Bill Johnston (tennis player)

Vincent Richards, Bill Tilden and Bill Johnston at the 1922 Davis Cup

William "Little Bill" Johnston (November 2, 1894 in San Francisco, California – May 1, 1946 in San Francisco, California) was an American tennis champion. He was the co-World No. 1 player in 1919 and in 1922 respectively along with Gerald Patterson and Bill Tilden. He won the U.S. Championships in 1915 and 1919, and Wimbledon and the World Hard Court Championship (Clay) in 1923.

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 (for instance in 1922 Johnston defeated Tilden three times in four occasions but the latter beat Johnston in the final of the U.S. Championships in five sets). Together they won seven consecutive Davis Cup trophies, a record that still stands as of early 2008.

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,^{[citation needed]} which he hit shoulder-high with a Western grip, and which was universally considered the best forehand of all time^{[citation needed]} 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 1958.

External links

• International Tennis Hall of Fame

Persondata
Name	Johnston, Bill
Alternative names
Short description	Tennis player
Date of birth	November 2, 1894
Place of birth
Date of death	May 1, 1946
Place of death