Helen Wills Moody

FLASHBACK: Vanity Fair, 1932

"Little Miss Poker Face" was her nickname, and caricaturist Covarrubias certainly caught it when he painted Helen Wills Moody forVanity Fair'scover fiftythree years ago lunging crosscourt with "her sizzling forehand drives."V.F. dubbed her "the undisputed queen of American tennis" and listed some of her crowning achievements: eighteen Wightman Cups, eight Wimbledons, seven U.S. Women's Singles, four French championships, and a partridge in a pear tree. By 1938 she'd accumulated nineteen Grand Slam events—still unmatched by the slightly less ladylike combatants at this month's U.S. Open (Martina has eleven, Chrissie seventeen). Between matches Miss Wills—now Mrs. Roark— drew herself forVanity Fair:sporting heroines in their tennis whites.