Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman Biography

Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman

Hazel Virginia Hotchkiss entered the United States tennis championships in 1909 and won every event in which she entered—women's singles, women's doubles, and the mixed doubles. She repeated that feat again for the following two years. Wightman graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1911, marrying the following year. She became national women's champion for the fourth time in 1919. Wightman eventually captured 45 tennis titles. In 1923 she donated a silver cup, the Wightman Cup, to the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association for women's tennis tournament between the United States and Great Britain. Wightman led the United States to victory in the first match, 7–0. She was team captain until 1948. Wightman was also a national singles squash champion, Massachusetts state table tennis champion, and played in the national mixed badminton finals. She was called the “queen mother of American tennis.”