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| :{{dablink|This is about the American tennis player. For the Victorian bowler of the 1940s and 1950s, see ]}} | :{{dablink|This is about the American tennis player. For the Victorian bowler of the 1940s and 1950s, see ]}} | ||
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| '''William "Little Bill" Johnston''' (], ] |
'''William ("Little Bill") Johnston''' (born ], ] in ] – died ], ] in ]) was an American tennis champion. | ||
| Until ] began to defeat him regularly in ], Johnston had been the best American player for a number of years. He remained competitive with Tilden for the next seven or eight years, but was never again able to beat him in an important match. Together they won seven consecutive Davis Cup trophies, a record that still stands ] the early 2000s. | Until ] began to defeat him regularly in ], Johnston had been the best American player for a number of years. He remained competitive with Tilden for the next seven or eight years, but was never again able to beat him in an important match. Together they won seven consecutive Davis Cup trophies, a record that still stands ] the early 2000s. | ||
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Revision as of 12:48, 11 February 2006
- This is about the American tennis player. For the Victorian bowler of the 1940s and 1950s, see Bill Johnston (cricketer)
William ("Little Bill") Johnston (born November 2, 1894 in San Francisco, California – died May 1, 1946 in San Francisco, California) was an American tennis champion.
Until "Big Bill" Tilden began to defeat him regularly in 1920, Johnston had been the best American player for a number of years. He remained competitive with Tilden for the next seven or eight years, but was never again able to beat him in an important match. Together they won seven consecutive Davis Cup trophies, a record that still stands as of the early 2000s.
Johnston was a small, frail-appearing man who suffered ill health from his Navy service in World War I. He was renowned, however, for the power and deadliness of his forehand drive, which he hit shoulder-high with a Western grip, and which was universally considered the best forehand of all time until the advent of Pancho Segura and his two-handed forehand in the late 1940s. Johnston died of tuberculosis in 1946 at the age of 51.
Johnston was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1958.
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