She received the nickname 'Bobbie' as a junior player when at a tournament a representative of the South African Tennis Union remarked that the round shape of her face resembled that of an English policeman.[3] In 1925 she won the Natal singles championship at the age of 15[a].[2]
Heine made her first trip to Europe in 1927.[3] In May she won the Surrey Championships at Surbiton after a win in the final against Irene Bowder Peacock and together they won the doubles title.[4] She again teamed up with compatriot Bowder Peacock to win the doubles title at the 1927 French Championships, her first and only Grand Slam tournament title, defeating the British partnership of Peggy Saunders and Phoebe Holcroft Watson in two straight sets. At the same championships she achieved her best singles performance at a Grand Slam event by reaching the semifinals which she lost in three sets to eventual winner Kea Bouman. At the 1927 Wimbledon Championships she was defeated in the third round of the singles event in three sets by Phoebe Holcroft.[5] In the doubles event she and Bowder Peacock reached the final but lost to the American couple Helen Wills and Elizabeth Ryan in straight sets.[6]
In 1929, on her second European trip, Heine won the singles titles at the Irish Open, defeating compatriot Billie Tapscott in three sets. In addition she won the British Hard Court Championships, after a victory in a closely fought three-sets final against Joan Ridley that lasted two hours.[7][8] At the 1929 French Championships she was seeded second in the singles event and was beaten in the quarterfinal by Cilly Aussem in three sets. She and Alida Neave were runner-ups in the doubles, losing the final to Kea Bouman and Lilí Álvarez in straight sets. At Wimbledon that year she reached the singles quarterfinal which she lost to world No. 1 and eventual champion Helen Wills in two sets.[5] She missed the 1930 Wimbledon Championships due to a scheduling disagreement with the South African Lawn Tennis Union.[9][10]
In the summer of 1938 she toured Europe for the third and final time, captaining the South African women team. In June she lost the final of the Weybridge tournament in straight sets to Alice Marble.[11] She won the singles and doubles titles at the Dutch Championships in July, defeating Nancye Wynne in the singles final in two sets.[12][13] Heine did not participate in the French Championships and lost in fourth round of the singles at Wimbledon, again to Wills, in a closely fought two-set match.[5] In the doubles event she teamed up with countrywoman Margaret Morphew to reach the semifinal where eventual champions Sarah Fabyan and Alice Marble were victorious in two sets.[5]
Heine (Miller) won the South African Championships singles title on five occasions (1928, 1931, 1932, 1936 and 1937). Additionally she won six doubles titles (1930, 1931, 1937, 1938, 1939 and 1947) and five mixed doubles titles (1930, 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939).[2]
A final scheduled visit to Wimbledon in 1947 ended prematurely when her plane crashed in Egypt. All passengers survived and Heine Miller sustained only minor leg injuries but her tennis gear was largely lost.[3][14]
Personal life
On 6 April 1931 she married farmer Harry Miller (and took the surname Heine Miller) in Pietermaritzburg and the couple had a son and a daughter.[15][3] Her husband died at the end of World War II in northern Africa during a routine operation to have his tonsils removed.[3] In 1978 she emigrated to Australia, where her children were living, and celebrated her 100th birthday in Canberra in 2009.[14][16]
Grand Slam finals
Doubles (1 title, 2 runners-up)
Outcome | Year | Championship | Partner | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | 1927 | French Championships | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
6–2, 6–1 |
Runner-up | 1927 | Wimbledon | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
3–6, 2–6 |
Runner-up | 1929 | French Championships | ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
5–7, 3–6 |
Notes
- ^ She won the singles title at the Natal championship again in 1928, 1930 and 1931
References
- ^ Collins, Bud (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis (2nd ed.). [New York]: New Chapter Press. p. 721. ISBN 9780942257700.
- ^ a b c Russell Eldridge, ed. (1977). Tennis : The South African Story. Owen Williams. pp. 17, 20, 30–33, 107, 111. OCLC 86066820.
- ^ a b c d e Alkira Reinfrank (14 March 2016). "Bobbie Heine Miller: A tale of a 1920s tennis star". www.abc.net.au. ABC.
- ^ "South African Players' Win". Aberdeen Journal. 23 May 1927. p. 10 – via British Newspaper Archive.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|subscription=
ignored (|url-access=
suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d "Wimbledon player profile – Bobbie Heine Miller (Heine)". AELTC.
- ^ Collins, Bud (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis (2nd ed.). [New York]: New Chapter Press. pp. 401, 438. ISBN 9780942257700.
- ^ Brady, Maurice (1958). The Encyclopedia of Lawn Tennis (1 ed.). London: Robert Hale Ltd. p. 67. ISBN 9780498074684. OCLC 26127.
- ^ "English Tennis". The Argus. Melbourne, Vic. 15 June 1929. p. 10 – via Trove.
- ^ "Tennis "Stir"". Hull Daily Mail. 13 March 1930. p. 12 – via British Newspaper Archive.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|subscription=
ignored (|url-access=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Wimbledon tennis – Miss Heine not to be a competitor". Lancashire Evening Post. 19 March 1930. p. 9 – via British Newspaper Archive.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|subscription=
ignored (|url-access=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Alice Marble wint". Algemeen Handelsblad (in Dutch). 5 June 1938 – via Delpher.
- ^ "Tennis – Intern. Kampioenschappen van Nederland" (PDF). Nieuwsblad van Friesland. 11 July 1938. p. 6 – via Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
- ^ "Tennis". Nieuwsblad van Friesland (in Dutch). 11 July 1938 – via Delpher.
- ^ a b Fitzsimons, Peter (5 December 2009). "Tennis legend cracks a century". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ^ "Bobbie Heine Gehuwd". De Telegraaf. 7 April 1931.
- ^ "10 Centenarians – Bobbie Heine Miller". abc.net.au. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
- Use dmy dates from August 2013
- 1909 births
- Living people
- South African centenarians
- South African female tennis players
- Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles
- South African emigrants to Australia
- Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents
- South African people of Afrikaner descent
- South African people of German descent