Background
Lena Rice was born the second youngest of the eight children of Spring Rice and Anna Gorde in 1866. When her father died in 1868, her mother struggled to manage the household.
Lena Rice was born the second youngest of the eight children of Spring Rice and Anna Gorde in 1866. When her father died in 1868, her mother struggled to manage the household.
Her family lived in a two-storied Georgian building at Marlhill, half a mile from New Inn, County Tipperary. Rice"s first tournament outside County Tipperary were the Irish Championships at Dublin in May 1889. There she lost 5–7, 5–7 to Blanche Bingley Hillyard in the semifinals.
Later that year, Rice played at the Wimbledon Championships.
She reached the final where she met Hillyard once again. The next year, only four players participated at the singles event at Wimbledon.
After her 1890 Wimbledon title, there is no record of Rice ever again playing tennis at a tournament. As her mother died in 1891, it seems likely that family ill health prevented her from continuing her tennis career.
Rice, who never married, died of tuberculosis on her 41st birthday in 1907.
She is to date the only female player from Ireland to ever win a singles title at Wimbledon. In doubles competition, she reached the final partnering Hillyard, and in mixed doubles she won the title along with Willoughby Hamilton. She won the first set 6–4 and had three match points at 5–3, 40–15 and advantage in the second, but Hillyard managed to come back and eventually won 4–6, 8–6, 6–4.
