The early years
United States · born Brooklyn, New York, 1871 · died 1953 · right-handed · US champion three years running from 1890, and the first American to build his game on the net
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3
US singles titles in a row, 1890 to 1892
3
US doubles titles: 1888, 1891 and 1892
19
His age at his first US title, a record until Pete Sampras in 1990
5
Straight years in the US top ten, 1888 to 1892, No. 1 from 1890
Oliver Samuel Campbell was born in Brooklyn on 25 February 1871 and studied at Columbia College, graduating in 1891. As a student he won the intercollegiate doubles in 1888 and 1889, with Valentine Hall and Alfred Wright, and in the autumn of 1888 he and Hall won the US doubles title on the grass of the Staten Island Cricket Club, beating Clarence Hobart and Edward MacMullen 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
In 1889 he reached the All-Comers final of the US singles at Newport and lost the doubles title to Henry Slocum and Howard Taylor. In 1890, aged 19, he won the All-Comers event and then beat Slocum in the Challenge Round 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. He defended the title against Hobart in five sets in 1891 and against Fred Hovey in 1892, and with Bob Huntington won the doubles in both years.
In 1892 he crossed to England, losing in the second round of the Wimbledon singles and reaching the doubles semi-finals with George Hillyard. He did not defend his US title in 1893, so it passed to Robert Wrenn without a Challenge Round; he and Huntington lost that year's doubles final. He ranked in the US top ten for five straight years and was No. 1 from 1890 to 1892. He died in Campbellton, New Brunswick, on 11 July 1953 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955, two years after his death.
| US Championships Challenge Rounds | 1890: beat Henry Slocum 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. 1891: beat Clarence Hobart 2-6, 7-5, 7-9, 6-1, 6-2. 1892: beat Fred Hovey 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. 1893: did not defend; the title went to Robert Wrenn |
|---|---|
| First five-set title match | The 1891 Challenge Round against Hobart is recorded by Bud Collins as the first US singles title match to go to five sets |
| US doubles finals | 1888 with Valentine Hall: beat Hobart and Edward MacMullen 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. 1889 with Hall: lost to Slocum and Howard Taylor 1-6, 3-6, 2-6. 1891 with Bob Huntington: beat Hall and Hobart 6-3, 6-4, 8-6. 1892 with Huntington: beat Valentine and Edward Hall 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. 1893 with Huntington: lost to Hobart and Hovey 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 2-6 |
| Wimbledon 1892 | Second round in the singles; semi-finals of the doubles with George Hillyard |
| Newport 1889 | Lost the All-Comers final, the year before his first title |
| US Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1888 | Men's doubles | with Valentine Gill Hall |
| 1890 | Men's singles | |
| 1891 | Men's doubles | with Bob Huntington |
| 1891 | Men's singles | |
| 1892 | Men's doubles | with Bob Huntington |
| 1892 | 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
"I ran to the net behind every service until the day I retired"
The person behind the player.
New York, 1889
The 1889 handbook Lawn Tennis in America was written by Valentine Hall, his doubles partner. Hall's sketch of Campbell begins: "Mr. Campbell is the youngest of all the prominent players, and for this reason his record of last summer is a wonderful one." Hall noted that he was then only in his junior year at Columbia, with several years left to add to his laurels.
Source: Valentine G. Hall, Lawn Tennis in America (1889), Library of Congress copyWestchester, 1888
At a four-man invitation event at the Country Club of Westchester County in 1888, Hall recorded that "the surprise of the tournament was the excellent playing of O. S. Campbell", who beat Howard Taylor and then Livingston Beeckman 6-8, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.
Source: Valentine G. Hall, Lawn Tennis in America (1889), Library of Congress copyChestnut Hill, 1888
Stamina was not yet his strength. At the Chestnut Hill tournament in 1888 he lost a close final to Edward MacMullen, who, Hall wrote, "won owing to Campbell's endurance powers weakening".
Source: Valentine G. Hall, Lawn Tennis in America (1889), Library of Congress copyNewport, 1891
His 1891 trophy, made by the Whiting Manufacturing Company, was donated by John G. Weaver Jr., proprietor of the Ocean House Hotel, which overlooked the Newport Casino courts. The International Tennis Hall of Fame acquired it in 2014.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameColumbia, 2010
More than a century after he graduated, he became the first tennis player inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame, in 2010. The university credits him as the first American to rush the net regularly.
Source: Columbia University AthleticsFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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