The early years
United States · born Highland Park, Illinois, 1873 · died 1925 · left-handed · four times US champion, the first left-hander to win the title
All playersBack to the rankings
4
US singles titles: 1893, 1894, 1896 and 1897
5
US singles finals in a row, 1893 to 1897
19
His age at his first US title, the fourth youngest men's champion
1st
Left-hander to win the US men's singles
1897
Ranked world No. 1
Robert Duffield Wrenn was born in Highland Park, Illinois, in 1873 and went to Harvard, where he won the intercollegiate doubles in 1891 and 1892 and was also a quarterback for the football team and a baseball and ice hockey player. In 1893, aged 19, he became the first left-hander to win the US singles title at Newport, beating Fred Hovey in the final.
He reached five finals in a row. He beat Manliffe Goodbody in 1894, lost to Hovey in 1895, beat Hovey again in five sets in 1896 and beat Wilberforce Eaves, also in five sets, in 1897. With Malcolm Chace he won the 1895 US doubles and was runner-up in 1896. He did not defend his title in 1898, because he was serving in Cuba with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, where he contracted yellow fever.
His last appearance of note came in the 1903 Davis Cup, when he and his brother George played for the United States against the British Isles at Longwood; Wrenn lost both singles and the doubles. He was vice-president of the US National Lawn Tennis Association from 1902 to 1911 and president from 1912 to 1915, and in middle age he served as a pilot in the First World War. He died in New York in November 1925. He was one of the first players inducted into the Hall of Fame, in 1955.
| US Championships finals | 1893: beat Fred Hovey 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. 1894: beat Manliffe Goodbody 6-8, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. 1895: lost to Hovey 3-6, 2-6, 4-6. 1896: beat Hovey 7-5, 3-6, 6-0, 1-6, 6-1. 1897: beat Wilberforce Eaves 4-6, 8-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 |
|---|---|
| US doubles | 1895 champion with Malcolm Chace, beating Clarence Hobart and Fred Hovey 7-5, 6-1, 8-6. 1896 runner-up with Chace, losing to Carr Neel and Sam Neel 3-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3, 1-6 |
| Holding off the visitors | Two of his four titles came against challengers from the British Isles, Goodbody in 1894 and Eaves in 1897, both on the grass at Newport |
| Davis Cup 1903 | Played on grass at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston; lost both singles, to Reginald and Laurence Doherty, and the doubles with his brother George against the Dohertys. Record 0-3 |
| US Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1893 | Men's singles | |
| 1894 | Men's singles | |
| 1895 | Men's doubles | with Malcolm Greene Chace |
| 1896 | Men's singles | |
| 1897 | Men's singles | |
| Longwood Bowl | ||
| 1896 | 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
"Bob Wrenn, a quarterback whose feats rivalled those of Dean's, and who, in addition, was the champion tennis player of America, and had, on two different years, saved this championship from going to an Englishman."
The person behind the player.
Harvard, 1891 to 1895
At Harvard he played baseball and was a quarterback for the football team as well as winning the intercollegiate doubles twice. Roosevelt later ranked his feats on the football field with those of Dudley Dean, whom he called perhaps the best Harvard quarterback ever.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame; Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough RidersNiagara Falls, 1892
In the autumn of 1892 Wrenn and his doubles partner Malcolm Chace played a tennis tournament at Niagara Falls, where Canadian players invited them to learn ice hockey, then different from the ice polo played at American colleges. Over the Christmas break of 1894 to 1895 the two took students from several colleges to Canada to play, and each went home to promote the game on his own campus. Wrenn later played for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club.
Source: WikipediaCuba, 1898
He joined the Rough Riders so late that no Krag carbine could be found for him, so Roosevelt gave him his own Winchester, which fired the government cartridge. Wrenn nearly died of fever in Cuba, and when he was mustered out he carried the rifle home in triumph, to the envy of men who had to hand theirs in.
Source: Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders (1899), Project GutenbergLongwood, 1903
In 1903 he and his brother George, a top-ten player in his own right, became the first brothers to play Davis Cup for the United States. They lost the doubles to another pair of brothers, Reginald and Laurence Doherty, and the British Isles won the tie 4-1.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame1912 to 1918
He was president of the US National Lawn Tennis Association from 1912 to 1915, and in the First World War he served as a pilot, by then in his forties.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
Join freePage updated 4 November 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.
