Bill Johnston

William Marquitz Johnston, called Little Bill, was an American tennis player born in San Francisco on 2 November 1894 who reached world number one. He learned the game on the public asphalt courts of Golden Gate Park and won the US Championships in 1915 and 1919, then took the World Hard Court Championships and Wimbledon in 1923. He was runner-up at the US Championships a record six times, mostly to his great rival Bill Tilden, and with Tilden he won seven consecutive Davis Cup trophies for the United States from 1920 to 1926. He was known for a deadly Western-grip forehand drive hit at shoulder height. He retired in 1927 after the Davis Cup loss to the French Four Musketeers, later worked in brokerage, died in 1946, and entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1958.