| Full name | Leela Reghavendra Row |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |  British India |
| Born | 19 December 1911 Bombay, India |
| Height | 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m) [1] |
| Plays | Right-handed |
| Singles | |
| Career record | {{#property:P564}} |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| French Open | 2R (1935) |
| Wimbledon | 2R (1934) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | {{#property:P555}} |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| French Open | 1R (1931, 1932) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| French Open | 1R (1932) |
Leela Row Dayal (19 December 1911 – unknown) was a female tennis player and author from India. She was the first female Indian tennis player to win a match at the Wimbledon Championships. She wrote several books on Indian classical dance in both English and Sanskrit.
Career[edit | edit source]
Tennis[edit | edit source]
At the 1934 Wimbledon Championships she became the first Indian female player to win a match, defeating Gladys Southwell in the first round of the singles event. In the second round she was defeated by Ida Adamoff in three sets.[2][3][4] The next year, 1935, she returned but lost in the first round in straight sets to Evelyn Dearman.[2]
She entered the singles competition of the French Championships five times (1931–32, 1934–36) but did not manage to win a match. Her second round result in 1935 was due to a bye in the first round.
Row won seven singles titles at the All India Championships (1931, 1936–38, 1940–41, 1943) and was runner-up on three occasions (1932–33, 1942). In 1931 she won the singles title at the West of India Championships and she was a finalist there in 1933.[5]
The straight backhand drive was her favorite shot.[5]
Author[edit | edit source]
Row was the author of several books on ancient and modern classical Indian dance.[6][7] These books were bilingual, written in English and Sanskrit.[6] In 1958 she published "Natya Chandrika", a handwritten bilingual treatise on the Indian classical dance form Natya.[6][8] She also helped to translate many poems made by her mother and converted them into Sankskrit plays.[9]
Personal life[edit | edit source]
Row was the daughter of Raghavendra Row and Pandita Kshama Row, a Sanskrit poet.[9] She was educated in India, England and France.[5] In 1943 she married Harishwar Dayal, an Indian civil servant who later became the Indian Ambassador to the United States and Nepal.[6] He died in May 1964 while on a trip to the Khumbu area of Mount Everest.[10][9]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "Tennis results in England". Daily News. 12 June 1934. p. 7 – via National Library of Australia.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Players archive – Leela Row". Wimbledon. AELTC.
- ↑ Soutik Biswas. "Indian women make history in Rio". BBC News.
In 1934, Leela Row, another Anglo-Indian, became the first Indian woman to win a match in Wimbledon.
- ↑ Sen, Ronojoy (2015). Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0231164900.
The honor of being the first Indian woman to win a match at Wimbledon went to Leela Row, another Anglo-Indian, who won in the first round in 1934.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lowe, Gordon (1935). Lowe's Lawn Tennis Annual. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. p. 232.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Indian dance forms explained". The Los Angeles Times. 27 October 1958. p. 35 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Ray Dhaliwal (21 February 1976). "Dancing builds stamina for mountain climbing". New Nation. p. 4 – via NewspapersSG.
- ↑ "'Natya Chandrika': a study by Leela Row Dayal in English and Sanskrit, with..." The National Archives.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Sidin Vadukut (30 June 2018). "The remarkable life of Leela Row Dayal". LiveMint.
- ↑ "Harishwar Dayal is dead". The New York Times. 21 May 1964.
Women's Tennis Association:  Top ten Indian female singles tennis players as of 16 March 2020 | |
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Women's Tennis Association: Top ten Indian female doubles tennis players as of 16 March 2020 | |
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