– I hope you write about it, because often old players and especially women are forgotten, Billie Jean King told NRK.

– We should talk more about Mallory, especially now with Ruud, said King.

The American tennis legend – now 78 years old – was in Paris and devoted half an hour to the press sharing his thoughts on the sport he loves.

With twelve Grand Slam titles in singles, 16 in doubles and eleven in mixed doubles, he is one of the best players in history. But she has also spent her career fighting for equality.

Now he says that most of his new biography is devoted to a Norwegian woman.

– I just wrote my biography. And he was a big part of that because I was drawn to history, says King, who feels it’s a shame they never met.

Limited knowledge

Very few have heard of Anna Margrethe Bjurstedt, which was Molla Mallory’s name when she was born in Mosvik, best known as the hometown of Petter Northug.

– I don’t know who he is, but I know who he is, Racquet Magazine journalist Ben Rothenberg told NRK.

He has written for, among others, The New York Times and The Guardian, and is one of the most recognized names in tennis journalism. To some of the seasoned press folks at Roland Garros, it sounded like bells when they heard the name. But here, too, knowledge of the women who had been celebrities in New York was limited.

– I don’t really know, Roland Garros finalist Ulrikke Eikeri told NRK, when asked about Mallory.

Mallory dominated in an era when tennis was still reserved for the few and the wealthy. Eight times he won the US Championship, the precursor to the US Open.

Won a Grand Slam title at the age of 42

Mallory had four wins on a Norwegian passport, four on an American one. The latter came after she married stockbroker Franklin Mallory in 1919.

– He was one of the first big American games, but I think we still think of him as Norwegian and that’s what the results show. He is very early. Suzanne Lenglen is the first superstar for both sexes. Bjurstedt before, says Rothenberg.

Along with Chris Evert, Mallory is the only player to win four consecutive championships. He did it for many years on a Norwegian passport, from 1915 to 1918.

His last title came when he was 42 years old – in 1926.

Norway’s first Olympic medal

Mallory was the first Norwegian woman to take part in the Olympics – and consequently became the first to win a medal when she won bronze in Stockholm in 1912.

The championship marked the start of a tennis career that had gained momentum in the years before and during the First World War. 30-year-old Bjurstedt moved to the United States in 1914. He changed his last name and nationality after he married.

– He behaves like a tough guy when he’s on the court and batting. He walks around in a way that suggests you’d better be careful or he’ll talk you down. She was a fighter, says Bob Kelleher, who was a ball boy when Mallory messed with the competition and later became president of the United States Tennis Association.

Star meeting in 1921

Mallory became a pioneer and changed the sport with her attitude. He is critical of those who don’t give their all on the pitch and is described as competitive.

– I don’t think girls hit the ball as hard as they should. I believe in always hitting the ball with full power, but it seems like a lot of people I’ve played against the attitude is “just get it done.” This isn’t tennis, Mallory said.

Billie Jean King believes that the first great star of modern tennis was Suzanne Lenglen, the woman who gave her name to the second largest facility at Roland Garros. He dominated in the 1920s.

The superstar won Wimbledon eight times and lost just one match after World War I.

Lenglen went to the United States to prove that he is the best tennis player in the world. As many as 8,000 people came to see the show in New York. But they had to go home disappointed. She broke the match in the second, having lost the first.

Opponent?

Molla Mallory.

He captured his sixth US Championship title that same year.

Hard to compare

Sports historian Matti Goksøyr thinks it is difficult to compare Mallory’s and Ruud’s achievements to one another.

– Sports have evolved and spread very rapidly, so they are not the same sport. It was mainly wealthy people from Europe and North America who were playing at that time, Goksøyr told NRK.

– Tennis is referred to as an elite sport. It wasn’t a folk sport at the time and may have struggled with that image for a while. Maybe one more thing together.

Goksøyr says that it’s rare for anything to steal the headlines in Norway, although there are columns here and there. He primarily believes there are two reasons why he’s kinda into a forgotten Norwegian book.

– First, it’s been a while. It’s been over 100 years. He went to the United States and married an American. Then he disappeared from the Norwegian public.

Anna Margrethe Bjurstedt Mallory was inducted into the tennis Hall of Fame in 1958. She died on 22 November 1959 in Stockholm, aged 75.