Between the wars
United States · born Newport News, Virginia, 1905 · died 1999 · right-handed · Wimbledon doubles champion three years running, 1929 to 1931
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3
Wimbledon doubles titles in a row, 1929 to 1931
2
US doubles titles with Wilmer Allison, 1931 and 1935
22-2
Davis Cup doubles record, 1929 to 1936
14-2
Davis Cup doubles record with Allison
No. 8
World singles ranking in 1929
John William Van Ryn was born in Newport News, Virginia, on 30 June 1905 and grew up in South Orange, New Jersey, where he learned the game at the Berkeley Tennis Club. He went to Princeton, and in 1927 won the US intercollegiate doubles title. In the singles that year he lost to Wilmer Allison of the University of Texas, who soon became his partner.
In 1928 he won two grass court singles titles, the Seabright Invitational, beating Allison in the final, and the Pennsylvania championships at Merion, beating Frank Shields. With Allison he won the Wimbledon doubles in 1929 and 1930; with George Lott he won it again in 1931, and with Lott took the French title that year too. Allison and Van Ryn then won the 1931 US doubles, so Van Ryn held the British, French and American titles in the same season. The pair won the US title again in 1935 and lost five other major finals together, including the 1935 Wimbledon final.
He was ranked No. 8 in the world in 1929 and reached the singles quarter-finals at the US Championships five times, but his serve was never a major weapon and he did not go beyond a major quarter-final. He served in the US Navy in the Second World War, reaching the rank of lieutenant commander, and later ran the Palm Beach office of Merrill Lynch. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963 and died in Palm Beach on 7 August 1999, aged 94.
| Wimbledon finals | 1929 with Wilmer Allison: beat Colin Gregory and Ian Collins 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 10-12, 6-4. 1930 with Allison: beat John Doeg and George Lott 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. 1931 with Lott: beat Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet 6-2, 10-8, 9-11, 3-6, 6-3 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 1935 | Lost the final with Allison to Jack Crawford and Adrian Quist 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. The Australians were one match point down at 4-5 in the fifth set |
| Singles on grass | 1928: won the Seabright Invitational at Rumson, New Jersey, beating Allison, who retired at 10-10 in the fifth set, and the Pennsylvania championships at Merion Cricket Club, beating Frank Shields in straight sets. Quarter-finalist at Wimbledon in 1931 |
| US Championships doubles | Champion with Allison in 1931 and 1935, and runner-up with him four other times |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1929 | Men's doubles | with Wilmer Allison |
| 1930 | Men's doubles | with Wilmer Allison |
| 1931 | Men's doubles | with George Lott |
| US Championships | ||
| 1931 | Men's doubles | with Wilmer Allison |
| 1935 | Men's doubles | with Wilmer Allison |
| Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion) | ||
| 1928 | Men's singles | |
| Seabright Invitational | ||
| 1928 | Men'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
"When I played, there was no money in the game like Sampras and the boys make today. We didn't have any money. But, at times, tennis was as good as being rich."
The person behind the player.
New Jersey, 1922 to 1923
At East Orange High School he and Fred Appell made the tennis team one of the best in the state. They won the interscholastic doubles championship at Princeton in 1922 and again in 1923, when Van Ryn also took the singles. Both then went to Princeton, and in 1927 they won the intercollegiate doubles together.
Source: NJSports.comIntercollegiates, 1927
His bid for the 1927 intercollegiate singles title was ended by Wilmer Allison, a scrappy player from the University of Texas. Within two years the two had won Wimbledon together, and they went on to be inseparable as Davis Cup partners.
Source: NJSports.comParis, 1932
In the 1932 Davis Cup final at Roland Garros, Allison led Jean Borotra 5-3 in the fifth set of the reverse singles and had match points. On a later one, Van Ryn said 65 years later, Borotra's second serve was "way long. Clearly. Maybe a foot." The umpire called deuce, the service linesman said nothing, Borotra won and France kept the Cup. "The French stole the Cup from us. In broad daylight," Van Ryn said.
Source: Sports Illustrated, 1997Palm Beach
After his playing days Charles Merrill, a founder of Merrill Lynch, asked him to open a new office in Palm Beach, Florida. He managed it and stayed in Palm Beach for the rest of his life, as a member of the Bath and Tennis and Everglades clubs. In 1946 he married Cornelia Drake; the couple later endowed assistant coaching posts for Princeton's men's and women's tennis teams.
Source: Princeton Alumni Weekly; Sports Illustrated; NJSports.comPalm Beach, 1997
At 92 he was the oldest living former Davis Cup player. Sports Illustrated reported that his only rival was a backboard at The Everglades Club, against which he hit balls for 45 minutes a day, and that he had taken up painting in 1990.
Source: Sports Illustrated, 1997Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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