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1968 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles
Rod Laver defeated Tony Roche in the final, 6–3, 6–4, 6–2 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 1968 Wimbledon Championships. It was his third Wimbledon singles title and seventh Grand Slam tournament singles title overall. It was the first edition of Wimbledon open to professional tennis players, marking a period in tennis history known as the Open Era. John Newcombe was the defending champion, but was defeated in the fourth round by Arthur Ashe. Seeds Rod Laver (champion) Ken Rosewall ''(fourth round)'' Andrés Gimeno ''(third round)'' John Newcombe ''(fourth round)'' Roy Emerson ''(fourth round)'' Manuel Santana ''(third round)'' Lew Hoad ''(third round)'' Pancho Gonzales ''(third round)'' Dennis Ralston ''(quarterfinals)'' Butch Buchholz ''(quarterfinals)'' Fred Stolle ''(fourth round)'' Tom Okker ''(quarterfinals)'' Arthur Ashe ''(semifinals)'' Cliff Drysdale ''(third round)'' Tony Roche ''(final)'' Nikola Pilić ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rod Laver
Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former professional tennis player. Laver was ranked as the World number 1 ranked male tennis players, world number 1 professional player indisputably for five years from 1965 to 1969, and by some sources also in 1964 and 1970. He was also ranked as the number 1 amateur in 1961 and 1962. Laver won 200 singles titles across his amateur and professional careers, the most won by any tennis player. Laver won 11 Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, Grand Slam tournament singles titles and 8 Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era, Pro major titles. He completed the Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam (winning all four majors in a calendar year) in singles twice, in 1962 and 1969; the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era. He also completed the Grand Slam (tennis)#Pro Slam, Pro Slam (winning all three pro majors in one year) in 1967. Laver won titles on all court surfaces of his time (Grass c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cliff Drysdale
Eric Clifford Drysdale (born 26 May 1941) is a South African former tennis player. After a career as a highly ranked professional player in the 1960s and early 1970s, he became a tennis announcer. Life and career Born Eric Clifford 'Cliff' Drysdale in Nelspruit (today known as Mbombela, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa) on May 26, 1941 and completed his high school at Grey High School, Port Elizabeth. Drysdale won the singles title at the Dutch Open in 1963 and 1964. In 1965, he reached the singles final of the 1965 U. S. Championships and he won the singles title at the German Championships. He defeated Rod Laver in the fourth round of the first US Open in 1968. During his Open-era career, Drysdale captured five singles titles and six doubles titles, including the 1972 US Open doubles crown with Roger Taylor. He was a pioneer of the two-handed backhand shot, which he used to great effect during his playing career. Drysdale was included among the Handsome Eight, a group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Forbes
Gordon Forbes (21 February 1934 – 9 December 2020) was a South African professional tennis player and author. Forbes won the singles title of the South African Championships in 1959 and 1961 and was runner-up in 1955, 1962, 1963 and 1964. He won the Tuscaloosa Grass Court Invitational in 1962, defeating Rod Laver in the final. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was the doubles partner of countryman Abe Segal. They were considered one of the best doubles teams in the world. Career Forbes learnt to play tennis in his childhood on the family farm. At age 12, he played and won his first junior tournament in East London. Forbes won the singles title of the South African Championships in 1959 and 1961 and was runner-up in 1955, 1962, 1963 and 1964. He won the Tuscaloosa Grass Court Invitational in 1962, defeating reigning U.S. No. 1 Whitney Reed in a marathon semifinal, and World No. 1 Rod Laver in a close four set final. He played for the South African Davis Cup team in 14 ties in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Cox (tennis)
Mark Cox (born 5 July 1943) is a former tennis player from England, who played professional and amateur tennis in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was ranked as high as world No. 12 on the ATP rankings, achieving that ranking in October 1977. Early life and education Cox was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School in Leicester and Millfield School in Somerset. He obtained an economics undergraduate degree from Downing College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club. Upon graduating from Cambridge, Cox was employed by a stockbroking firm and only turned professional in 1970. As he later admitted to sports writer James Buddell, " never really thought of tennis as a career. There was no view of open tennis, so when I initially left university, playing felt like a gap year — great fun, and the expenses helped keep my head above water." Career Cox played his first tournament on 3 November 1958 at the Torquay Indoor Championship. During his care ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herb Fitzgibbon
Herbert Fitzgibbon (born July 14, 1942) is a former tennis player who was nationally ranked in the 1960s and 1970s. Fitzgibbon played four years of high school tennis for Garden City High School and never lost a match. He played collegiate tennis at Princeton University and was a gold and bronze medalist at the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968 when tennis was a demonstration sport. Fitzgibbon won the singles title at the tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1964 and was a two-time singles runner-up (1965 and 1963) there as well. He also reached the Cincinnati doubles final with Butch Newman in 1965. In 1964, he won the Eastern Clay Court Championships title. In 1964, 1965, and 1966 he won the Long Island Championships. Fitzgibbon won the Eastern Indoor Championships in 1965, 1970,and 1971. In 1968, Fitzgibbon won against 16th-seeded Nikola Pilić in the first round at Wimbledon. The same year he won the La Coruna International in Spain against Juan Gisbert Sr. Fitzgibbon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Fairlie
Brian Fairlie (born 13 June 1948) is a New Zealand tennis player. During his career from 1968 to 1979, he won four titles in doubles, all with the Egyptian player Ismail El Shafei, and 10 singles titles in the Open era (and at least two more in 1967). Playing career Juniors Fairlie was the 1967 Boys' Singles champion of the Australian Championships. Professional Fairlie's best result in a Grand Slam was reaching the semi-finals of men's doubles at the French Open in 1971 with partner Frew McMillan. A year earlier, he reached the singles quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, losing to Tony Roche. While his highest ATP singles ranking was World No. 24 (in September 1973), Fairlie was ranked inside the world's Top 20 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1969, his first full year on the circuit, he upset former Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion John Newcombe in the quarterfinals of the Heineken Open in Auckland. The tournament's website describes the atmosphere at the event that ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Dell
Donald L. Dell (born June 17, 1938) is an American sports attorney, writer, commentator, and former tennis player. Dell was the first sports agent in professional tennis, and represented Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl during the golden age of pro tennis (1975 to 1985). He was also the founder of Professional Services ( ProServ), one of the nation's first sports marketing firms established in 1970. Dell is considered one of the fathers of sports marketing and the sports agent business along with IMG's Mark McCormack. Dell co-founded the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1972 with Jack Kramer and Cliff Drysdale. Clients of ProServ dominated the leadership roles of the ATP in its formative years. ProServ expanded into basketball, and Dell signed Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, and other top NBA players. He wrote his first book, ''Minding Other People’s Business'' in 1989 about how to recruit, manage, market, and keep client athletes, and a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marty Riessen
Marty Riessen (born December 4, 1941) is an American former amateur and professional tennis player active from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was ranked as high as No. 11 in the world in singles on the ATP rankings in September 1974, though was ranked as high as world No. 8 by Lance Tingay of ''The Daily Telegraph'' in 1971 before the computer rankings. Renowned for his doubles play, Riessen was also a regular doubles partner of Australian tennis great Margaret Court, winning six of his seven major mixed titles and a career Grand Slam alongside her. Additionally a winner of two men's doubles Grand Slams, his highest doubles ranking was No. 3 in March 1980. Career Riessen played collegiate tennis at Northwestern University, where he reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles finals three times: 1962 (falling to Rafael Osuna of University of Southern California); 1963 and 1964 (falling to Dennis Ralston of USC both times). He was a semifinalist at the NCAA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jan Kodeš
Jan Kodeš (born 1 March 1946) is a Czech former professional tennis player. A three-time major singles champion, Kodeš was one of the premier players in the early 1970s. Kodeš's greatest success was achieved on the clay courts of the French Open, where he won the singles title in 1970 and 1971. However, he also won Wimbledon on grass courts in 1973, although the tournament was largely boycotted by top players that year in a show of solidarity over the ban of Nikola Pilić by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). Kodeš never played at the Australian Open, but was twice the runner-up at the US Open, in 1971 and 1973. Kodeš reached his highest ATP ranking of world No. 5 in September 1973. During the Open Era, he won nine top-level singles titles and 17 doubles titles. Kodeš was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2013, he received the Czech Fair Play Award from the Czech Olympic Committee. He is an economics graduate of the Prague ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Smith
Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles champion (at the 1971 US Open and 1972 Wimbledon Championships), Smith also paired with Bob Lutz to create one of the most successful doubles teams of all-time. In 1970, Smith won the inaugural year-end championships title. In 1972, he was the year-end world No. 1 singles player. In 1973, he won his second and last year end championship title at the Dallas WCT Finals. In addition, he won four Grand Prix Championship Series titles. In his early years he improved his tennis game through lessons from Pancho Segura, the Pasadena Tennis Patrons, and the sponsorship of the Southern California Tennis Association headed by Perry T. Jones. Smith is a past President of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and an ITHF Life Trustee. Outside tennis circles, Smith is best known as the namesake of a line of tennis shoes made by Adidas. Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Merlo
Giuseppe "Beppe" Merlo (11 October 1927 – 17 July 2019) was an Italian tennis player. Merlo reached the semifinals of French Championships in 1955 (losing to Sven Davidson) and 1956 (losing to Lew Hoad). In the final of Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ... in 1955, Merlo led 2 sets to 1 and had 2 match points against Fausto Gardini, but minutes later had to retire with cramps. Merlo lost in the Italian Open final again in 1957 (to Nicola Pietrangeli). His other career highlights include winning the Reggio Calabria International tournament four times (1959–60, 1963, 1967) He retired from competitive tennis in 1969 when he was 41 years old. He was 91 at the time of his death in July 2019. References External links * * * 1927 births 2019 deaths ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Scott (tennis)
Eugene Lytton Scott (December 28, 1937 – March 20, 2006) was an American tennis player, tournament director, author, and publisher. His active tennis career lasted from the 1950s to mid-1970s. Scott's highest U.S. ranking as an amateur was No. 4 in 1963, and he reached as high as World No. 7 in 1967. Early years Scott was the grandson of Dr. Eugene C. Sullivan, one of the inventors of Pyrex and chair and president of Corning Glass Works. He graduated with a BA in history from Yale University in 1960, where he was a member of Skull and Bones and lettered in tennis, ice hockey, soccer, and lacrosse. He earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1964. Tennis career Scott's highest U.S. ranking as an amateur was No. 4 in 1963, and he reached as high as World No. 7 in 1967.The Baltimore Sun, 12 September 1967 At the time, he was a member of the United States Davis Cup team, and was both teammate and roommate of Arthur Ashe. They remained friends, and with Charlie P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
