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Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman

Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman
Hazel hotchkiss 1910.jpg
Wightman in 1910
Full name Hazel Virginia Hotchkiss Wightman
ITF name Hazel Wightman
Country (sports)  United States
Born (1886-12-20)December 20, 1886
Healdsburg, CA, U.S.
Died December 5, 1974(1974-12-05) (aged 87)
Newton, MA, U.S.
Plays Right-handed
Int. Tennis HoF 1957 (member page)
Singles
Grand Slam Singles results
Wimbledon 3R (1924)
US Open W (1909, 1910, 1911, 1919)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Wimbledon W (1924)
US Open W (1909, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1924, 1928)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
US Open W (1909, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1918, 1920)

Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman (née Hotchkiss; December 20, 1886 – December 5, 1974) was an American tennis player and founder of the Wightman Cup, an annual team competition for British and American women. She dominated American women's tennis before World War I, and won 45 U.S. titles during her life.

Wightman was born Hazel Virginia Hotchkiss in Healdsburg, California to William Joseph and Emma Lucretia (Grove) Hotchkiss. In February 1912, at the age of 25, she married George William Wightman of Boston. Her father-in-law, George Henry Wightman, was a leader in the steel industry, as an associate of Andrew Carnegie, and one of the country's foremost pioneers of amateur tennis.

She became a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of California-Berkeley and served as the chapter's President.

Wightman was the mother of five children. She died at her home in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on December 5, 1974.

Wightman dominated American women's tennis before World War I and had an unparalleled reputation for sportsmanship. Wightman won a lifetime total of 45 U.S. titles, the last at age 68. She won 16 titles overall at the U.S. Championships, four of them in singles (1909–11, 1919). Nine of her titles at the U.S. Championships came in 1909–11, when she swept the singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles competitions three consecutive years.

Wightman is known as the "Queen Mother of American Tennis" or "Lady Tennis" for her lifelong participation in and promotion of women's tennis and because she was instrumental in organizing the Ladies International Tennis Challenge between British and American women's teams, better known as the Wightman Cup. The Cup was first held in 1923 and continued through 1989. She played five years on the American team and was the captain of the American team from inception of the competition through 1948. The Cup was composed of five singles and two doubles matches. The cup itself was donated in 1923 by Wightman in honor of her husband. The first contest, at Forest Hills, New York on August 11 and 13, 1923, was won by the United States.


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