General Ichiya
Kumagae
Male
Japan
1890-09-10
Omuta, Japan
1968-10-09
Omuta, Japan


About

Kumagae was born on 10 September 1890 in ?muta, Fukuoka Prefecture. He attended Keio University. In 1913, he, along with other members of the Keio University Tennis Club, pushed for the abandonment of soft tennis (which had been introduced into Japan in 1878) in favor of lawn tennis, which was popular internationally. Kumagae was sent to play in the 1913 Far Eastern Games held in Manila, marking the first overseas competition for a Japanese tennis player. He reached the singles semi-finals and the doubles finals, and his form was subsequently influenced by United States champion Bill Johnson, whose short stature had earned him the moniker "Little Bill".

Kumagae went on to win both singles and doubles at the 1915 Far Eastern Games in Shanghai. In 1916, he travelled to the United States with Hachishiro Mikami to compete in the U.S. National Championships, marking the first participation of a Japanese in one of the Grand Slam tournaments. Kumagae spent a total of three months in the United States, during which he competed in 60 tournaments. He won the singles title at the Newport Casino Invitational, defeating Bill Johnston, the 1915 U.S. National champion, in the final in five sets.[2] He did not lose a single match on a clay court, and lost only four matches on grass courts, rising to the U.S. rank of No. 5. Kumagae would go on to reach as high as No. 3 in the U.S. rankings in 1919.[3][4] He was ranked World No. 7 for 1919 by Karoly Mazak.[1]

After his return to Japan, Kumagae graduated from Keio University and went to work for Mitsubishi Bank, who sent him to work at the bank's New York branch. He continued to play tennis, and advanced to the semi-finals at the 1918 U.S. National Championships, but lost to local favorite and seven time winner Bill Tilden in three straight sets.[5] In 1919 Kumagae won the New York State championship and the Great Lakes championship, played in Buffalo, defeating Bill Tilden in the final of the latter.[6][7]

Kumagae is best known for his two Olympic silver medals at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics,[8] marking the first Olympic medals won by any Japanese athlete. In the men's singles event at the Antwerp Olympics, Kumagae lost to South African Louis Raymond in the final, 7?5, 4?6, 5?7, 4?6. With his partner Seiichiro Kashio in the doubles event, he lost to Oswald Turnbull and Maxwell Woosnam of Great Britain for the gold medal match, 2?6, 7?5, 5?7, 5?7.

Kumagae was Japan's first Davis Cup captain, including the runner-up finish in 1921.[9] Kumagae returned to Japan in 1922.[10]

He withdrew from the Davis Cup qualification matches in 1922, citing his age, and in 1924 published a book on tennis. He also served as a tennis instructor to Princess Nagako, the future Empress Kojun.

Following World War II, Kumagae was asked to coach the Japan National Team, which travelled to Louisville, Kentucky for a tournament in 1951. He wrote a technical manual on tennis in 1953. Kumagae died at his hometown of ?muta, Fukuoka on 16 August 1968.



Media


Archive statistics 1914 - 1921
19
64
51


Tournament wins 1921 - Old Dominion Championship (Amateur)
1921 - United North and South tournament (Amateur)
1921 - Greenbrier Spring Tournament (Amateur)
1920 - Florida State Championship (Open)
1920 - New York Metropolitan Grass Court Championships (Amateur)
1920 - Eastern New York Clay Court Championships (Amateur)
1920 - Chevy Chase Club (Amateur)
1919 - Niagara International Tournament (Amateur)
1919 - Old Dominion Championship (Amateur)
1919 - New York State Championships (Open)
1919 - Great Lakes Championships (Amateur)
1919 - Brooklyn (Amateur)
1919 - Amackassin Club Invitation (Amateur)
1918 - Ontario Championships (Open)
1918 - New York Metropolitan Grass Court Championships (Amateur)
1918 - New York State Championships (Open)
1916 - Newport Casino (Amateur)
1916 - Orient Championship (Amateur)
1915 - Far East Championships (Amateur)


Tournaments US Open - 1921 Old Dominion Championship - 1921 United North and South tournament - 1921 Florida State Championship - 1921 Orange Invitation - 1921 Greenbrier Spring Tournament - 1921 Olympics, Olympic Games - 1920 New England Championships - 1920 Old Dominion Championship - 1920 Florida State Championship - 1920 Eastern New York Clay Court Championships - 1920 New York Metropolitan Grass Court Championships - 1920 US Open - 1919 Old Dominion Championship - 1919 United North and South tournament - 1919 Brooklyn - 1919 Ontario Championships - 1919 New York State Championships - 1919 Niagara International Tournament - 1919 Great Lakes Championships - 1919 Harlem Tennis Club Invitation - 1919 Amackassin Club Invitation - 1919 US Open - 1918 Ontario Championships - 1918 New York State Championships - 1918 New York Metropolitan Grass Court Championships - 1918 US Open - 1916 Newport Casino - 1916 Orient Championship - 1916 Far East Championships - 1915 Orient Championship - 1914

3 thoughts on “player

  1. Hello! I’d like to bring to your attention that after recent updates to the site, the player search has become less efficient. Specifically:

    1. A single search now returns no more than 30 results.
    2. The alphabetical order of the results is gone.
    3. As far as I understand, it’s now impossible to find a player by two or three letters, while three-letter last names are very common (for example, Lee, Dod, etc.; Tommy Ho can only be found by his full name).
    4. It’s also impossible to find a player by their last name and first initial if they also have a middle initial. E.g., searching for “A. White” returns results like “A. White” and “T.A. White,” but not “A.G. White”. This was previously the exact opposite, and it would be great to combine the previous and current options so that the same search for “A. White” would return all three results.
    5. Results now also include last names/first names that contain last names/first names from the search. E.g., the query “Bell” returns results like “Campbell,” while the query “Clint” returns results like “McClintock.” This is debatable, as it could, on the other hand, find players with double last names or players with last names close to the ones you search (like “Carroll” – “O’Carroll”). However, it’s probably better to eliminate cases like the second example, where a word in the query is the middle of the returned result. Because if someone searches for a player using the query “Clint,” a player with the last name “McClintock” is unlikely to be relevant and would clutter the results.

    I hope these issues are resolved, as I believe this would help many site users. Thanks in advance!

  2. Regarding point 4, I’d like to add that a similar problem exists with full names. For example, Reginald Arthur Gamble can be found by searching for “Arthur Gamble,” but not “Reginald Gamble.”

  3. New South Wales Hard Court Championship 1924

    Round 1:
    E.A. Busby vs. S.L. Barden 6-1 4-6 6-1
    C.V. Todd vs. A. Lloyd (AUS) 6-0 6-0
    A.G. Gavin vs. Dr. H.T. Illingworth 4-6 6-2 9-7
    B. Whiteley vs. J.W. Elliott walkover
    A. Fitzgerald vs. R.M. Kidston 6-4 3-6 6-4
    G.J. Perry bye
    S. Cameron bye
    G. Collins bye
    A.N. Peach bye
    W.J. Matchett vs. E. Orth 7-5 5-7 6-4
    P. Laverack vs. W.M. Blekemore 6-4 3-6 6-3
    Ron P. Bulman vs. R.O. Palmer 6-1 6-1

    1. S.L. Barden (AUS)

    2. J.W. Elliott (AUS)

    3. E. Orth (AUS)

    4. W.M. Blekemore (AUS)

    5. Ron P. Bulman (AUS) is in your database R.P. Bulman

    6. R.O. Palmer (AUS)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *