The Sports-India Community

Rita Davar made the Wimbledon girls singles final in 1952, losing a very close match 75 16 57.
Ramanathan Krishnan (who made the boys singles final the following year) remembered that she had at least a couple of match-points in that final set against the Netherlands' Fanny ten Bosch in the under-18 girls' final at Wimbledon that year.
She qualified into the women's singles main draw in 1953 (winning three rounds of qualifiers), and got a bye into the second round (as many women seemed to do at the time...).
Rita also played in the main draw (with a bye into R2) the following year (1954) but lost in straight sets in R2.
The following year, Rita lost in the first round of qualifying and never played at Wimbledon again. She apparently married a German and went to live in Germany thereafter.

Here is her Wimbledon file: http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/d ... de8_LS.pdf

In 1955, Rita Davar and Ramanathan Krishnan made R3 of the Mixed Doubles at Wimbledon, losing in that round to the second seeded pair 46 36.
They also played together in 1954, losing in the second round (after a bye in R1).
Rita played the MxD qualifiers in 1953, won one round but lost in the final qualifying round.
Here is here record: http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/d ... de8_MX.pdf

Rita Davar's final year at Wimbledon was actually 1956, when she lost in the first round of singles qualifying, and was in the main draw of doubles -- but she and her British partner conceded a walkover sadly. So a rather sparse career after a promising start as a junior in 1952.

A picture of her receiving a trophy in India: http://photodivision.gov.in/writereadda ... /36684.jpg

I wonder if she is still alive or dead. She must be about close to ~80 yrs old - such a pity that there seems to be absolutely no information about her since the late 1950s.

Her another photo is available on the tennis forum site.
http://img.over-blog-kiwi.com/0/55/46/6 ... -davar.jpg

In one of the interview Ramnathan Krishanmentioned that she married to a German.

Ramanathan Krishnan said about a dozen women players took part in the National championship then and about six in the South India championship. "To make up for the draw, the entries will be filled with dummy names like `Bat, ball, volley and smash.' The first girl to break the tradition was a Panjabi girl from Calcutta, Rita Davar. She reached the junior final at Wimbledon in 1952 and was on match point. I was a witness to that. Later she married a German and I have not heard about her since.''