James Dwight

James Dwight

Dwight (before 1903)
Country (sports)	United States
Born	July 14, 1852 Paris, France
Died	July 13, 1917 (aged 64) Mattapoisett, MA, USA
Turned pro	1876 (amateur tour)
Retired	1913
Plays	Right-handed (1-handed backhand)
Int. Tennis HoF	1955 (member page)
Singles
Highest ranking	No. 9 (1885, Karoly Mazak)[1]
Grand Slam Singles results
Wimbledon	SF (1885)
US Open	F (1883)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
US Open	W (1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, 1887)

James Dwight (July 14, 1852, France – July 13, 1917^[2]) was an American tennis player.

Biography

Sometimes called the "Founding Father of American Tennis", James Dwight won the first recorded tournament in the U.S. (and probably in the world, before the first Wimbledon Championships) played in August 1876 on the property of his uncle, William Appleton, at Nahant, MA. After graduating from Harvard in 1874, he traveled in Europe, saw the new sport of lawn tennis being played, and brought the necessary equipment home. Then he persuaded his uncle to mark out a court on his smooth front lawn so he could play a game with his cousin, Fred Sears.

That first attempt was disappointing. Dwight later wrote, ". . . we voted the whole thing a fraud and put it away." About a month later, they tried again, as a way of passing time on a rainy day. This time, tennis seemed much more interesting, even though they were wearing rubber boots and raincoats. The 1876 tournament was a neighborhood affair : "it was played on handicap on a round robin basis. There were two players on scratch, James Dwight and Fred D Sears Jr., each of whom played against 11 other players until a final between them. Rackets scoring was used ... Dwight beat Sears 12–15 15–7 15–13.^[3] By then, Dwight and Sears had taught the game to a number of people, including another cousin, Richard Dudley "Dick" Sears, who went on to win the first seven national singles championships.

Dwight was one of the founders of the U. S. National Lawn Tennis Association in 1881, and he served as its president for twenty-one years. He never won the singles championship, but he reached the tournament final in 1883 losing to Richard Sears, with whom he did team to take five national doubles titles, from 1882 through 1884 and from 1886 through 1887. In a very rare transatlantic trip in those days, James Dwight entered the 1884 and 1885 Wimbledon tournaments, reaching the semi final in 1885.

Grand Slam doubles finals

Titles (5)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponents	Score
1882	U.S. Championships	Richard Sears	Crawford Nightingale G M Smith	6–2, 6–4, 6–4
1883	U.S. Championships	Richard Sears	Alexander Van Rensselaer Arthur Newbold	6–0, 6–2, 6–2
1884	U.S. Championships	Richard Sears	Alexander Van Rensselaer W.V.R. Berry	6–4, 6–1, 8–10, 6–4
1886	U.S. Championships	Richard Sears	Howard Taylor Godfrey Brinley	6–3, 6–0, 6–2
1887	U.S. Championships	Richard Sears	Howard Taylor Henry Slocum	6–4, 3–6, 2–6, 6–3, 6–3

See also

• Mary Ewing Outerbridge
• History of tennis

Notes

1. Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Concise History of Tennis, p. 13.
2. Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Volume 20, 1917 (retrieved 13 April 2015).
3. The Guinness book of Tennis Facts & Feats, 1983 edition, page 11, by Lance Tingay

External links

• James Dwight at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Works by James Dwight at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about James Dwight at Internet Archive