John Van Ryn was an American tennis champion during the 1930’s. He apparently was not a top singles player, and never won a United States Tennis Singles championship, but he was dominant in the doubles game. To this day he apparently still owns the record for most doubles wins in Davis Cup competition. But he should not be entirely dismissed as a singles player since he was ranked fourth in singles tennis during his top playing years.
Van Ryn’s tennis doubles championships were nearly all played with Wilmer Allison. The twosome won their first United States Doubles Tennis championship in 1931. And in 1935, the twosome was able to repeat the feat of four years before. But in those other years during the 1930’s the twosome was quite competitive, and were the runners up in the United States Doubles championships during the years 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936.
Outside of the United States, the Van Ryn-Allison doubles tennis team also did quite well. They won the Wimbledon’s Tennis Tournament doubles championship four times during the years 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932. The two doubles players were runners up at Wimbledon in 1935. And in 1932, Van Ryn teamed up with George Lott to win the French Open Doubles Tennis championship at the French Open Tennis Tournament.
Van Ryn was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1963. The International Tennis Hall of Fame was established in 1954, and is located in Newport, Rhode Island. The International Hall of Fame was recognized by the International Tennis Federation in 1986, and currently has over 200 inductees from 19 countries.
There is little information to be found about Van Ryn’s personal life, or were he was born and where he passed away. Since he died in 1994, we know that he lived until the age of 89, an above average life span. There also is no information about his Dutch ancestry. But a Van Ryn is clearly connected with the land of the Rhine estuary.
REFERENCES
The above information was obtained from the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Wikipedia web sites.
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FIFTEEN PROMINENT DUTCH AMERICAN FAMILIES: THE VAN BURENS, KOCH BROTHERS, VOORHEES AND OTHERS, 2015
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ALLIED EUROPE CAMPAIGN—1944/1945: TACTICAL MISTAKES, 2017
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FRENCH REVOLUTION, NAPOLEON AND RUSSIAN WAR OF 1812, 2015
