Malcolm Whitman

Malcolm "Mal" Douglass Whitman (March 15, 1877 – December 28, 1932) was an American tennis player who won three singles titles at the U.S. National Championships.

Biography

He graduated from The Roxbury Latin School, where he is celebrated as one of its greatest athletes. Whitman was American intercollegiate singles tennis champion in 1896¹ and doubles champion in 1897 and 1898² as a student at Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1899 and received his bachelor in law degree in 1902.³

In 1896, Whitman entered his first U.S. National Championships at the Newport Casino and lost in the quarterfinals to Bill Larned. In 1897, he lost in the quarterfinals, this time against Harold Nisbet.⁴ Whitman is best known for this hat-trick of singles titles at the U.S. National Championships. Between 1898 and 1900, he stayed undefeated there. In 1901, he did not compete and in the 1902 Championships, and he lost in the All-Comers final to Englishman Reginald Doherty. According to the Doherty brothers, Malcolm Whitman and Bill Larned were at the time the best American singles players.

He played on the inaugural American Davis Cup squad in 1900 and beat Englishman Arthur Gore in Boston, Massachusetts to help his US team win the trophy.⁵ In the 1902 Davis Cup final against Great Britain in Brooklyn, he contributed to his team's win by defeating and Reginald Doherty in the singles.