Bobbie Heine Miller

Bobbie Heine Miller

Full name	Ester Laurie Heine Miller
Country (sports)	South Africa
Born	(1909-12-05) 5 December 1909 Greytown, Colony of Natal
Plays	Right-handed
Singles
Career record	{{#property:P564}}
Highest ranking	No.5 (1929)
Grand Slam Singles results
French Open	SF (1927)
Wimbledon	QF (1929)
Doubles
Career record	{{#property:P555}}
Grand Slam Doubles results
French Open	W (1927)
Wimbledon	F (1927)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
French Open	3R (1929)
Wimbledon	SF (1927, 1929)

Ester Laurie "Bobbie" Heine Miller (born 5 December 1909) is a retired South African tennis player. She was born in Greytown. She won the doubles title at the 1927 French Championships partnering Irene Bowder Peacock. In 1929 she was ranked No. 5 in the World. Her brother was South African cricketer Peter Heine.

Tennis career

Heine taught herself to play tennis by hitting the ball against the wall of her father's butcher shop in Winterton. She received the nickname 'Bobbie' as a junior player when at a tournament a representative of the South African Tennis Union remarked that the round shape of her face resembled that of an English policeman. In 1925 she won the Natal singles championship at the age of 15.

Heine made her first trip to Europe in 1927. In May she won the Surrey Championships at Surbiton after a win in the final against Irene Bowder Peacock and together they won the doubles title. She again teamed up with compatriot Bowder Peacock to win the doubles title at the 1927 French Championships, her first and only Grand Slam tournament title, defeating the British partnership of Peggy Saunders and Phoebe Holcroft Watson in two straight sets. At the same championships she achieved her best singles performance at a Grand Slam event by reaching the semifinals which she lost in three sets to eventual winner Kea Bouman. At the 1927 Wimbledon Championships she was defeated in the third round of the singles event in three sets by Phoebe Holcroft. In the doubles event she and Bowder Peacock reached the final but lost to the American couple Helen Wills and Elizabeth Ryan in straight sets.

In 1929, on her second European trip, Heine won the singles titles at the Irish Open, defeating compatriot Billie Tapscott in three sets. In addition she won the British Hard Court Championships, after a victory in a closely fought three-sets final against Joan Ridley that lasted two hours. At the 1929 French Championships she was seeded second in the singles event and was beaten in the quarterfinal by Cilly Aussem in three sets. She and Alida Neave were runner-ups in the doubles, losing the final to Kea Bouman and Lilí Álvarez in straight sets. At Wimbledon that year she reached the singles quarterfinal which she lost to world No. 1 and eventual champion Helen Wills in two sets. She missed the 1930 Wimbledon Championships due to a scheduling disagreement with the South African Lawn Tennis Union.

In the summer of 1938 she toured Europe for the third and final time, captaining the South African women team. In June she lost the final of the Weybridge tournament in straight sets to Alice Marble. She won the singles and doubles titles at the Dutch Championships in July, defeating Nancye Wynne in the singles final in two sets. Heine did not participate in the French Championships and lost in fourth round of the singles at Wimbledon, again to Wills, in a closely fought two-set match. In the doubles event she teamed up with countrywoman Margaret Morphew to reach the semifinal where eventual champions Sarah Fabyan and Alice Marble were victorious in two sets.

Heine (Miller) won the South African Championships singles title on five occasions (1928, 1931, 1932, 1936 and 1937). Additionally she won six doubles titles (1930, 1931, 1937, 1938, 1939 and 1947) and five mixed doubles titles (1930, 1936, 1937, 1938 and 1939).

A final scheduled visit to Wimbledon in 1947 ended prematurely when her plane crashed in Egypt. All passengers survived and Heine Miller sustained only minor leg injuries but her tennis gear was largely lost.

Personal life

On 6 April 1931 she married farmer Harry Miller (and took the surname Heine Miller) in Pietermaritzburg and the couple had a son and a daughter. Her husband died at the end of World War II in northern Africa during a routine operation to have his tonsils removed. In 1978 she emigrated to Australia, where her children were living, and celebrated her 100th birthday in Canberra in 2009.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1927	French Championships	Irene Bowder Peacock	Peggy Mitchell Phoebe Watson	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	1927	Wimbledon	Irene Bowder Peacock	Helen Wills Elizabeth Ryan	3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	1929	French Championships	Alida Neave	Lilí de Álvarez Kea Bouman	5–7, 3–6