Unusually, she practiced against men to hone her craft, and she played a relentless predominantly baseline game, wearing down her female opponents with power and accuracy.

[4] After her father enlisted in the military in December 1917 and was posted in France with the American Expeditionary Forces her mother enrolled her at Bishop Hopkins Hall in Burlington, Vermont.

[7][4] Her father's family grew wheat and kept a ranch near Antioch,[8] and she occasionally practiced her tennis game nearby at the Byron Hot Springs resort.

[9] Wills attended the University of California, Berkeley, as both her parents had done, on an academic scholarship, and graduated in 1925 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

[12][13] Wills' interest in tennis was kindled after watching exhibition matches by famous Californian players including May Sutton, Bill Johnston and her particular favorite, Maurice McLoughlin.

[25] Wills won her first Grand Slam title in the doubles event, partnering Zinderstein Jessup, after a three-sets victory in the final against Mallory and Edith Sigourney.

The mixed doubles event was played at the Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline where she partnered Vinnie Richards to win the final against Mallory and Tilden.

[57][58] On January 6 Wills departed New York en route to Le Havre, France with the aim to compete in the clay court Riviera tournaments and play against Suzanne Lenglen.

[60] On February 16, 1926, the 20-year-old Wills met 26-year-old Suzanne Lenglen, six-time Wimbledon champion, in the final of a tournament at the Carlton Club in Cannes in the Match of the Century.

[66] Apart from those two losses, beginning with the 1923 U.S. Championships, Wills lost only five matches in three years: once to Lenglen, twice to Kathleen McKane Godfree, and twice to Elizabeth Ryan.

Upon return to the United States she defended her title at the Essex Country Club Invitational against Edith Cross and won at East Hampton against Helen Jacobs.

[80] In the doubles event she teamed up with Edith Cross and lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champions Lilí de Álvarez and Kea Bouman.

[86] Later that month she won her sixth U.S. National Championships singles title after a victory in the final against second-seeded foreign player Phoebe Holcroft Watson.

[87] Her first tournament of the year was the Hotel Huntington Invitation in Pasadena in March where she defeated friend and frequent doubles partner Edith Cross in the final.

Partnering Elizabeth Ryan the doubles title was added to her list of trophies after a win in the final against the French pairing Simone Barbier and Simonne Mathieu.

[88][89] The eighth edition of the Wightman Cup, held at the All England Club in June, was won by the British team despite two victories in the singles by Wills.

[88] At the Wimbledon Championships first-seeded Wills reached the final after wins against seventh-seeded Phyllis Mudford in the quarterfinal and fifth-seeded Simonne Mathieu in the semifinal.

[100] The United States won the cup and Wills contributed with singles victories over Bennett Whittingstall and Dorothy Round but lost the doubles match with Sarah Palfrey.

[107] Her streak of winning U.S. Championships seven times in seven attempts ended when she defaulted to Helen Jacobs during the 1933 final due to a back injury, trailing 0–3 with a double break in the third set.

She won the St. George's Hill Cub tournament against Elsie Pittmann but was defeated in straight sets in the semifinal of the Kent Championships by Kay Stammers.

[117] In May she entered the North London Hard Court Tournament, her first singles competition in three years, and won the event by defeating Yvonne Law in the final.

On June 10 and 11 she won her singles matches against Margaret Scriven and Kay Stammers, contributing to the eighth consecutive cup win for the United States.

[124] Jack Kramer,[125] Harry Hopman, Mercer Beasley, Don Budge, and AP News called Wills the greatest female player in history.

[135] Wills served and volleyed with unusually powerful forehand and backhand strokes, and she forced her opponents out of position by placing deep shots left and right.

[139] Kitty McKane Godfree, who in 1924 inflicted the only defeat Wills suffered at Wimbledon during her career, said, "Helen was a very private person, and she didn't really make friends very much.

[143] In The Ladies Home Journal of April 1927 she commented on her choice: "As to tennis headgear, I have a particular dislike, although an altogether unreasonable one, for the narrow satin ribbons that some players tie about their heads.

"[144] In 1929 American Lawn Tennis magazine reported that Wills played with a Wright & Ditson Challenge Cup wooden racket weighing 13 1/4 oz (372 g) with a 5-inch (127 mm) handle.

Patigian completed a marble bust of Wills in 1927 called Helen of California,[154] and Phelan donated it to the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum.

[155] Wills met painter Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera at the San Francisco studio of her friend sculptor Ralph Stackpole in 1930.

Subsequently, Rivera darkened the hair, broadened the eyes, changed the corners of the mouth and angled the jawline to remove any specific resemblance to Wills.