player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameBeals Coleman
LastnameWright
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1879-12-19
Place of birthBoston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Date of death1961-08-23
Place of deathAlton, Illinois, United States of America

About

Beals Wright was born on 19 December 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the third of the four children of George Wright (1847-1937), a native of Yonkers, New York, and Abigail Anna Wright (née Coleman; 1850-1913), who was from Boston. Beals Wright’s siblings were: Elizabeth Adelaide (1875-1965), Georgiana (1877-1958) and Irving Coleman (1882-1953). Irving Wright also became a lawn tennis player.

George Wright was an American shortstop in professional baseball. He played for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional team, when he was the game’s best player. He then joined the Boston Red Stockings, helping them win six league championships from 1871 to 1878. He also played cricket and curling, and helped make the sport of golf popular in the United States by importing golf equipment through the sports goods company Wright and Ditson, which he helped found. His son Beals would later work for the company.

Beals Wright won gold in both the men’s singles and, with Edgar Leonard, the men’s doubles events at the Olympic Games of 1904, which were held in Saint Louis, Missouri. No lawn tennis events were held for women that year. In the men’s singles event Wright beat his compatriot Robert LeRoy in the final, 6-3, 6-4. In the men’s doubles final, Wright and Leonard beat LeRoy and Alphonzo Bell, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

The following year, 1905, Wright achieved his greatest success on the lawn tennis court by winning the men’s singles title at the United States Championships. Wright had a walkover in the first round and then won six matches to reach the all-comers’ final, where he beat Clarence Hobart, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3. In the challenge round Wright beat the defending champion, Holcombe Ward, 6-2, 6-1, 11-9. Wright was also runner-up in the same event at the U.S. Championships in 1901, 1906 and 1908.

Wright reached the final match in the men’s doubles event at the U.S. Championships seven times, winning the title three times, always with Holcombe Ward. In 1904, they beat Kreigh Collin and Raymond Little in the final match, 1-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1; in 1905, they defeated Fred Alexander and Harold Hackett in the challenge round, 6-4, 6-4, 6-1; and in 1906, they beat Alexander and Hackett again in the challenge round, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Wright was selected to play for the United States in the Davis Cup competition four times, in 1905, 1907, 1908 and 1912. However, he never featured on a team that won the cup. In 1910, Wright became the first male American player to reach the all-comers’ final of the men’s singles event at Wimbledon. He won the first two sets of the all-comers’ final against Anthony Wilding, but lost the next three.

In 1907, Wright and his compatriot Karl Behr had reached the all-comers’ final of the men’s doubles event at Wimbledon, which that year was the champion match. They were beaten in straight sets by Norman Brookes and Anthony Wilding, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

In their Book “On Lawn Tennis”, first published in 1903, Lawrence and Reginald Doherty described Wright’s playing style as follows: “Beals Wright is certainly the best in America at low volleys, and [has] a very good overhead. His volleying is distinctly superior to his ground strokes, and his forehand is somewhat stronger than his backhand. He has a good service, which he follows up to the net.”

On 3 February 1917, in Cuyahoga County, Illinois, Beals Wright married Dorothy K. Mullins (1894-1931), a native of Wooster, also in Ohio. They had two daughters together: Dorothy and Elizabeth Adelaide. The marriage between Beals and Dorothy Wright ended in divorce. Beals Wright died on 23 August 1961 in Alton, Illinois, at the age of 82.

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