The early years
United States · born New York, 1877 · died 1932 · right-handed · US champion three years running, 1898 to 1900, and a member of the first Davis Cup team
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3
US singles titles in a row, 1898 to 1900, without losing a match there
3-0
Davis Cup singles record, in the winning US teams of 1900 and 1902
6 ft 2 in
Height, unusual for the era, and his reach at the net
1900
Ranked world No. 1
25
His age when he retired from tennis in 1902
Malcolm Douglass Whitman was born in New York in 1877 and learned the game at the Roxbury Latin School near Boston and at Harvard, where he won the intercollegiate singles in 1896 and the doubles in 1897 and 1898. He lost in the quarter-finals of the US Championships in 1896, to Bill Larned, and in 1897.
In 1898, with the holder Robert Wrenn away at the Spanish American War, he beat Dwight Davis in the all-comers final and took the title. He defended it in 1899 against J. Parmly Paret and in 1900 against Larned, and did not lose a match at Newport in those three years. He played in the first Davis Cup, at Longwood in 1900, beating Arthur Gore, and in 1902 beat Joshua Pim and Reginald Doherty as the United States won again. That year he also reached the all-comers final at Newport, losing to Reginald Doherty.
He then gave up competitive tennis at 25 for business and the law, taking his law degree at Harvard, and served on the executive committee of the US National Lawn Tennis Association. He wrote on fly fishing, published a novel under a pen name and in 1932 brought out Tennis: Origins and Mysteries, a study of the history of the game. He took his own life in New York in December 1932, aged 55. He entered the Hall of Fame with its first class in 1955.
| US Championships finals | 1898: beat Dwight Davis 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in the all-comers final, with no challenge round. 1899: beat J. Parmly Paret 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. 1900: beat Bill Larned 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2. 1902: lost the all-comers final to Reginald Doherty |
|---|---|
| Davis Cup 1900 | Longwood Cricket Club, Boston, 8 to 10 August, the first tie ever played: beat Arthur Gore 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 as the United States won 3-0. His match against Ernest Black was not played |
| Davis Cup 1902 | Crescent Athletic Club, Brooklyn: beat Joshua Pim 6-1, 6-1, 1-6, 6-0 and Reginald Doherty 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 as the United States won 3-2 |
| Longwood Bowl | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1898 | Men's singles | |
| 1899 | Men's singles | |
| 1900 | Men's singles | |
| US Championships | ||
| 1898 | Men's singles | |
| 1899 | Men's singles | |
| 1900 | Men's singles | |
| Southampton (Meadow Club) | ||
| 1899 | Men's singles Southampton Invitational | |
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
"Whitman is very safe everywhere, and has not a weak point."
The person behind the player.
Harvard, 1896 to 1900
The first American Davis Cup team was a Harvard affair: Whitman played singles and his Harvard team-mates Dwight Davis, who had given the trophy, and Holcombe Ward played the doubles. They beat the British Isles 3-0 at Longwood in August 1900.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame1903
The Doherty brothers wrote that he had been beaten only once in five years, that he hit the ball low and passed well, and that he had the supreme merit of rarely missing easy strokes. They added that on the ground he played a soft game that carried more pace than it seemed to.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame1902
His playing career was short. After the 1902 season, in which he won both his Davis Cup singles, he retired to concentrate on business and finish his law degree at Harvard.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame1921 to 1932
He wrote three books: a novel, The Island of Elcadar (1921), published under the pen name Icarus de Plume; Fly Fishing Up to Date (1924), printed privately; and Tennis: Origins and Mysteries (1932), with a historical bibliography by Robert W. Henderson.
Source: WikipediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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