A Review of Bruce Schoenfeld's The Match
Althea Gibson & Angela Buxton: Doubles Partners Breaking Barriers
Dec 19, 2008
The Match: Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton by Bruce Schoenfeld, published in 2004, is a chronicle of two outsiders who cracked open the glass ceiling in tennis erected by an affluent, white and Anglo-Saxon hierarchy. The book depicts how Gibson and Buxton found a common cause despite having backgrounds far removed from each other. Gibson hailed from a struggling African-American family in New York’s Harlem, while Buxton was from a wealthy Jewish family in England.
Althea Gibson: Tennis's First African-American Star
Schoenfeld describes the role Gibson’s talent played in breaking down race barriers. First, Gibson captured the attention of resourceful African-Americans, including boxer Ray Robinson, who supported her rise to the top. And then her ability on the court convinced white officials and the media that her skills could not be held hostage to discrimination. Gibson’s stirring second round display, as she went down fighting to Louise Brough, established her reputation at the 1950 US Open, after she became the first African-American to take part.
Gibson shook up the unwritten code of women’s tennis, with a self-absorbed, fiercely competitive streak. The existing hierarchy was surprised by an African-American player who believed that she was the best in the world and was not afraid to flaunt it. For Gibson, winning was everything, and breaking barriers was the means to the end. The civil rights movement was gaining ground in the same decade Gibson clinched two Wimbledons, two US Opens and one French Open. But she stayed aloof from political statements, unlike a Muhammad Ali.
Though Gibson may have been thin on words to further the civil rights cause, her deeds on the tennis court made her a pioneer, somebody generations could look up to. And pioneers who broke barriers in two different sports are hard to find, considering that Gibson also became the first African-American woman to enter professional golf. However, The Match goes beyond merely casting Gibson as a pioneering symbol. The book portrays Althea Gibson the sportsperson, her motivations and her belief that she was playing tennis for herself, and not for a larger cause.
Doubles Partners
Angela Buxton did not possess the natural talent and athleticism of Althea Gibson. But perseverance propelled her to the 1956 Wimbledon final, and doubles triumphs with Gibson at the French Open and Wimbledon the same year. Her family had the money, but her Jewish faith barred her from clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. Buxton found that she had to work twice as hard to be accepted by officialdom and the media.
The Match shows how the two “outsiders” found a common theme, and learned from each other en route to two grand slam doubles titles. The year after their on-court partnership, Gibson made the leap to number one – locking up the Wimbledon and US Open titles in 1957 and 1958.
Althea Gibson after 1958
But Gibson’s “outsider” status turned out to be her undoing after she turned professional. She found it difficult to market herself, and moved on to golf. She did break another barrier by entering professional golf, but winning did not come too easily there. And Gibson did not have a plan B beyond sport, unlike most of her peers. She was ahead of her time, a Wimbledon champion in an amateur era – ten years before Wimbledon was thrown open to professionals in 1968.
The Match tells us that the fiercely individualistic Gibson never cared about being accepted, a crucial factor which led to her becoming a legend that time forgot. But Althea’s old doubles partner Angela stepped in to rekindle public memory, raising funds for Althea in the twilight of her life. Althea also had the satisfaction of witnessing the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, dominate women’s tennis, before she died in 2003.
Women's tennis in the 1950s
Schoenfeld also gives a good picture of the personalities who dominated women’s tennis in the 1950s – Louise Brough, Doris Hart, Shirley Fry, Maureen Connolly, Angela Mortimer et al. It leaves us wondering, what if Maureen Connolly’s career had not ended prematurely after a riding accident in 1954? Who would have prevailed if Connolly was opposing Gibson at her best in 1957 and 1958?
Reference
The Match: Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton, Bruce Schoenfeld, 2004, Amistad.
