William A. Larned

Despite winning the 1892 Intercollegiate Singles Championship, William A. Larned was a bit of a late bloomer in tennis. In 1901, at age 28, he won his first of seven U.S. National singles championships — the last of them came at age 38. He also played on seven U.S. Davis Cup teams, helping the Americans win the title in 1902, Four times (1903, 1909, 1911, 1912), Larned served as a player/captain for the the U.S. squad. From 1892-1911, Larned was ranked among the top-10 U.S. players 19 times. While serving with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in Cuba in 1898, Larned developed rheumatism, which eventually led to his retirement from tennis in 1911. Inducted into the International Hall of Fame’s second-ever class, in 1956, Larned died in 1926.