1893-1953
Tennis Giant

Accomplishments.

William "Big Bill" Tilden dominated men's tennis in the 1920s. Through his dramatic play he attracted public attention to a sport that had often been regarded as unmanly, snobbish, and boring. He won the U.S. Championship for six consecutive years from 1920 through 1925 and again, at the age of thirty-six, in 1929. On 3 July 1920 he became the first American to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon, a title that he successfully defended the following year and recaptured in 1930, when he was thirty-seven. He was a member of the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1920 to 1930, leading the team to seven championships until a strong French team emerged in 1927 and beat the Americans in the finals for four years straight. In Davis Cup play he lost only one doubles match and five of the twenty-two singles matches he played, all of...