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On this day in Latinx history: Tennis champion Maria Bueno is born
Brazilian won her first Grand Slam doubles title with Althea Gibson
Maria Bueno rose to international stardom when she became the first woman to win all four Grand Slam doubles championships — Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open — in a calendar year.
Born Oct. 11, 1939, the Brazilian teamed with Darlene Hard for three of her Grand Slam doubles titles in 1960 and with Christine Truman for the other.
Bueno was on the precipice of stardom in 1959 when her tennis exploits earned her Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year honors; tennis legend Althea Gibson won the award in 1957 and 1958. Bueno’s first Grand Slam title came when she and Gibson paired to win the Wimbledon women’s doubles championship in 1958. Bueno then followed Gibson as world No. 1 and, similar to Gibson, made history when she won Wimbledon and the U.S. National Championships in the same year (1959), becoming the first non-North American woman to win both.
From 1958-60 and 1962-68, Bueno was a top 10 player, and in 1959, 1960 and 1964, she was the top-ranked women’s tennis player.
The 1978 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee won 62 titles as an amateur. She won the 1974 Japan Open — her lone championship as a pro, as it came after the Open era was established in 1968 — and played her last doubles event at Wimbledon in 1980.