Malcolm "Mal" Douglass Whitman (March 15, 1877 – December 28, 1932) was an American

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player who won three singles titles at the U.S. National Championships.

Biography

He graduated from

The Roxbury Latin School The Roxbury Latin School is a private boys' day school that was founded in 1645 in the town of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts) by the Rev. John Eliot under a charter received from King Charles I of England. It bills ...

, where he is celebrated as one of its greatest athletes. Whitman was American intercollegiate singles tennis champion in 1896 and doubles champion in 1897 and 1898 as a student at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1899 and received his bachelor in law degree in 1902. In 1896, Whitman entered his first U.S. National Championships at the

Newport Casino The Newport Casino is an athletic complex and recreation center located at 180-200 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island in the Bellevue Avenue/Casino Historic District. Built in 1879–1881 by '' New York Herald'' publisher James Gordo ...

and lost in the quarterfinals to Bill Larned. In 1897, he lost in the quarterfinals, this time against

Harold Nisbet Harold Adair Nisbet (22 June 1873 – 12 March 1937) was a British lawn tennis player who was active at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. During his career he reached four doubles finals at the Wimbledon Championship ...

. Whitman is best known for this hat-trick of singles titles at the U.S. National Championships. Between 1898 and 1900, he stayed undefeated there. In 1901, he did not compete and in the 1902 Championships, and he lost in the All-Comers final to Englishman

Reginald Doherty Reginald "Reggie" or "R. F." Frank Doherty (14 October 1872 – 29 December 1910) was a British tennis player and the older brother of tennis player Laurence Doherty. He was known in the tennis world as "R.F." rather than "Reggie".

. According to the Doherty brothers, Malcolm Whitman and Bill Larned were at the time the best American singles players. He played on the inaugural American Davis Cup squad in 1900 and beat Englishman Arthur Gore in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts to help his US team win the trophy. In the 1902 Davis Cup final against Great Britain in Brooklyn, he contributed to his team's win by defeating

Joshua Pim Dr Joshua Pim FRCSI (20 May 1869 – 15 April 1942) was a medical doctor and Irish amateur tennis player. He won the Wimbledon men's singles title two years in a row, in 1893 and 1894, and was ranked British number one in both those years. H ...

and Reginald Doherty in the singles. Whitman retired from tennis in 1902 at the age of 25. He was a member of the executive committee of the U.S. National Lawn Tennis Association and held management positions in several companies. In 1932, he wrote a book on the origin of tennis titled ''Tennis - Origins and Mysteries''.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 titles

Playing style

In their book ''R.F. and H.L. Doherty - On Lawn Tennis (1903)'' multiple Wimbledon champions Reginald and Lawrence Doherty described Whitman's playing style:

Personal life

Whitman married his first wife, Janet McCook in 1907. She died in December 1909 after the birth of their second child. In July 1912, Whitman married Jennie Adeline Crocker but they divorced in 1924. In 1926, Whitman married Lucilla Mara de Vescovi, known as the Countess Mara. In December 1931, his daughter Mary, 16, from his second marriage, died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. On December 28, 1932, Whitman committed suicide by jumping off an apartment building in New York after a nervous breakdown.

Bibliography

* Malcolm Douglass Whitman: ''Tennis Origins and Mysteries. With an historical bibliography by Robert W. Henderson''. Derrydale Press, New York NY 1932, (). * Malcolm D. Whitman: "Fly Fishing Up to Date. Privately printed by The Plimpton Press, Norwood, Mass 1924 * Malcolm D. Whitman, writing under the pseudonym Icarus de Plume: "The Island of Elcadar" Marshall Jones Co., Boston 1921

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitman, Malcolm 1877 births 1932 suicides 1932 deaths 19th-century American sportsmen 19th-century male tennis players American male tennis players Harvard Crimson men's tennis players People from Roxbury, Boston International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Tennis people from Massachusetts Tennis people from New York (state) Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles Suicides by jumping in New York City Roxbury Latin School alumni Harvard Law School alumni 20th-century American sportsmen