Evelyn Sears

Playing career

Evelyn Georgianna Sears was born in March 1875 into the Boston Sears family, which also produced the first US men's champion, Richard Sears, and her cousin Eleonora Sears. She grew up practising almost daily with her cousins on one of the earliest tennis courts in the country, built by her uncle and neighbour Robert Treat Paine.

Her best years came in her thirties. She won the Longwood Bowl at Brookline in 1905 and the Pennsylvania championships at Merion in 1906. In 1907, at 32, she won the All-Comers final of the US Championships at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, beating Carrie Neely 6-3, 6-2, and took the title when the holder, Helen Homans, did not defend. She lost the 1908 Challenge Round to Maud Barger-Wallach in three sets but won the US doubles with Margaret Curtis.

She stopped playing the US Championships after 1908 but kept winning in New England. She took a second Longwood Bowl in 1907 and a third in 1916, at 41, beating the reigning US champion Molla Bjurstedt. She reached her last Longwood final in 1917. She died in Waltham in 1966, aged 91.

On grass

Every grass title: 6

Show every title, tournament by tournament

Longwood Bowl
1905	Women's singles†
1907	Women's singles†
1916	Women's singles‡
US Championships
1907	Women's singles
1908	Women's doubles	with Margaret Curtis
Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion)
1906	Women's singles†

Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions