Who is Irelands Most Successful Tennis Player of all time?
Irelands greatest ever tennis player came from County Kilkenny, named Mabel Cahill. Attention is on the Womens Wimbledon Singles final between Australias Ashleigh Barty and 13th ranked Karolna Plkov of Czech Republic, on Saturday at 15:00. Ireland had its own tennis star more than a century ago. Mabel Esmonde Cahill won the US Open Grand Slam Womens Singles 1891 and 1892, Grand Slam Ladies Doubles 1891 and 1892 and took the Mid Doubles Grand Slam title also in 1892. As Irelands only Grand Slam winner  with not 1 but 5 Grand Slam Titles, little is mentioned of Mabel Cahill in Ireland. In 1976, Mabel Cahill was added to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in New York  From Ballyragget House, Ballyragget, County Kilkenny, Mabel Cahill was born in 1863 to a large family of 13 children. She was the second youngest. She had 5 sisters and 7 brothers. Her well-to-do upper class family sent Mabel to secondary level school in Roscrea to a fee paying school, thought to be the Sacred Heart Convent Secondary School. It was unusual at the time for women to obtain secondary education. Mabel moved to Dublin after finishing school, in 1886, and it was there that she started playing lawn tennis, and her interest in the sport and in life grew. With little prospects in Ireland, she decided to emigrate to America  via Liverpool. She boarded The Arizona ship in 1889, which arrived in New York City, where she took up residency. Cahill won the Orange Club ladies championship in 1890 and 1891. Mabel became the first foreign woman to win a major tournament when she defeated Ellen Roosevelt in the 1891 US Championships women's final at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. She successfully defended her title the following year, defeating Elisabeth Moore in a hard fought, five-set final, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Both years saw Cahill win U.S. National Womens Doubles Championships. In 1891 she paired with Emma Leavitt-Morgan defeat final opponents Roosevelt sisters, Ellen and Grace, 2-6, 8-6, 6-4. . In 1892 she teamed with Adeline McKinlay and the pair downed Mrs. A.H. Harris and Amy R. Williams easily, 6-1, 6-3. Cahill paired with Clarence Hobart to win the mixed doubles title in 1892, over Moore and Rodmond Beach, 6-1, 6-3, to claim the 5th Grand Slam Title. So today we salute Mabel Cahill of Kilkenny, who was Irelands greatest ever Tennis player, in 1891 and 1892.