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American tennis player From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Earn (March 7, 1921 – April 4, 2007) was an American tennis player who competed on the amateur and professional circuits in the 1940s and 1950s. He reached as high as world No. 7 in the professional ranks in 1946.
Country (sports) | ![]() |
---|---|
Born | Los Angeles, California, United States | March 7, 1921
Died | April 4, 2007 86) Los Angeles, California, United States | (aged
Turned pro | 1946 (amateur tour from 1940) |
Retired | 1956 |
Plays | Left-handed (1-handed backhand) |
Singles | |
Highest ranking | No. 7 (1946, PPA ranking) [1] |
Professional majors | |
US Pro | SF (1954, 1955) |
Wembley Pro | QF (1951) |
Earn grew up in Los Angeles, and was Jewish.[2] He graduated from the Manual Arts High School in 1939.[3] He played tennis at Compton Junior College.[3] In 1940 he won the doubles at the Ojai Tennis Tournament with Walter Bugg.[4] He joined the U.S. Navy at the start of World War II and served until 1945.[3]
At the Pacific Southwest Championships in September 1945 he reached the semifinals, after a victory in the quarterfinal over U.S. Championships finalist Bill Talbert.[5] Earn turned professional in early 1946, a year after being honorably discharged from the Navy, and joined Bill Tilden's Professional Players Association.[3] He won his professional debut match against Bobby Riggs in Omaha. The left-hander reached as high as world No. 7 in the professional ranks (confirmed by Tilden) in 1946.[1] He reached the quarter-finals of the 1950 U.S. Pro Championships, where he lost to Jack Kramer.[6]
He was the head professional at the Beverly Hills' Hillcrest Country Club and the Beverly Hills Tennis Club.[7][3]
Earn was inducted into the Southern California Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002, and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.[8] The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) established a grant in his name in 2007 for student-athletes on their tennis team.[9] He died at his home in Los Angeles.[3]