Massachusetts has given birth to some fantastic athletes over the years, like boxer Rocky Marciano who held the world heavyweight title between 1952 and 1956, or Patrick Ewing who has gone down as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, averaging 21 points a game and earning 11 all star appearances across his 15 year career. The list really does go on. But when it comes to Tennis players, how many great tennis players have come out of Massachusetts?
That’s what we’re going to be doing today, we’ll be taking a look at the top 5 highest ranked tennis players of all time who were born in the state of Massachusetts, starting with a list. We’ll break down when they were active, we’ll look into their overall rank in the history books and we’ll talk about their individual achievements and best tournament finishes. So, here is the list:
- Richard Sears – Rookie Year 1880 – Born: Boston – Ranked 121
- Beals Wright – Rookie Year 1880 – Born: Boston – Ranked 198
- Frederick Hovey – Rookie Year 1890 – Born: Newton Centre – Ranked 200
- Tim Mayotte – Rookie Year 1981 – Born: Springfield – Ranked 288
- Nathaniel Niles – Rookie Year 1914 – Born: Boston – Ranked 406
Richard Sears
Richard Sears, Born in 1861, Boston Massachusetts. Yet another International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, this time in 1955. He peaked at World number 5 which is kind of incredible but was US number 1 between 1885 and 1887. Sears won thirteen back to back titles at the US Championships. Between 1881-1887 he was the singles champion seven times, beating different people on every occasion, including Britains William E. Glyn in 1881 and then between 1882 and 1887 he won the US Championships doubles title 6 times. Outside of the US Championships, he also made a Semi Final appearance at Wimbledon in 1884. Sears had an incredible career and it is great to see him celebrated for it.
Beals Wright
Beals Wright, born 1979 in Boston Massachusetts is the next member of this list that was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, he was inducted in 1956. Unlike Hovey he never quite hit world number 1, peaking at number 2, however he definitely had the better career. Including 2 olympic gold medals at the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games, winning both the singles and doubles titles there. He went on to appear in 11 Grand Slam finals in his career, where he won 1 US National Championships singles title and 3 US National Championships double titles, which were won back to back to back. One of his finals losses however was in 1907 at Wimbledon, a win here would’ve likely put him in contention for that World Number 1 slot.
Frederick Hovey
Frederick Hovey, born Newton Centre in 1868 is the first member of this list that got an induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, he was inducted in 1974, likely due to his 6 Grand Slam final appearances where he would go on to win 1 singles title against Robert Wrenn in the 1895 US Championship and 2 doubles titles in 1893 and 1894, both times he had Clarence Hobart as his doubles partner. He also managed to obtain the lucrative World Number 1 rank. There seems to be no record anywhere of his overall record as a pro, but he no doubt had an incredible career in the sport and deservedly ended up in the Hall of Fame.
Tim Mayotte
Tim Mayotte born in Springfield Massachusetts ion 1960, represented Stanford University at the NCAA level and won the NCAA singles title in 1981. He didn’t win any grand slams with his best results being Semi Final appearances in the Australian Open in 1983 and Wimbledon in 1982, but he did win 12 singles titles and 1 doubles title in his career. A solid achievement however for Tim was the 1988 Seoul Olympics singles silver medal he won, very few people can say they’re an olympic medalist. His career best rank was 9th in 1987, but he steadily fell off after that.
Nathaniel Niles
Nathaniel Niles, born in Boston Massachusetts in 1886 went on to have quite the varied career. He finished his tennis singles career with a record of 316-130 amassing 19 career titles including a doubles win in the 1908 US Championship grand clam where his partner was Edith Rotch, however he also went on to win three single and 10 pairs titles in figure skating?! He studied at Harvard university and became an NCAA champion while attending the college and would go on to compete in 23 US National Championships in a row. In the year 2000, Nat was inducted into the New England Tennis Hall of Fame and it’s was a well deserved induction.
We’ve looked behind us, but it’s now time to look forward to some of the big upcoming tournaments in the sport, starting with a tournament that is currently ongoing! The ATP Dallas Open, last year’s winner was American Reilly Opelka who is currently world number 44. The round of 16 begins shortly with an all US tie between Lincoln Nebraska’s Jack Sock and Rancho Palos Verdes California and world number 8 Taylor Fritz. Understandably Taylor Fritz is a heavy favourite here at -800! This would see a return of $5.62 from $5, while Jack Sock is +500 returning $30 from a $5 stake.
Next up is the 2023 French Open, otherwise known as the Grand Slam, which will be starting at the end of May and running until June 11th. For this event, tennis fans in Massachusetts will be able to place bets since the state will be legalizing sports betting in early March this year. There will also be a number of betting promotions from some of the best MA sportsbooks specifically for this event. Odds for the French Open are already available, and they are as follows:
Starting with US representative Taylor Fritz who has been performing relatively well recently, the odds are at +8000, way down the list, which would return $405 from a $5 stake. Then, looking more towards the top 5 favourites on the list, coming in at number 5 is Casper Ruud who has sort of fallen off a little recently but is still world Number 4. Casper’s odds are at +1200, which returns $65 from $5. 4th place goes to Stefanos Tsitsipas, world number 3 who recently got beat by Djokovic in the Australian Open final is +650 returning $37.50. Third is Rafael Nadal, world number 6 hasn’t achieved a lot recently but is looking good for Paris, where he comes in as the reigning champion, he’s +250 returning $17.50. Second place goes to Carlos Alcaraz, world number 2 and still only 19! Good performances in Basel and ATP Paris put him in good stead for the Grand Slam, +175 on Carlos returns $13.75 from $5. Finally, the favourite is Djokovic, at +150 the current world number 1 and coming off the back of an Australian Open win he’ll be feeling confident, bettors can get a return of $12.50 from $5 on Novak!
So, tennis fans, what do you think of the list? This was taken from ainsworthsports.com where they have a list of the greatest tennis players of all time, and not only that but they also have the ability to break it down state by state if that’s something you’re into! For me there are a few standout achievements among the list, firstly Nathaniel Niles swapping between Figure Skating and Tennis where he won titles in both is incredible, then obviously the amount of back to back US Championships Richard Sears won is also outrageous.
It’s a shame that the best ranked tennis player born since 2000 was Bobby Reynolds who doesn’t even break the top 1000, he ranks in at 1683. It could potentially be a monetary problem however, given how most professional tennis players earn close to nothing, but then consider the amount of money that one would need to get into the game and travel to tournaments etc. Or it could simply be because people are more interested in other sports instead?
But there’s potential now for more eyes on the sport given the legalisation of sports gambling in the state of Massachusetts, which will hopefully get more eyes on the sport in the state. With a bit of luck this will cause the love for tennis to be reignited in Massachusetts and we could potentially see another great name appear like those in the list above!
