Bill Tilden

Bill Tilden

Full name	William Tatem Tilden II
Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1893-02-10)February 10, 1893 Philadelphia, PA, USA
Died	Los Angeles, CA, USA
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1931 (amateur tour from 1912)
Retired	1946
Plays	Right-handed (1-handed backhand)
Int. Tennis HoF	1959 (member page)
Singles
Career record	907-62 (93.6%)
Career titles	138
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1920, A. Wallis Myers)
Grand Slam Singles results
French Open	F (1927, 1930)
Wimbledon	W (1920, 1921, 1930)
US Open	W (1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929)
Other tournaments
WHCC	W (1921)
Professional majors
US Pro	W (1931, 1935)
Wembley Pro	F (1935, 1937, 1938)
French Pro	W (1933, 1934)
Doubles
Career record	{{#property:P555}}
Grand Slam Doubles results
Wimbledon	W (1927)
US Open	W (1918, 1922, 1923)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
US Open	W (1913, 1914, 1922, 1923)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926)

William Tatem Tilden II (February 10, 1893 – June 5, 1953), nicknamed "Big Bill," was an American male tennis player. He is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Tilden was the World No. 1 player for six years from 1920 through 1925. He won 14 Major singles titles including ten Grand Slams, one World Hard Court Championships and three Pro Slams. He also won a record seven US Championships titles (shared with Richard Sears and Bill Larned).

Tilden dominated the world of international tennis in the first half of the 1920s, and during his 18-year amateur period of 1912–30, won 138 of 192 tournaments. He owns a number of all-time tennis achievements including a career match winning record and a career winning percentage at the US National Championships. At the 1929 US National Championships Tilden became the first player to reach 10 finals at a single Grand Slam event. This mark stood until 2015, when Roger Federer reached his tenth Wimbledon final. Tilden, who was frequently at odds with the rigid United States Lawn Tennis Association about his amateur status and income derived from newspaper articles, won his last Major title in 1930 at Wimbledon aged 37. He turned professional on the last day of that year and toured with a handful of other professionals for the next 15 years.

Personal life

Tilden was born into a wealthy Philadelphia family bereaved by the death of three older siblings. His father was William Tatem Tilden, a wool merchant and local politician, and his mother, Selina Hey, was a pianist. He lost his semi-invalid mother when he was 18 and, even though his father was still alive and maintained a large house staffed with servants, was sent a few houses away to live with a maiden aunt. The loss at 22 of his father and older brother Herbert marked him deeply. After several months of deep depression, and with encouragement from his aunt, tennis, which he had taken up starting at age five, became his primary means of recovery. According to his biographer, Frank Deford, because of his early family losses Tilden spent all of his adult life attempting to create a father-son relationship with a long succession of ball boys and youthful tennis protégés, of whom Vinnie Richards was the most noted. In spite of his worldwide travels, Tilden lived at his aunt's house until 1941 when he was 48 years old.

Tilden attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from Peirce College.

Early and amateur tennis career

Suzanne Lenglen (1899–1938) and Bill Tilden (1893–1953)

Tilden went to the prep school Germantown Academy where he wasn't known for his tennis nor was he eventually good enough to play on his college team. The shy, self-absorbed, sometimes arrogant young man dropped out of the University of Pennsylvania and in 1910 began to practice his game against a backboard, and he also became a dedicated student of the game. The following year he won his first tournaments; the junior singles and doubles title of Germantown. He later enrolled at the Peirce School of Business (now Peirce College). In just three years, he worked his way up the ranks. His first national title was winning the mixed doubles championships with Mary Browne in 1913 and they successfully defended the title in 1914.

From 1914 to 1917, Tilden won the Philadelphia championship. Prior to 1920, he had won a number of Canadian doubles titles, but at the U.S. National Championships in 1918 and 1919 he lost the singles final to Robert Lindley Murray and "Little Bill" Johnston, respectively in straight sets. He won six consecutive U.S. singles championships from 1920–1925 and seven in total, making him the co-record holder with Richard Sears and Bill Larned. In the winter of 1919–20, he moved to Rhode Island where, on an indoor court, he devoted himself to remodeling his relatively ineffective backhand into a much more effective one. With this change, he became the world no. 1 tennis player and the first male American to win the Wimbledon singles championship. In the mid 1920s Tilden came into conflict with the USLTA regarding alleged violations of the amateur rule, specifically relating to the monetary compensation he received for writing tennis articles.

Professional tennis career

In the late 1920s, the great French players known as the "Four Musketeers" finally wrested the Davis Cup away from Tilden and the United States, as well as his domination of the singles titles at Wimbledon and Forest Hills. Tilden had long been at odds with the rigid amateur directors of the United States Lawn Tennis Association about his income derived from newspaper articles about tennis. He won his last major championship at Wimbledon in 1930 at the age of 37, but was no longer able to win titles at will.

On 31 December 1930, in need of money, he turned professional and joined the fledgling pro tour, which had begun only in 1927. For the next 15 years, he and a handful of other professionals such as Hans Nüsslein and Karel Koželuh barnstormed across the United States and Europe in a series of one-night stands, with Tilden still the player that people primarily paid to see. Even with greats such as Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, and Don Budge as his opponents, all of them current or recent world no. 1 players, it was often Tilden who ensured the box-office receipts—and who could still hold his own against the much younger players for a first set or even an occasional match.

Tilden thought he reached the apogee of his whole career in 1934 at 41 years old; nevertheless, that year he was dominated in the pro ranks by Ellsworth Vines. American Lawn Tennis reported that Vines had an edge of 11-9 in the first phase of their tour from January 10 through February 16 and that Vines led Tilden by 19 matches after the second phase of their tour, played from March 21 through May 17. Tilden had won 17 times for the entire year, per an Associated Press report, so a probable win-loss record at tour's end was 36-17 in Vines' favor. Both players then met at least 6 times during the rest of the year (Ray Bowers has listed 5 tournament matches and 1 one-night program), all lost by Tilden.

In 1945, the 52-year-old Tilden and his long-time doubles partner Vinnie Richards won the professional doubles championship—they had won the United States amateur title 27 years earlier in 1918.

Davis Cup coach

Tilden coached Germany's tennis team in the 1937 Davis Cup. In the inter-zone finals, the U.S. team won after the deciding singles clash between Gottfried von Cramm and Don Budge, a match which has been called "The Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played".

Place in sports history

Bill Tilden in 1919

Allison Danzig, the main tennis writer for The New York Times from 1923 through 1968, and the editor of The Fireside Book of Tennis, called Tilden the greatest tennis player he had ever seen. "He could run like a deer," Danzig once told CBS Sports. An extended Danzig encomium to Tilden's tennis appears in the July 11, 1946 issue of The Times, in which he reports on a 1920s-evoking performance in the first two sets of a five-set loss by the 53-year-old Tilden to Wayne Sabin, at the 1946 Professional Championship at Forest Hills.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Tilden in his list of the six greatest players of all time. Kramer began playing tennis with Tilden at age 15 at the Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC).

Tilden, who was one of the most famous athletes in the world for many years, today is not widely remembered, despite his former renown. During his lifetime, however, he was a flamboyant character who was never out of the public eye, acting in both movies and plays, as well as playing tennis. He also had two arrests for sexual misbehavior with teenage boys in the late 1940s; these led to incarcerations in the Los Angeles area. He was shunned in public and his photos removed from the walls of his home club, the Germantown Cricket Club. In 1950, in spite of his legal record and public disgrace, an Associated Press poll named Tilden the greatest tennis player of the half-century by a wider margin than that given to any athlete in any other sport (310 out of 391 votes).

Bill Tilden at the 1921 World Hard Court Championships in Paris.

In the United States' sports-mad decade of the Roaring Twenties, Tilden was one of the six dominant figures of the "Golden Age of Sport", along with Babe Ruth, Howie Morenz, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, and Jack Dempsey.

Sexuality and morals charges

Tilden was arrested in November 1946 on Sunset Boulevard by the Beverly Hills police and charged with a misdemeanor ("contributing to the delinquency of a minor") for soliciting an under-age male, a 14-year-old boy with whom he was having sex in a moving vehicle. Tilden did not carry his glasses with him and signed a confession without reading it. He was sentenced to a year in prison, but served 7½ months. His five-year parole conditions were so strict they virtually erased all his income from private lessons. He was arrested again in January 1949, after picking up a 16-year-old hitchhiker who remained anonymous until years later, when he filed a lawsuit claiming he had suffered severe mental, physical, and emotional damage from the encounter. The judge sentenced Tilden to a year on probation violation and let the punishment for the charge run concurrently. Tilden served ten months. In both cases, apparently, he sincerely believed that his celebrity and his longtime friendship with Hollywood names such as Charlie Chaplin were enough to keep him from jail. He therefore defended himself in court in both cases in a far less than vigorous fashion. After his incarceration, he was increasingly shunned by the tennis and Hollywood world. He was unable to give lessons at most clubs, and even on public courts he had fewer clients. At one point, he was invited to play at a prestigious professional tournament being held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel; at the last moment, he was told that he could not participate. Chaplin allowed Tilden to use his private court for lessons to help him after the run of legal and financial problems.

According to contemporary George Lott, a player and later tennis coach at DePaul University, and authoritative biographer Frank Deford, Tilden never made advances to players, whether other adults or his pupils. Art Anderson of Burbank, who took lessons from Tilden from the age of eleven and remained a lifelong loyal friend, reported that Tilden never made advances toward him. “Bill had all the rumors floating around about his sexuality,” Jack Kramer said. Questions remain if Tilden's prosecution was based on the rumors, many published, and homophobic stereotypes. California did not repeal its sodomy law until 1976. Because he lived in an era when homosexual sex was illegal and was not tolerated socially, some suspect that Tilden was a victim of the homophobic society of the era. More shocking than Tilden's being caught was the revelation that "sports and homosexuality were not mutually exclusive".

Death

Although Tilden had been born to wealth, and earned large sums of money during his long career, particularly in his early years on the pro tour, he spent it lavishly, keeping a suite at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Much of his income went towards financing Broadway shows that he wrote, produced, and starred in. The last part of his life was spent quietly and away from his family, occasionally participating in celebrity tennis matches. He died in his apartment at 2025 North Argyle in Los Angeles, California. He was preparing to leave for the United States Professional Championship tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1953 when he died from heart complications at age 60. Tilden is buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Tilden was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1959.

Career statistics

Main article: Bill Tilden career statistics

According to Bud Collins, as an amateur (1912–1930), Tilden won 138 of 192 tournaments, lost 28 finals and had a 907–62 match record, a 93.6% winning percentage. Bill Tilden joined professional tennis in 1931, making him then ineligible to compete in Grand Slams tournaments. He owns a number of all-time tennis achievements including a career match winning record of 93.6%. His career winning percentage at the US National Championships was 90.7% that ranks him first ahead of Roger Federer, Fred Perry and Pete Sampras, and also a 42 match win streak from 1920 to 1926 is ahead of Roger Federer and Ivan Lendl. His 95 match winning streak from 1924 to 1925 is ahead of Don Budge and Roy Emerson, and also his best win-loss single season coming in 1920 at 98.73%, 78/1, places him ahead of John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. He and Roger Federer are the only players to reach 10 finals at a single Grand Slam event. At the Wimbledon Championships, he recorded a career 91.2% match record ranking him 3rd all-time behind Björn Borg and Don Budge.

																	Titles / Played	Career Win-Loss	Career win %
Grand Slam tournaments	Amateur career																10 / 23	114–13	89.76
	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921	1922	1923	1924	1925	1926	1927	1928	1929	1930
Australian	A	Not Held			A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 0	0–0	N/A
French	Not Held					Only for French players					A	A	F	A	SF	F	0 / 3	14–3	82.35
Wimbledon	Not Held				A	W	W	A	A	A	A	A	SF	SF	SF	W	3 / 6	31–3	91.18
U.S.	A	1R	3R	F	F	W	W	W	W	W	W	QF	F	A	W	SF	7 / 14	69–7	90.79
Pro Slam tournaments	Professional career																4 / 19	36–17	67.92
	1931	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946
French Pro	A	A	W	W	SF	A	SF	F	SF	Not Held							2 / 6	10–4	71.43
Wembley Pro	Not Held			3rd	F	A	F	F	3rd	Not Held							0 / 4	8–7	53.33
U.S. Pro	W	SF	A	A	W	A	A	A	SF	SF	QF	A	QF	N.H.	SF	1R	2 / 9	18–7	72.00
Total:																	14 / 42	150–30	83.33

Records

All-time records

Tournament	Since	Record accomplished	Players matched
Grand Slam	1877	90.90% 100–10 Major grass court winning percentage overall	Stands alone
Grand Slam	1877	Reached 10 finals at a single event	Roger Federer
Grand Slam	1877	51 consecutive match wins (1920–26)	Stands alone
US Open	1881	7 titles overall	Richard Sears William Larned
US Open	1881	10 finals overall	Stands alone
US Open	1881	90.79% 69–7 match win percentage overall	Stands alone
US Open	1881	42 match win streak 1920–26	Stands alone
US Open	1881	16 combined singles, doubles, mixed doubles titles overall (1913–29)	Stands alone
All	1881	93.60% 907–62 career match win percentage overall	Stands alone
All	1877	95 career match win streak (1924–25)	Stands alone
All	1877	98.73% 78–1 single season match win streak 1925	Stands alone
All	1877	Most appearances in a final of the Davis Cup: 11 with a record of 21–7 in singles (1920–30)	Stands alone

See also

• List of male tennis players
• Tennis male players statistics
• Tennis records of All Time - Men's Singles

Sources

• Deford, Frank (1976). Big Bill Tilden: The Triumphs and the Tragedy. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-22254-6
• Joyce Milton, Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin[1] – Da Capo Press, 1998.
• Marshall Jon Fisher, A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played[2] – Random House, Inc., 2010.
• Robert Hofler, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson[3] – Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006.
• Sam Kashner, Jennifer Macnair, The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties[4] – W. W. Norton & Company, 2003
• Jack Kramer, The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis, (1979)
• Caroline Seebohm, Little Pancho, (2009)
• Pancho Gonzales, Man with a Racket, (1959)
• Bobby Riggs, Tennis is my Racket, (1949)
• Gardnar Mulloy, As It Was, (2009)

Further reading

• Fisher, Marshall Jon (2009). A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. ISBN 978-0-307-39394-4

External links

• Bill Tilden at the Davis Cup
• Bill Tilden at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Works by Bill Tilden at Project Gutenberg
• ESPN article about Tilden
• Bill Tilden at Find a Grave