Wimbledon winner's etched message at Dudley Council House
In a small corner of a council building lies an etching from a sporting icon.
In 1934 Dorothy Round, from Dudley, won the women’s singles title at the All England Club, Wimbledon.
It was a momentous occasion which was marked with a civic parade in Dudley.
During that parade she visited the town’s council house to meet with dignitaries from the Dudley area.
A remnant from that event still exists today.
On a small window pane overlooking a meeting room on the first floor, an etching from Tennis Hall of Famer Dorothy still exists.
Scratched into the glass are two tennis rackets, her initials DER – Dorothy Edith Round – and the year 1934.
Former Dudley mayor Dave Tyler said: “This story is local folklore that Dorothy etched her initials into the glass with her engagement ring.
“She was in Dudley for a civic reception after her Wimbledon win.”
Dorothy would win the women’s Wimbledon singles again in 1937, and the mixed doubles three times in 1934, 1935 and 1936 – the second two with the legendary Fred Perry.
Dorothy grew up around tennis. There was a hard tennis court at her Park Road home, in Dudley, laid down by her grandfather.
She competed in her first tournament at the age of 16, during a competition at Pwllheli, in Wales.
She won numerous tennis titles in the 1920s, including the junior Worcestershire championships and the Worcestershire County Lawn Tennis Tournament, on her way to the top of the game.
Dorothy first entered Wimbledon in 1928 and six years later won her first singles title alongside her first mixed doubles victory. Dorothy also lost the 1933 Wimbledon final and reached the doubles final of the US Open in 1931. In 2003, a sculpture of Dorothy was erected in Priory Park, Dudley, to commemorate her sporting heroics in tennis. She died aged 73 in Kidderminster in 1982.
