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    Vic Seixas, Winner of 15 Grand Slam Tennis Titles, Dies at 100

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    Once declared “the face of American tennis,” he was ranked among the leading players in the United States from the 1940s to the ’60s.Vic Seixas, who won 15 Grand Slam tennis tournaments in the 1950s, died on Friday. The oldest living Grand Slam champion, he was 100.His death was announced by the International Tennis Hall of Fame, which did not say where he died.“From 1940 to 1968 Vic Seixas was the face of American tennis,” the Hall of Fame declared when he was inducted in 1971.At 6-foot-1 and about 180 pounds, Seixas (pronounced SAY-shuss) was known for his superb conditioning and endurance and was frequently ranked among the top 10 players in the United States. The renowned Australian tennis figure Harry Hopman regarded him as the world’s No. 1 amateur of 1954.Seixas won two Grand Slam singles championships, eight mixed doubles titles and five men’s doubles championships. He captured his first men’s singles title when he bested Kurt Nielsen of Denmark at Wimbledon in 1953 and defeated Rex Hartwig of Australia in the 1954 singles final of the U.S. Nationals at Forest Hills, the forerunner of the U.S. Open.Seixas, who remained an amateur throughout his career, played in 28 U.S. championship tournaments at Forest Hills between 1940 and 1969. He missed the event only when he was serving in the military during World War II.“Even when he was off form, he pulled out big matches by persevering long after most men would have given in and then, quite miraculously, forcing his way out of the slough of despond with a sustained streak of brilliant volleying,” Herbert Warren Wind wrote in Sports Illustrated in 1958.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In Tennis, Bookends of Drama in 2023

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      The year was full of unlikely winners and exciting team competitions.There was no champagne courtside. So, as Matteo Berrettini embraced Jannik Sinner after Sinner’s victory over Alex de Minaur last month to clinch Italy’s first Davis Cup title in 47 years, their teammate, Matteo Arnaldi, did the next best thing: He shook a water bottle and poured it over Sinner and Berrettini.Sinner, 22, ended the season with his 20th win in his last 23 matches. This year, he had a 64-15 record, won four tournaments, reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and was runner-up at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy. He had wins over the three top-ranked players — Novak Djokovic, whom he beat twice in two weeks, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev. Starting 2023 at No. 15, he ended it at No. 4.Djokovic sorely wanted to lead Serbia to just its second Davis Cup title. But in the semifinals, he fell to Sinner after squandering three match points and then teamed with Miomir Kecmanovic to lose the deciding doubles match to Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego. The loss sent Italy into the final, where it beat Australia.Jannik Sinner helped clinch Italy’s first Davis Cup title in 47 years this year. He also had a 64-15 record and won four tournaments.Jorge Guerrero/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDjokovic was devastated by the defeat.“For me, personally, it’s a huge disappointment because I take the responsibility, obviously having three match points, being so close to win it,” he said after the match. “When you lose for your country, you know, the bitter feeling is even greater.”It is ironic that the season began and ended with exciting conclusions at the men’s and women’s team competitions. The Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup have been under siege in recent years as many of the game’s top players, including Alcaraz, Taylor Fritz, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, shunned the historically heart-thumping, pride-producing finals because of scheduling conflicts. The U.S. women lost early in the finals, and the U.S. men didn’t even qualify as one of the top eight teams.Still, despite the player defections and a merry-go-round of format changes, both competitions provided some of the most striking moments of the year.Leylah Fernandez’s five wins helped lead Canada to its first-ever Billie Jean King Cup.Raul Caro/EPA, via ShutterstockLeylah Fernandez rode a wave of patriotic passion, winning five matches to lead Canada to its first Billie Jean King Cup. Her teammate, then-18-year-old Marina Stakusic, who had never won a WTA Tour match, became an overnight star when she won three matches against opponents ranked in the top 70.If 2022 was billed as the season of King Carlos when Alcaraz went from No. 32 to No. 1 on the strength of his U.S. Open championship, then this season mostly belonged to Djokovic.He is considered by many in the game as the greatest player ever. The statistics prove it.At 36, Djokovic had one of the best seasons of his career. For the third time since 2015, he reached the finals at all four majors, falling just shy of attaining the Grand Slam.In January, a year after being removed from Australia because of his refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, Djokovic returned to Melbourne Park and captured a record 10th Australian Open title by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final. With the 14-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal injured for most of the season, Djokovic won his third French Open in June by beating Alcaraz and Casper Ruud.After falling to Alcaraz in a scintillating five-set Wimbledon final, Djokovic bounced back and beat Medvedev at the U.S. Open to earn his 24th major, surpassing Serena Williams. He is now just one win away from breaking the men’s and women’s major record held by Margaret Court for 50 years.Djokovic captured his record 10th Australian Open by defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.Quinn Rooney/Getty ImagesIn all, Djokovic played just 12 tournaments in 2023 and he won seven of them. He did not lose from mid-July until mid-November, when he fell to Sinner during the round-robin portion of the ATP Finals. He then beat Sinner in the final after assuring the year-end No. 1 ranking for a record-extending eighth time.Alcaraz, who won six titles in 2023 on three different surfaces and reached the semifinals at the French and U.S. Opens, in addition to his Wimbledon win, ended the year ranked No. 2. But he was candid after he lost to Djokovic in the semifinals in Turin.“I am not at his level on an indoor court,” Alcaraz, 20, said in November. “He has shown why he is the best player in the world. I have to practice more to be a better player.”With his 66 wins, Medvedev led the ATP in match victories. He won 19 straight, and reached the finals at Indian Wells and the Miami Open, which he won. He also won at Rome and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and was runner-up to Djokovic at the U.S. Open. He ended the year ranked No. 3.Two upstart players — the Americans Ben Shelton and Chris Eubanks — used their wide grins and whopping forehands to envelop the sport in a giant bear hug. Shelton, about two years away from leading the University of Florida to an N.C.A.A. championship, reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. He then reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open before falling to Djokovic. Eubanks, another former collegian, upset Cameron Norrie and Tsitsipas to reach the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.There was no shortage of compelling story lines among the women. Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka spent the season battling for tour supremacy.Sabalenka, only a year removed from serving woes so severe that she resorted to serving underhand during matches, won her first major at the Australian Open, a day she called the “best of my life.” She grabbed the No. 1 ranking after reaching the U.S. Open final.“It was amazing to see Sabalenka, who was basically laughed off that same court a year earlier, confront those demons and take responsibility,” Lindsay Davenport, three-time major winner and former No. 1, said by telephone last month.Swiatek took her third French Open and won six titles. But she faltered at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open before regrouping by the WTA Finals, snatching the year-end No. 1 from Sabalenka by beating her and Pegula to take the title. Pegula, for her part, was one of just two players, along with No. 4 Elena Rybakina, to notch multiple wins over Swiatek this season.Marketa Vondrousova, who endured long stretches away from the game because of two wrist surgeries, became the first unseeded women’s Wimbledon winner when she beat Ons Jabeur in the final.Coco Gauff, 19, beat Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to win the U.S. Open.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBut it was Gauff and her wise-beyond-her-years attitude who transcended the sport in a way that only Williams has done. When Gauff, 19, beat Sabalenka in three sets to win the U.S. Open, the nontennis world, including the former first lady Michelle Obama, went wild. In her acceptance speech, Gauff, who had struggled early in the season, addressed her doubters.“Thank you to the people who didn’t believe in me,” Gauff said. “To those who thought they were putting water on my fire, you were really adding gas to it.”It was the kind of bold statement that left even former major winners stunned. One of them was Davenport, who admitted to having tears run down her face while she did match commentary on television.“To me, the story of the year was Coco,” Davenport said. “Players come along once in a generation. When you have all the expectations on you at 12 and 15 years old and you are able to handle everything and then elevate your game to win, then you really are truly something special.” More

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      The Present and Future of French Men’s Tennis

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      Men’s tennis in France isn’t what it used to be. But the veteran Adrian Mannarino is still winning, and the teenager Arthur Fils is quickly finding his form.Adrian Mannarino couldn’t stifle his chuckle.He had just been asked what it meant to him to be the top-ranked men’s tennis player from France.“Well,” Mannarino said in a video interview from a tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan, in early October, “this is not a good sign for French tennis.”Mannarino, at 35, is in his 20th year on the ATP Tour. He has never been ranked in the world’s top 20 and has never advanced beyond the round of 16 at a Grand Slam tournament. He did win the championship in Astana, though, his fourth career title and second of the year.The victory propelled Mannarino’s world ranking to No. 24, just two off from his career-high from March 2018. But, as he heads into the Paris Masters for the 13th time, Mannarino is keenly aware of the void of top talent in France.“We all knew that whenever Gaël [Monfils], Richard [Gasquet], Gilles [Simon] and Jo [Wilfried Tsonga] would get old, there would be a time when French tennis would be in trouble,” said Mannarino, of four French players who have all been ranked within the top 10 but are now in their late thirties and have either retired or dropped down significantly in the rankings. (Though Monfils did win his 12th career title in Stockholm last week.)“We’re still waiting for the young players to get to the top. There’s a lot of talent, but it’s taking a little bit of time to get to the top level,” he said.There are now 13 Frenchmen in the top 100, but only four — Arthur Fils, Luca van Assche, Ugo Humbert and Hugo Gaston — are 25 or younger. Fils has shown the most promise.At just 19, Fils, a finalist at the French Open junior championship in 2021, began the season ranked outside the top 250 and playing on the lower-level challenger circuit. He is now ranked No. 38.In February, Fils broke through in his home country, reaching back-to-back semifinals in Montpellier and Marseille, where he beat Stan Wawrinka. He won his first ATP title in Lyon, France, in May, and reached the semifinals in Hamburg, Germany, beating Casper Ruud before falling to the eventual champion, Alexander Zverev. Fils upset Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the final in Antwerp, Belgium, last week before he went down to Alexander Bublik in the championship match.Arthur Fils, also a French player, after a successful shot in a match that he ultimately lost to Matteo Arnaldi of Italy at the U.S. Open in August.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesFils also made his Davis Cup debut for France alongside Mannarino in September and then was chosen by Bjorn Borg, captain of Team Europe, to be one of the team’s six representatives at the Laver Cup. He lost his lone singles match there to Ben Shelton.Fils said he has modeled his game after his countryman Tsonga, a big hitter who was runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the 2008 Australian Open and reached five other major semifinals.“Tsonga was one of my idols when I was younger,” Fils said. “He had a big serve, some great forehands and was in amazing physical condition. I’m trying to do the same and play a lot with my forehand and try to serve a lot of aces.”Mannarino’s style of play is nearly the opposite. It is best described as durable and reliable, though he benefits from a left-handed hook serve that draws opponents off court.“I’m not really powerful, so I’m trying to be a little smarter,” said Mannarino. “I’m moving pretty well and adapting to my opponent’s game most of the time. I’m like a counterpuncher; I use the power of my opponent and just try to be as consistent as I can. And if my opponent can miss some shots, I’m always happy.”Though only two years younger than Gasquet and Monfils, both of whom have seen their rankings drop out of the top 50, Mannarino is playing some of the best tennis of his life. Last year, he reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open before losing to the eventual winner, Rafael Nadal. This year, he beat Shelton and Hubert Hurkacz at the Miami Open to reach the round of 16 and has wins over Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz. And yet only once, in 2020, has he reached the third round at the Paris Masters.“I’ve never had great results at Bercy, but I feel like I’m really enjoying my time when I’m playing there,” Mannarino said, referring to the site of the tournament. As a child, he would sit in the top level of the stadium with friends from his local tennis club and cheer on the French players. “It’s always good to have the French crowd supporting you, especially the Parisians, because it’s pretty noisy and a good atmosphere.”Mannarino after winning a point against Daniil Medvedev of Russia in their second-round match at Wimbledon in July.Adam Vaughan/EPA, via ShutterstockFrance has a rich and vast tennis history. Suzanne Lenglen won Wimbledon six times from 1919 to 1925. Yvon Petra won Wimbledon in 1946, and Yannick Noah became the first Frenchman in 37 years to win at Roland Garros in 1983.Mary Pierce won the Australian Open in 1995 and the French Open in 2000. Amélie Mauresmo, a former world No. 1, captured both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006. And Marion Bartoli took the Wimbledon title in 2013.But there are no more revered French players than the Four Musketeers — Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste — who led their nation to the Davis Cup six straight years, from 1927 to 1932.More recently, though, Mannarino and Fils met during a practice session at France’s national tennis center when Fils was just 15.“His fitness coach came to me after and said, ‘Oh, Arthur didn’t like it; it was going too fast for him and he could barely keep up,’” Mannarino said. “And then, a few years later he’s almost beating me. He’s improved so fast, and his tennis is really mature for his age.”Mannarino knows his time left on tour is limited by his age. But, so far, he does not see himself as old.“I don’t feel old because I don’t feel like my tennis level is dropping yet, even my physical condition,” he said. “I just feel like a kid in my head, and I’m trying to enjoy my life on the tour. As long as my legs can still run, I’m going to keep trying my best.” More

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      Dick Savitt Dies at 95; Won Australian and Wimbledon Tennis Titles in 1951

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      He was the second American to win both Grand Slam tournaments in the same year, and he was ranked among the world’s top 10 players four times.Dick Savitt, the tennis Hall of Famer who won the men’s singles championships at the 1951 Australian and Wimbledon Grand Slam tournaments but dropped out of full-time play a year later while at the height of his game, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 95.His death was confirmed by his son, Bob.Savitt became the second American to win both the Australian and Wimbledon men’s titles in a calendar year. Don Budge had accomplished the feat in 1938. Only Jimmy Connors (1974) and Pete Sampras (1994 and 1997) have matched them.Savitt was ranked among the top 10 American players six times in the 1950s and among the world’s top 10 four times, even though after 1952 he confined his Grand Slam tournament play to the United States Nationals at Forest Hills, Queens. He bested leading American players in domestic tournaments while pursuing a business career.He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1976.In 1951, Savitt defeated Ken McGregor, a native of Australia, in the Australian championships. “The Australian was a big shock to the tennis world,” Savitt told Nancy Gill McShea in an interview for the International Tennis Hall of Fame 60 years later. “It put me on the map.”He reached the semifinals of the 1951 French championships but lost to Jaroslav Drobny, who went on to win the singles title. He needed only 61 minutes to defeat McGregor again in the Wimbledon final, becoming the first Jewish player to win the Wimbledon singles championship.Savitt appeared on the cover of Time magazine’s Aug. 27, 1951, issue on the eve of the U.S. Nationals, the forerunner of the U.S. Open. “What he has got is a simple, overpowering attack; a smashing serve and deep, hard-hit ground strokes that keep his opponent scrambling in the backcourt, on the defensive,” Time wrote.Savitt, who stood a sturdy 6-foot-3 and often wore down his opponents, reached the semifinals at Forest Hills. Hampered by a knee infection, he lost to his fellow American Vic Seixas.Savitt was selected for the 1951 U.S. Davis Cup team, which was hoping to avenge its loss to Australia in the 1950 cup finals, formally known as the challenge round. Savitt, ranked as the squad’s No. 1 player, won singles matches in the early rounds. But Frank Shields, the nonplaying captain of the team, removed him from cup play afterward and replaced him with Ted Schroeder, who had been in semiretirement. Shields said he hadn’t been happy with Savitt’s overall play in the previous few months.Savitt and many of his fellow American players were stunned that he was passed over, but Savitt chose not to comment on being cut. The United States lost to Australia, 3-2, in the challenge round.The next year, Savitt reached the semifinals of the Australian championships. After losing there to McGregor, he said he was stepping away from the international tour.But he won the U.S. National Indoor Championships in 1952, 1958 and 1961, becoming the first player to capture that title three times. In 1961, he captured singles and doubles gold medals at the Maccabiah Games, the Jewish Olympics, held in Israel. He later helped develop tennis centers there.Savitt at his home in Manhattan last year.Carly Zavala for The New York TimesTennis trophies on a bookshelf at Savitt’s home. He was ranked among the top 10 American players six times in the 1950s.Carly Zavala for The New York TimesRichard Savitt was born on March 4, 1927, in Bayonne, N.J., the only child of Morris and Kate (Hoberman) Savitt. His father was a food broker who had a business that pursued marketing opportunities for producers.He taught himself to play tennis in his early teens when he was a ball boy at the Berkeley Tennis Club in Orange, N.J., mostly by watching some of the game’s greatest players, including Jack Kramer, Bobby Riggs and Pancho Segura, competing there in New Jersey state tournaments.“I had never seen tennis like that before,” Savitt said in his Hall of Fame interview. “I immediately got Don Budge’s book on tennis to learn how to hit strokes correctly.”But Savitt’s first love was basketball. When his family moved to El Paso in the early 1940s, hoping that the warmer weather would ease his mother’s skin problems, he became an all-state high school basketball player. But he also continued to play tennis and was highly ranked nationally in the junior division.Savitt entered Cornell University in 1946 on a basketball scholarship after serving during World War II in the Navy, which had assigned him to play on basketball teams to entertain service personnel. But injuries hampered him, so he turned to tennis once more and won Eastern collegiate singles and doubles titles. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in economics.In addition to his son, from his marriage to Louise Liberman, which ended in divorce in 1963, Savitt is survived by three grandchildren. His second wife, Annelle Warwick Hayes, died in 2013. Savitt and his son, Bob, who had played on the tennis team at the College of Wooster in Ohio, won the U.S. Father and Son doubles title in 1981.Savitt worked on rigs drilling for oil in Texas and Louisiana and then became a longtime investment banker in New York after leaving full-time tennis.The amateur tennis world where he flourished offered trophies for victories, but no prize money.“You either kept playing and taking under-the-table type payments or you ended up teaching at a club,” Savitt told The Star-Ledger of Newark in 2011. “I didn’t want to do that. I had to decide to keep playing a few more years or get out of the game and go to work in a normal position. That’s what I did.”Maia Coleman More

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      Forest Hills Stadium Hosts Davis Cup Tie for First Time Since 1959

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      A Davis Cup tie between South Africa and Venezuela is being held in front of a small group of fans at the West Side Tennis Club — the first Davis Cup action there since 1959.A week has passed since the United States Open electrified the tennis world with its enchanting unpredictability and rejuvenated fan base. But unknown to many, top flight tennis lingered in New York City as the Davis Cup made a quiet and unusual return to the West Side Tennis Club.Fewer than 200 lucky fans — all members of the venerable club — dotted the nearly century-old, 14,000-seat Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Saturday to witness the first Davis Cup tie at the venue since 1959.But the U.S. team was nowhere to be found.Instead, South Africa hosted Venezuela — two teams in search of a home. They found it, tucked into the leafy Forest Hills neighborhood, once the home of the U.S. championships (later the U.S. Open), until the event moved three miles up the Grand Central Parkway to Flushing in 1978.Ten days earlier, Lloyd Harris was there, playing in front of 20,000 fans at the U.S. Open. Saturday was entirely different. Yes, it had some of the pomp and circumstance of the Davis Cup — there was an opening ceremony with player introductions, flags and the national anthems of both countries, and team uniforms.But the raucous and rowdy atmosphere sometimes associated with many Davis Cup ties, especially in South America, was decidedly absent, at least in the opening match.Harris, who had a deep run at this year’s U.S. Open, stayed in town for the Davis Cup. He dispatched Perez fairly easily. “It’s a very unique situation, playing a tie between South Africa and Venezuela in New York,” Harris said. “But it’s pretty cool. It worked out well for me since I’ve been here the whole time. It was not too hard to travel four blocks.”If the idea of two countries from different continents playing a Davis Cup tie in the ancestral home of American tennis seemed like a mismatch, so too was Harris’s first on-court encounter. He had no trouble dispatching Brandon Perez, Venezuela’s No. 2 player, 6-0, 6-0, in the first match of the two-day event (play resumes Sunday).Perez is ranked 1,596th in the world and plays for the University of Nebraska. He knew weeks ago he would face Harris in the Davis Cup. Like many tennis fans, he watched Harris blaze through the summer season, scoring huge wins in a run that included beating Rafael Nadal in Washington before reaching the final eight in Flushing.Then, after Harris lost to the semifinalist Alexander Zverev, he moved from an Intercontinental Hotel on the east side of Manhattan — one of the main U.S. Open player hotels — to one on the West side, where the South African team was headquartered. He spent the last 10 days recuperating, practicing and sightseeing with his girlfriend. They rented bikes and went over the Brooklyn Bridge and pedaled all around downtown and up to Central Park.Harris, who is from Cape Town, has been in New York for a month — long enough to feel like a local.“I’ve learned you’ve got to move fast and drink a lot of coffee,” he said, “and watch out for the cyclists rushing past you at 200 kilometers an hour. I nearly got run over by cyclists about 10 times already.”The event had much of the pomp and circumstance of a typical Davis Cup tie, but because of the costs associated with hosting fans, the matches were played in front of around 200 members of the country club. Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela lost in the second match on Saturday. He and his wife, Melanie Maulini, toured the grounds at Forest Hills Stadium before his match.Concessions were open at the former home of the U.S. Tennis Championships — later renamed the U.S. Open — despite the crowd being so thin.Under normal conditions, Harris might have returned home to South Africa immediately after the U.S. Open. But South Africa has a high rate of coronavirus infections, making travel restrictions challenging for visitors and residents traveling back and forth. (Another tie was also held on neutral U.S. soil Friday and Saturday as New Zealand played South Korea at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.).Venezuela, meanwhile, has not been allowed to host Davis Cup matches since 2016 when the International Tennis Federation declared it unsafe for travel because of the political and economic situation.“I’m still waiting for the opportunity to play at home in front of all my friends and family,” Perez said. “Until then, I’ve got my parents here and my girlfriend.”In the second singles match on Saturday, Philip Henning of South Africa beat Venezuela’s Ricardo Rodriguez, 6-4, 6-4, as the small audience came to life on a sunny, breezy day that made at least one supporter from South Africa feel right at home.“You’ve served up a perfect South African day,” said Gavin Crookes, the president of Tennis South Africa.Philip Henning celebrated with the rest of the South African contingent after his win over Rodriguez gave the country a clean sweep of the day’s matches.Venezuela was set to be the nominal host, but it allowed South Africa to take over the role, and bringing the West Side Tennis Club into play. Jason Weir-Smith, a former college and professional player from Johannesburg, is the tennis director at the club. Tennis South Africa reached out to him, and the club was eager to host.“It was 60 years ago that the club last held a Davis Cup event,” Weir-Smith said. “It was important for us to get back on the map.”It was also the first Davis Cup match anywhere in New York since 1981, when the U.S., with John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, took on Ivan Lendl and Czechoslovakia in Flushing.Tickets for this event were not available to the public because, according to Weir-Smith, the cost for permits, insurance and staff was prohibitive for Tennis South Africa, which would have been responsible for the costs as the host nation. Instead, only 200 club members were allowed into the venue, which is more than is sometimes on hand for challenger events and college matches.The tie is being held on a blue hard court that was refurbished in July specifically for the Davis Cup tie.While the Davis Cup tie was being held at Forest Hills Stadium, the rest of the West Side Tennis Club’s courts were dotted with members getting in matches. Monika Jain, the president of the West Side club, was one of the spectators on hand Saturday. She watched from metal benches after playing a round of tennis on one of the club’s many grass, clay and hard courts.“It’s very exciting for us to be able to have this event here,” Jain said. “With our proximity to the U.S. Open, we think we can do more of this in the future.”The West Side Tennis Club, with its iconic Tudor clubhouse, was host to the U.S. championships from 1915 to 1977 and saw some of the sport’s greatest players, including Bill Tilden, Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Althea Gibson, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert win titles.It represents a different era in professional tennis, when the game was dominated by international elites. This weekend, though, it served as a temporary landing spot for some of tennis’s temporary homeless.“We would love to play in front of our people, but unfortunately we haven’t had that chance the last several years,” Rodriguez said. “On the other hand, playing at such a historic venue is very special for me. You feel the history and the great moments that happened here. To be a little part of the new history makes me proud.” More

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      Tony Trabert, a Two-Time No. 1 in Men’s Tennis, Dies at 90

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTony Trabert, a Two-Time No. 1 in Men’s Tennis, Dies at 90Trabert drew on a powerful serve-and-volley game and an outstanding backhand to win five Grand Slam tournament titles in a single year.Tony Trabert playing against Kurt Nielsen at the Wimbledon final in 1955. Wimbledon was one of five Grand Slam tournaments he won that year.Credit…Associated PressFeb. 4, 2021Updated 6:22 p.m. ETTony Trabert, who won five Grand Slam tournament titles in a single year, 1955 — three in singles and two in doubles — making him the world’s No. 1 men’s player for a second time, died on Wednesday at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He was 90. His death was announced by the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., where he was inducted in 1970.A sturdy 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, Trabert drew on a powerful serve-and-volley game and an outstanding backhand in capturing the 1955 men’s singles at the French, Wimbledon and United States championships and teaming with Vic Seixas to take the men’s doubles at the Australian and French events. He had also been ranked No. 1 in 1953.Only Don Budge, who won all four men’s singles majors in 1938, and Rod Laver, who matched that feat in 1962 and 1969, have exceeded Trabert’s 1955 singles accomplishment, a mark that has been matched by several others.Trabert, who won 10 career Grand Slam tournaments overall — five in singles and five in doubles — was described by the tennis journalist and historian Bud Collins as “the all-American boy from Cincinnati with his ginger crew cut, freckles and uncompromisingly aggressive game.”Trabert played on five Davis Cup teams in the 1950s and was later the captain of five American squads.Tennis was largely an amateur affair in Trabert’s heyday. In October 1955, 13 years before the Open era, when pros could compete against amateurs, Jack Kramer signed Trabert to a contract guaranteeing him $75,000 to join his professional tour; over the years the tour also included stars like Pancho Gonzales, Pancho Segura and the Australians Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Frank Sedgman.The United States Davis Cup team, of which Trabert was the captain, after winning the cup in 1979. From left: Vitas Gerulaitis, John McEnroe, Trabert, Stan Smith and Bob Lutz.Credit…Associated Press“I never have — or never would — admit to a weakness, because I don’t think I have a particular weakness,” he told Sports Illustrated in 1955.“I think I can play equally well with any shot,” he continued. “It’s not overconfidence or bragging. I know my capabilities and my limitations. I certainly know that because I’m reasonably big, I can’t be as quick as some of the smaller fellows who run around the court and get a lot of balls back defensively. So, quite simply, my game is that I make up in power what I lack in speed.”He went on to be a tennis commentator for CBS for more than 30 years and was president of the Tennis Hall of Fame from 2001 to 2011.Marion Anthony Trabert was born on Aug. 30, 1930, in Cincinnati, to Arch and Bea Trabert. He began hitting tennis balls at a neighborhood park at age 6. His father, a General Electric sales executive, arranged for him to take lessons from local pros when Tony was 10. Two years later, Bill Talbert, a neighbor 12 years his senior and also a future Hall of Famer, began giving him tips.“I could see in him a duplicate of myself at the same age — an intense desire to be a good player and a willingness to spend the long hours to make the grade,” Talbert wrote in “The Fireside Book of Tennis” (1972, edited by Allison Danzig and Peter Schwed).Trabert won the Ohio scholastic tennis singles title three consecutive years while at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, where he also played basketball.He teamed with Talbert to win the doubles title at the French championship in 1950 and captured the 1951 N.C.A.A. singles tennis title while at the University of Cincinnati.Trabert also played guard for the Bearcats’ basketball team, which went to the National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden in March 1951 (at a time when the tournament carried more prestige than it does today) before losing in the first round.Arantxa Sánchez Vicario of Spain in 2007 at her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, alongside Trabert, who was inducted in 1970.Credit…CJ Gunther/EPA, via ShutterstockHe joined the Navy during the Korean War and served aboard an aircraft carrier.Trabert won the men’s singles at the United States Nationals in 1953 and the French singles in 1954 before his three singles victories at Grand Slam events in 1955.After being defeated by Rosewall in the semifinals of the 1955 Australian singles championships, the first of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments, Trabert won the French championship at Roland Garros, on clay, and then won Wimbledon and the United States Nationals at Forest Hills, both on grass. He did not lose a single set at either of those two tournaments.He also won the 1955 U.S. Indoor and Clay Court titles. In addition to winning the doubles in Paris with Talbert, he won four doubles titles in Grand Slam tournaments with Seixas.Trabert played on America’s Davis Cup teams from 1951 to 1955. He made it to the 1952 event while on a Navy furlough.The United States lost to Australia in the 1951 and 1952 finals, but an especially wrenching defeat came at Melbourne in 1953. The U.S. was leading Australia in the final, 2-1, but Hoad and Rosewall, both in their teens, beat Trabert and Seixas. The Americans did defeat Australia at Sydney in the final the next year.While Trabert was captain of the American squad from 1976 to 1980, he guided two cup winners.He is survived by his wife, Vicki; a son, Mike, and a daughter, Brooke Trabert Dabkowski, from his marriage to Shauna Wood, which ended in divorce; three stepchildren, Valerie Mason and James and Robbie Valenti; 14 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.Looking back on his career, Trabert expressed no regrets about turning pro and disqualifying himself from further Grand Slam events before the arrival of the Open era.“When I won Wimbledon as an amateur, I got a 10-pound certificate, which was worth $27 redeemable at Lilly White’s Sporting Goods store in London,” he told The Florida Times-Union in 2014. “Jack Kramer offered me a guarantee of $75,000 against a percentage of the gate to play on his tour.“I made $125,000 to play 101 matches on five continents over 14 months. People say, ‘Yeah, Tony, but bread and milk was five cents.’ I say, ‘Give me Agassi’s $17 million and I’ll figure out the rest.’” Alex Traub contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More