William Tilden was not only a talented player. He combined a profound artistry for the game with the skills of a shakesperean actor where-in his "play" provided him with a means of expressing his innately creative nature and strong personality to the public.

William Tilden 2nd was born on the 10th February 1893 in Philadelphia. Whilst his family was not wanting for money, his own birth had followed that of three earlier children who had all died from diphtheria several years before. This family tragedy led to his mother becoming so protective as to prevent him even going to school until he had reached his teens and hence directly to college. Tilden, completed coveted by his mother, was educated at home in the hope that he would avoid all nature of disease, including those of a venerial nature that might be passed on by ladies of of a dubious background! This probably explains his homosexual tendancies which remained with him all his life and which ultimately caused serious problems with both the police and the justice system.

Bill won his first tennis tournament at the age of seven years old. His exceptional talent was not given the chance to develop in a normal and progressive way however since his mother insisted on keeping him at home as much as possible claiming all nature of imaginary lifethreatening dangers... he was eighteen years old when she herself finally died leaving him to move to Germantown to live with his aunt. He would continue to live there for the next thirty three years. Germantown, near to Philadelphia, just happened to be where the Challenge-Round was played out in the twenties...

In 1919, Tilden was 26 years old when he lost the mens singles final at the American Championships in only three sets to William Johnston. Feeling humiliated, he withdrew for the whole of the ensuing winter period to the home of a rich insurance broker from Newport who had one of the few covered courts that existing in the USA. In exchange for lessons for the man's son, he was able to use the covered court as he pleased in order to work on his own game. He dedicated himself to forging a new backhand and improved grip. As spring was breaking, he left the insurance broker's home having developed a backhand that was as quick and positive as his forehand and a service rated at more than 180 km/h, Tilden was at last ready to assert himself at ther very top level.

Having become the world's number one at the end of 1920, he immediately started what was to be a long running dispute with the American selectors by imposing personal conditions for his going on tour. He would insist, without the slightest compromise, on staying in expensive hotels and travelling only with the partners of his own choice. During his second trip to Europe, he took with him as his doubles partner a handsome young man called Jones. The Frenchman Pierre Albarran relates in his "History of Tennis" : "You should have seen him during the World Championships of 1921 at Saint-Cloud, playing in the mens doubles with a charming seventeen year old boy called A.W.Jones that he would relegate to one corner of the tennis court with strict instructions not to move, whilst on his own facing such powerful opponents as the Spanish combination of Alonso-Gomar or the French Gobert-Laurentz? Who-so-ever saw the prodigious battles undertaken by Tilden on these two occasions can only, despite all of the gossip, respect the truely formidable class that expodes from within this man! "

During this period of total invincibility and with more than 6 consecutive titles at Forest Hills, Tilden also won the American Clay Court Championships 7 times and the Indoor Championships 4 times. He won 4 doubles titles at Forest Hills and 13 consecutive matches in the Davis Cup!  By 1923, he had not lost a single match. In 1925, il played 57 games in a row without losing any of them! One day he modestly declared: "When I miss the ball, I am surprised!"

His greatest pleasure was to crush opponents by playing them at their own game! This was by far the best way of showing his superiority: in Paris in 1921, against the Rumanian Mishu, he made it a matter of honour to win whilst imitating all of his opponents strokes, returning a drive with a drive, a slice with a slice, dropball for dropball and even copying Mishu's curious spoon-like service... Tilden was quite simply a master at all aspects of the game!

The lost of the Davis cup in September 1927 is probably one of the saddest days of Bill's life. He was majestic against Cochet in the singles and then again in the doubles with Hunter, but he tired quickly in the third day's play against Lacoste and watched on powerlessly as Johnston went down decisively against Cochet. What could be more cruel than to then play in the mens final at Forest Hills and lose in straight sets to a rampant Lacoste?

Tilden was eventually to leave amateur tennis in 1930 on a high note however. At thirty seven years old he regained the position of champion at both Forest Hills and Wimbledon. His only great regret was that he had not been able to overcome the two only players to have ever beaten him: Lacoste et Cochet. In fact, the French didn't go to Forest Hills in 1929 when Tilden crushed everyone before him. At Wimbledon in 1930 the opposition was also weakened by the absence of Lacoste through injury and Cochet being beaten in the early rounds by Allison. Tilden did stage a last reminiscent semi-final against Borotra, winning in 5 sets 0-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5. He refound his theatrical side by countering the renowned volleyer with his own strokes and playing only one lobby during the entire encounter! The final against Allison was a relative formality...

Tilden, champion of Wimbledon some ten years after his first success was, without any doubt, a quite exceptional player. For the rest of his life however he would carry with him the memories of Lacoste et Cochet, who he had met on his long travelled tennis career and who were the only two players in the world to have ever beaten him!

Poster of the 1939 tournament
with Vines et Budge.
Click on image to zoom

Technically, he could do practically anything. It was tactically that he specifically distinguished himself from his contemporaries however. Tilden would play as much for the public as for himself. He had a remarkable intelligence for the game, never playing twice the same stroke. Indeed, he would study his opponent's play, copying his strokes, standing on the base line and playing the ball late putting strange trajectories and a surprising turn of speed on the ball such as to totally disorientate his adversary ... Easy victories did not interest him such that he always had to add a touch of comedy or of the spectactular to all of his matches.

After the war, in what was an era of strong conservatism  tainted by a level of intolerance through Maccartysm, Tilden fell into problems with the American justice system. He was accused of having made illicit and improper advances to young adolescents and undertook two successive spells in prison. 

Had Tilden lived today things might well have turned out completely differently of course. With such a strong personnality, he could have become a star such as a television presentator, film actor or something similar. As it was he finished his life rather miserably. Still making a living from tennis lessons at the age of 60, Big Bill died on the 5th June 1953 of a brain hemorrage. He was found in his hotel bedroom with 282.11$ in his pocket. This was all he had left...

Despite the sad ending to this glorious tennis career, Tilden remains a hero in the hearts of many Americans. Only six weeks after having got out of prison, he was voted as the Best Tennis Player of the Century. Even today, whilst his memory is understandably tainted by those events towards the end of his life, he must still be recognised as one of a very small band of sportmen, and in particular tennismen, to have combined such strong personnality with unmatchable skill.
 
 

Tilden under judgement, November 1946.

Tilden in prison, January 1947.