Eight-times Wimbledon champion Helen Wills Moody has died at a convalescent hospital in Carmel, California, at the age of 92. Known for hitting the ball harder than any woman, she ruled tennis in the 1920s and 1930s, and was one of the premier figures in America's golden sporting era.

Nicknamed "Little Miss Poker Face" and "Queen Helen," Moody won 31 major titles. Besides Wimbledon, she captured seven US crowns and four French championships.

Moody, whose trademark white eyeshade became an enduring tennis fad, learned the game without ever taking a lesson - picking it up from watching players at the Berkeley Tennis Club.

"Children are great imitators," she said in 1984. "I watched the seniors play and the visiting Australian champions."

One year after she started playing at age 14, she won the first of her two girls national titles. She was just 17 in 1923, when she won the US Women's Singles Championship - the youngest champion at the time.

She won an Olympic gold medal in Paris in 1924, the last time tennis was an Olympic sport until it returned at the 1988 Seoul Games.

She retired after winning the 1938 Wimbledon with an 18-2 record in singles matches at the Wightman Cup.