Tennis Career
Ms. Varner's earliest racket sport triumphs came in tennis with victories in National Junior Girls Doubles (1944 and 1945) and in numerous Texas state and regional events. She eventually played the circuit of national and international tournaments which, in this amateur-only era, were generally held in the six-month span alternating with that of most badminton and squash tournaments. Though she never reached the relative heights in tennis that she did in badminton and squash, she was a strong enough player to reach the final of Wimbledon Women's Doubles in 1958, losing to Hall-of-Famers Althea Gibson and Maria Bueno. Her Wimbledon partner that year was the redoubtable Margaret Osborne duPont with whom she formed a close lifetime friendship. In 1961 and 1962 the duPont-Varner partnership won doubles matches for U.S. Wightman Cup teams that defeated Great Britain.
Read more about this topic: Margaret Varner Bloss
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