Gussie Moran, who as a ranked American tennis player in 1949 caused an international stir and gained worldwide fame for competing at Wimbledon while wearing a short skirt and lace-trimmed underwear, died on Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 89.

She had recently been hospitalized with cancer, Jack Neworth, a tennis writer and friend, said.

Moran’s daring outfit worn in a bastion of English propriety won her more renown than her tennis playing, though she was ranked as high as No. 4 in the United States, won the United States women’s indoor championship in 1949 and reached the quarterfinals that year at Wimbledon.

By the end of her life she had come to know hardship — bouncing from job to job, living in near squalor, telling of abortions and rape. At her death she lived in a small apartment. But for a time, more than half a century ago, she was a household name around the world. A racehorse, an airplane and a sauce were named after her.

Moran, who was 25 at the time, arrived in London for Wimbledon in June 1949 with a new outfit in mind, having already reached out to the British designer Teddy Tinling to create one.