By 1919, St. Louis' first national champion was a woman, not a man. 

Corinne Gould Chamberlain was 19 years old and weighed 78 pounds when she won the National Clay Court women's title in Chicago, giving St. Louis its first individual national championship. She had already won Missouri State, City, and Muny titles at 16 and 17. She was ranked No. 7 in the country in 1918, No. 9 in 1919. 

Two weeks after her win, the Post-Dispatch sent a reporter to her home in Kirkwood. This is what she told him: "The most important thing is reading your opponent's character, finding out their peculiarities of temperament. Miss Carrie Neely, whom I defeated in the singles final, takes off her glasses and polishes them most deliberately. It is annoying to some people. And then she contests every point until you feel like giving it to her to end matters. I found that the main thing I had to do was not to let her rattle me." 

Before moonballs and grunting and strategic timeouts, Corinne Gould had it figured out. 

She retired from competition at 21. She married, as women did, and stepped away. No St. Louis woman would appear in the national top 10 again until Carol Hanks Aucamp in 1960. 

(1991)