William Larned
Encyclopedia
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player.
Biography
He was raised in SummitSummit, New Jersey
Summit is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 21,457. Summit had the 16th-highest per capita income in the state as of the 2000 Census....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
on the estate of his father, William Zebedee Larned. Larned Road in Summit honors both father and son. William came from a family that could trace its American roots to shortly after the arrival of the Mayflower. He was the eldest child of a wealthy lawyer and his wife. In 1890 he came to Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
to study mechanical engineering. He first gained fame in his junior year, when he became the first (and to this day, the only) Cornellian to win the intercollegiate tennis championship.
An all-around athlete, Larned captained the St. Nicholas
St. Nicholas Rink
The St. Nicholas Rink, also called the St. Nicholas Arena, was an indoor ice rink, and later a boxing arena in New York, New York, from 1896 until 1962. The rink was the second ice rink utilizing mechanically frozen ice for its surface in North America, , enabling a longer season for skating sports...
ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
team in 1896-97 and was also a fine horseman, golfer, and rifle shot. He invented the steel-framed racquet in 1922 and founded a company to manufacture it.
As one of the "Big Three of the U.S. men's championship", Larned won the title seven times, as did Richard Sears before him and Bill Tilden after. He was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The hall of fame and honors players and contributors to the sport of tennis and includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indoor tennis facility, and a court tennis facility.-History:The hall of fame and...
in 1956.
Larned in 1898 had served in the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
as one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...
. While serving in the war, Larned caught rheumatism in Cuba; Rheumatoid arthritis later deteriorated his health forcing him to retire from tennis after winning the Davis Cup in 1911. Partially paralyzed by spinal meningitis, he was unable to do any of the activities he loved most, and became depressed. On the evening of December 15, 1926, inside the private chambers of the exclusive Knickerbocker Club in Manhattan, the 53-year-old man William Augustus Larned raised a .45 caliber pistol to his head, and committed suicide.
U.S. ChampionshipsU.S. Open (tennis)The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...
- Singles champion: 1901, 1902, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911
- Singles finalist: 1900, 1903
Wins (7)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1901 | U.S. Championships U.S. Open (tennis) The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881... |
 Beals WrightBeals Wright Beals Coleman Wright , was an American male tennis player.Beals was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Cincinnati Red Stockings great George Wright and nephew of Cincinnati Red Stockings team founder Harry Wright... |
6–2, 6–8, 6–4, 6–4 |
| 1902 | U.S. Championships (2) |  Reginald DohertyReginald Doherty Reginald "Reggie" or "R.F." Frank Doherty was a British male tennis player, and the older brother of Laurie Doherty... |
4–6, 6–2, 6–4, 8–6 |
| 1907 | U.S. Championships (3) | Robert LeRoy Robert LeRoy Robert LeRoy was a tennis player from New York in the United States, who won two medals at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis... |
6–2, 6–2, 6–4 |
| 1908 | U.S. Championships (4) | Beals Wright |
6–1, 6–2, 8–6 |
| 1909 | U.S. Championships (5) | William Clothier William Clothier This article is about the tennis player. For the cinematographer, see William H. Clothier.----William Jackson Clothier was a male tennis player from the United States.... |
6–1, 6–2, 5–7, 1–6, 6–1 |
| 1910 | U.S. Championships (6) | Thomas Bundy |
6–1, 5–7, 6–0, 6–8, 6–1 |
| 1911 | U.S. Championships (7) | Maurice McLoughlin Maurice McLoughlin Maurice Evans McLoughlin was an American tennis player. Known for his powerful serve and overhead volley, McLoughlin was the first male tennis champion from the western United States.-Biography:... |
6–4, 6–4, 6–2 |
Runner-ups (2)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1900 | U.S. Championships | Malcolm Whitman Malcolm Whitman Malcolm "Mal" Douglass Whitman was a male American tennis player.Whitman is best known for this hat trick at the U.S. Championships. Between 1898 and 1900, he stayed undefeated there... |
6–4, 1–6, 6–2, 6–2 |
| 1903 | U.S. Championships | Hugh Doherty |
6–0, 6–3, 10–8 |