Johnston’s story is more than just his head-to-head with Tilden, but Little Bill spent most of his career playing second fiddle to the man who defined tennis for generations to come. Little Bill won three of their first five meetings before Big Bill turned the tables, and he probably would’ve built up a bigger lead had their paths crossed before 1919. He won five titles on the West Coast when he was 17, and he took over the US National title in 1915, a couple of months before his 21st birthday. Johnston didn’t take so long to become a star. Johnston was 21 months younger than Tilden, but Big Bill was a late bloomer. Tilden was dubbed Big Bill, and Johnston became Little Bill. The contrast–physical and otherwise–between Johnston and Tilden made nicknames irresistible, especially when the two men joined forces on the US Davis Cup squad. He had plenty of time after the 1906 earthquake left schools closed for months. Unlike the patrician Easterners who ruled the sport, Johnston came from working-class stock, and he learned his tennis on the public courts of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Five feet, eight inches tall, he was compact even for his time, and he spent much of his career literally in the shadow of Tilden, who stood five inches taller. Richards won 8 of 22 meetings with his one-time mentor. The third was Vinnie Richards, a Tilden protege nearly a decade his junior, who came into his own in the mid-1920s. ![]() The first two are René Lacoste and Henri Cochet, half of the French Davis Cup squad that ended the reign of the United States in 1927 and held on to the trophy for six years. Plays: Right-handed (one-handed backhand)īill Tilden played well over 1,000 singles matches as an amateur, and only four opponents managed beat him at least three times. ![]() ![]() In 2022, I’m counting down the 128 best players of the last century.
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