Bill Talbert

William Franklin Talbert was an American tennis player and administrator, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 4 September 1918. He was ranked in the United States top ten from 1941 to 1954, and John Olliff of The Daily Telegraph ranked him world number three in 1949. He won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and reached the final of the U.S. national doubles championship nine times, mainly with Gardnar Mulloy, and he lost the U.S. Championships singles finals of 1944 and 1945 to Frank Parker. A Type 1 diabetic, he was long held up as an example of how the disease could be managed at the top level of sport. He played Davis Cup, later captained the United States team, wrote The Game of Doubles in Tennis, and was in the first class of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1967. He died on 28 February 1999.