Sylvester Smith (tennis)

Dr Sylvester B Smith was an American black tennis player. He won the 1919 ATA Championships [1] and also the Penn Tennis Open Championship.[2]

Smith was based in New York and also won the 1929 National Colored Doubles Title as well as the 1930 New England Tennis Championship.[3] From 1917–1929, he was the co-holder of the national men's doubles championships title.[4] In 1959, Smith served as the president of the American Tennis Association.[1]

Outside of tennis, Smith worked as a dentist in Philadelphia, where he died in 1969.[4]

  1. ^ a b Djata, Sundiata A. (2006). Blacks at the Net: Black Achievement in the History of Tennis. Vol. 1. Syracuse University Press. p. 44. ISBN 9780815608189.
  2. ^ Lansbury, Jennifer H. (2014). A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America. University of Arkansas Press. p. 279. ISBN 9781610755429.
  3. ^ Porter, David L. (2005). Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 419. ISBN 9780313309526.
  4. ^ a b "Ex-Tennis Champion and Philadelphia Dentist Dies". Jet. October 30, 1969. p. 61.