Kingdon Van Nostrand

Kingdon "King" Van Nostrand (born June 4, 1934) is an American tennis player and coach. In 2022 he became the leader in seniors tennis competition by winning a 43rd world title.

Early life King Van Nostrand was born in Bay Shore, New York, and attended Bay Shore public schools. He began playing tennis at age 3, following his older brother to tennis courts. Through age 15 he played USTA Eastern section junior tournaments. In high school he played tennis and basketball, winning several Long Island tennis championships, 1949–1951. He attended New York State Teachers College, Cortland (later called SUNY Cortland), where he also played tennis and basketball, and obtained a degree in elementary education. After four years in the Navy he returned to Bay Shore High School His overall record was 223 wins and four losses. While teaching and coaching, he continued to compete on a national and international level. In his brief experience in the open era of non-senior tennis, his most notable success was making the first round at the 1970 US National, the precursor to the US Open. in 1970 he won his first USTA gold ball, signifying winning a national title. In 1979, he was noted to be one of the top players in the country, at the time not having lost since entering the 45 age level and having a 40 game winning streak. Described as a "young" senior, it was opined that the "wiry, red‐haired 6‐footer...runs like a deer, executes his shots with textbook precision and produces an all round fluency that is reminiscent of ballet dancer." By the early 1980s he was playing at the international level. From 2000 to 2023, he had a No.1 world ranking in six separate years. In 1998 he relocated to Vero Beach, Florida, He has represented the United States internationally in the Stevens Cup, Dubler Cup and Austria Cup. They had four children, all of whom played tennis in college; two were professional, John and Molly, both were coached by Van Nostrand Molly reached a Wimbledon quarterfinal in 1985, but her career was cut short because of a back injury. John died in a 1984 car accident in Mexico, on his way to a tournament, hoping to qualify for Wimbledon. His brother, Allan, coached the varsity team at Bay Shore. He accumulated over 400 wins during his career, including a winning streak of 175 games over nine years. Twelve members of the Van Nostrand family were inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame in 1991; each was a player, coach or both. The family members included Kingdon, Allan, their wives and their eight children. In 2009 both he and his wife, Boots, won 75-and-over national singles championships; this was her first singles gold ball.

He is a member of the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame, the Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame, the Long Island Sports Hall of Fame, and the Eastern Tennis Association Hall of Fame.