Ellen Roosevelt

Who was Ellen Roosevelt?

Ellen Crosby Roosevelt was an American tennis player.

She was the daughter of John Aspinwall Roosevelt, an estate proprietor, and Ellen Murray Crosby. She started playing tennis with her sister Grace in 1879 when her father installed a tennis court at their mansion 'Rosedale'.

She won the women's singles title at the 1890 U.S. Championships defeating the 1888 and 1889 champion Bertha Townsend in the final in two straight sets. That year she also won the doubles title with her sister. They were the first pair of sisters to win the U.S. Championships and remained the only pair to do so until the Williams sisters equalled their achievement in 1999. At the 1893 U.S. Championships she won the mixed doubles title partnering Oliver Campbell.

A first cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1975.