Dorothea Katherine Douglass

Dorothea Lambert Chambers (née Dorothea Katherine Douglass) was an English female tennis player who won the singles title at the Wimbledon Championships seven times and additionally won a gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics. The greatest female player in the first decade of the twentieth century, Dorothea Lambert Chambers of Great Britain collected seven singles championships at Wimbledon and appeared in the final of that event no less than 11 times. She was a solid and resourceful player from the back of the court who combined touch and power without glaring weaknesses.

In 1900 Douglass made her singles debut at Wimbledon and, after a bye in the first round, lost her second round match to Louisa Martin. Three years later, she won her first of seven ladies singles titles.
In 1908 she won the gold medal in the women's singles event at the 1908 Summer Olympics after a straight-sets victory in the final against compatriot Dora Boothby.

She wrote Tennis for Ladies, which was published in 1910. The book contained photographs of tennis techniques and contained advice on attire and equipment.

In 1911 Lambert Chambers won the women's final at Wimbledon against Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0. The only other female player who won a Grand Slam singles final without losing a game was Steffi Graf when she defeated Natalia Zvereva in the 1988 French Open final.

In 1919 Lambert Chambers played the longest Wimbledon final up to that time: 44 games against Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen. Lambert Chambers held two match points at 6–5 in the third set but eventually lost to Lenglen 8–10, 6–4, 7–9.

Lambert Chambers only played sporadic singles after 1921 but continued to compete in doubles until 1927. She made the singles quarter-finals of the US Open in 1925 and, from 1924 to 1926, she captained Britain's Wightman Cup team. In the 1925 Wightman Cup edition she played, at the age of 46, a singles (against Eleanor Goss) and doubles match and won both. In 1928 she turned to professional coaching.

Lambert Chambers was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981.