The early years
United States · born Sea Bright, New Jersey, 1880 · died 1969 · right-handed · the first overseas winner of the Australasian singles
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1908
Australasian singles champion, the first from outside Australasia
10
US doubles finals, 1900 to 1918, a record
4
US doubles titles in a row with Harold Hackett, 1907 to 1910
7
Straight US doubles finals with Hackett, 1905 to 1911
No. 7
World ranking in 1909
Frederick Beasley Alexander was born in Sea Bright, New Jersey, in 1880 and learned the game on the grass of the Sea Bright Lawn Tennis and Cricket Club. At Princeton he won the intercollegiate doubles in 1900 with Raymond Little and the singles in 1901. He was a doubles player first: a reliable forehand, a twist serve and a flat one, and a strong game at the net.
With Harold Hackett he reached seven US doubles finals in a row from 1905 and won four of them, 1907 to 1910, at the Newport Casino. In late 1908 he sailed to Australia with the US Davis Cup team, lost the Challenge Round in Melbourne, then stayed for the Australasian Championships in Sydney and won the singles, coming from two sets down against Alfred Dunlop, and the doubles with Dunlop. He reached the All-Comers final of the US singles the same year.
He won a fifth US doubles title in 1917 with the 19-year-old Harold Throckmorton and played his tenth US doubles final in 1918, at 38. Away from the court he was a stockbroker who lost his money before the First World War, worked for Spalding and wrote a Spalding instruction book. He later settled in California, helped found the Beverly Hills Tennis Club and served as its professional. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1961 and died in 1969, aged 88.
| Australasian Championships 1908 | Played at Sydney Cricket Ground and the Double Bay Grounds, 7 to 12 December. Singles final: beat Alfred Dunlop 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3. Doubles final, with Dunlop: beat Granville Sharp and Anthony Wilding 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 |
|---|---|
| US doubles finals won | With Harold Hackett: 1907 beat Nat Thornton and Bryan Grant 6-2, 6-1, 6-1; 1908 beat Raymond Little and Beals Wright 6-1, 7-5, 6-2; 1909 beat George Janes and Maurice McLoughlin 6-4, 6-4, 6-0; 1910 beat Tom Bundy and Trowbridge Hendrick 6-1, 8-6, 6-3. With Harold Throckmorton, 1917: beat Harry Johnson and Irving Wright 11-9, 6-4, 6-4 |
| US doubles finals lost | 1900 with Raymond Little, to Dwight Davis and Holcombe Ward 4-6, 7-9, 10-12. 1905 and 1906 with Hackett, to Ward and Beals Wright. 1911 with Hackett, to Little and Gustave Touchard 5-7, 15-13, 2-6, 4-6. 1918 with Beals Wright, to Vincent Richards and Bill Tilden 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6 |
| US singles 1908 | Beat William Clothier on the way to the All-Comers final, then lost to Beals Wright |
| Davis Cup 1908 | Challenge Round in Melbourne against Australasia: lost his singles to Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding and the doubles with Beals Wright; the United States lost 3-2 |
| US Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1907 | Men's doubles | with Harold Hackett |
| 1908 | Men's doubles | with Harold Hackett |
| 1909 | Men's doubles | with Harold Hackett |
| 1910 | Men's doubles | with Harold Hackett |
| 1917 | Men's doubles | with Harold Throckmorton |
| Australian Championships | ||
| 1908 | Men's doubles Australasian Championships | with Alfred Dunlop |
| 1908 | Men's singles Australasian Championships | |
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
The person behind the player.
Sea Bright and Princeton, 1890s to 1902
He grew up in the beach town of Sea Bright, where his father was an insurance lawyer, and developed his game on the grass of the Sea Bright Lawn Tennis and Cricket Club. He starred at the Lawrenceville School, then led Princeton with Raymond Little to the 1900 intercollegiate team title before taking the college singles crown in 1901.
Source: New Jersey Sports HeroesSydney, December 1908
His family paid for the trip that took him to Australia. After the Davis Cup defeat in Melbourne he went on to Sydney, recovered from two sets down to beat Alfred Dunlop in the singles final, and then partnered the man he had just beaten to win the doubles.
Source: New Jersey Sports Heroes; International Tennis Hall of FameWall Street, before 1914
He worked as a stockbroker between tournaments and lost his fortune shortly before the First World War. One profile judged that he "turned out to have a better tennis mind than a business mind." He went to work for Spalding, and in 1915 the American Sports Publishing Company issued his instruction book How to Play Lawn Tennis.
Source: New Jersey Sports Heroes; Open Library1917 to 1918
During the war he ran tennis tours to raise money for the war effort, and in its final weeks he served briefly in an artillery unit in the United States.
Source: New Jersey Sports HeroesHollywood, late 1910s onward
In the late 1910s he worked as secretary to the film director Cecil B. DeMille. The contacts he made in business, tennis and the film world helped him found the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, where he was the professional and brought on West Coast players including Jack Tidball, the 1933 intercollegiate champion.
Source: New Jersey Sports HeroesFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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