Otway Edward Woodhouse

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Otway Edward Woodhouse (born October 21, 1855 in London , † September 21, 1887 in Brighton , according to another source Alton , State of Illinois , USA ) was an English engineer and tennis player who won the first American championships in 1880.

Life

Woodhouse attended Marlborough College from 1867 to 1872 and then King's College . In August 1877 he took a job with the Great Eastern Railway , later he moved to the London and South Western Railway .

From 1879 to 1881 Woodhouse took part in the tournament at Wimbledon and in 1880 reached the final of the All-Comers competition.

In July 1880 his employer sent him to the USA for six months to assess the technical progress there. There he learned from the newspaper about the first edition of the Championships of America , on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket Club in New York . With his overhead serve he surprised his opponents and ultimately won the final against the Canadian Isidore F. Hellmuth with 15:11, 14:15, 15: 9 and 10:15.

In 1881, Woodhouse formed an electric lighting company with FL Rawson . In June 1882 he applied for a patent for a new tennis racket handle. In 1885 his health deteriorated and he went to Cannes for a spa stay . He died of "overwork" on September 21, 1887 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery .

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Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otway Edward Woodhouse. tennisarchives.com, accessed on September 28, 2012 (English).
  2. ↑ a b B. Collins: History of Tennis. 2nd Edition. New Chapter Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-942257-70-0 , p. 10.
  3. ↑ H. Gillmeister: cultural history of tennis. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-7705-2618-X , p. 260.
  4. ↑ At that time, the winner was whoever was able to score the most points after playing four sets to a score of 15. The usual way of counting in tennis today was not introduced at the American championships until the following year.
  5. ↑ US Patent No. 259,448 of June 13, 1882 ( online (pdf)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / bks7.books.google.vu  
personal data
SURNAME Woodhouse, Otway Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English engineer and tennis player, winner of the first American championships in 1880
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1887
Place of death unsure: Brighton , England , or Alton , State of Illinois , USA