Frederick Beasley Alexander clearly embraced the popular mantra made famous by President Harry S. Truman and legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden: “It’s amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit.” Alexander internalized the concept, winning seven major titles, six coming in doubles. He played for additional five doubles trophies at the U.S. National Men’s Doubles Championships, falling short in the finals. He and partner Harold Hackett won four successive doubles titles in Newport (1907-1910).
Growing up in Seabright, New Jersey, one of the jewel beach communities on the Jersey shore, Alexander attended Princeton University and won the Intercollegiate Doubles title (1900) and Singles title (1901). Before his record-breaking doubles career skyrocketed, the lean and lanky Alexander became the first foreign player to win the Australian National Men’s Singles Championship in 1908, rallying from a 0-2 deficit to stun home favorite Alfred Dunlop in five uneven sets, 3-6, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3. The singles finalists then collaborated for a routine 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 doubles victory over New Zealand’s G. G. Sharp and Anthony Wilding.
Alexander and Yale-educated partner Harold Hackett then became one of the foremost doubles combinations in history, winning four U.S. National Doubles Championships in a row from 1907-1910. That duo also appeared in seven straight finals, a record that has remained since 1911. He earned his fifth title in 1917 with 19-year-old Harold Throckmorton. Alexander himself played in 10 U.S. doubles finals (1900, 1905-1911, 1917-1918), another record that has withstood the test of time. He competed for the United States Davis Cup Team in 1908, but the squad fell 3-2 to Australasia in Melbourne.
