Ken Rosewall
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Kenneth Robert ("Ken") Rosewall (born November 2, 1934 in Sydney, Australia) is a former champion tennis player with a renowned backhand who enjoyed an exceptionally long career at the highest levels, from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. He was one of the two best players for about nine years and the World No. 1 player in the early 1960s. During his career he was ranked among the top 20 players, amateur or professional, every year from 1952 to 1977.
Rosewall was born into a family that played tennis and owned tennis courts. A natural left-hander, he was taught by his father to play right-handed. Perhaps as a result of this unorthodox training (or in spite of it), he developed a powerful and very effective backhand but never had anything more than an accurate but relatively soft serve. He was 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) and 135 pounds, and was called "Muscles" by his fellow-players because of his lack of them. He was, however, fast, agile, and tireless, with a deadly volley. His sliced backhand was his strongest shot, and, along with the very different backhand of the earlier player Don Budge, has generally been considered one of the two best backhands of all time.
[edit] The amateur career
In October 1950, at 15 years 11 months old, Rosewall reached the semifinals of the New South Wales Metropolitan Championships (not to confuse with the New South Wales Championships) beaten by McGregor.
In January 1951 he won he first tournament in Manly.
In 1952 he entered for the first time probably the top20 in a amateur-pro combined ranking (Lance Tingay ranked him tenth with his doubles partner Lew Hoad in his amateur ranking) mainly because he reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. amateur beating U.S. seeded #1, Vic Seixas.
He was only 18 years old when he won the Australian Championships, the French Championships and the Pacific Southwest Championships men's singles titles in 1953. He also reached the quarters at Wimbledon and the semis in the U.S. defeated by Tony Trabert. At the end of the year Rosewall was then considered the second best amateur in the world (Lance Tingay) because the American confirmed his victory over Rosewall in the Challenge Round of the Davis Cup.
In 1954 Rosewall regressed a little but nevertheless reached the Wimbledon final.
By winning a second time the Australian amateur Championships he prevented Trabert from winning the Grand Slam in 1955. The American took his revenge in the U.S. amateur at Forest Hills.
Next year, partnered with Lew Hoad, he won the doubles Grand Slam in tennis, taking all four major championships. For several years in their youthful careers Rosewall and Hoad were known as "The Gold-dust Twins." In September 1956 he deprived Hoad of winning the Grand Slam by overcoming his countryman in the United States amateur Championships at Forest Hills. If Hoad was undoubtedly the best amateur in 1956 (Little Slam and capture with Australia of the Davis Cup), Rosewall was the best one in the last months of the year by defeating Hoad three times in a row (Forest Hills, Adelaide, Melbourne).
In his amateur days Rosewall won, with Australia, three Challenge Rounds of Davis Cup (1953, 1955, 1956) and 15 singles out of 17 (he later won 2 singles in the Open era). Rosewall also captured one U.S. amateur Championships (1956), one Roland Garros amateur (1953), two Australian amateur (1953, 1955) and one Pacific Southwest (1953). Moreover he reached 4 great finals (two at Wimbledon, one at Forest Hills and another one in the Australian).
[edit] Banished from the great traditional events : the pro career from 1957 to March 30, 1968
Promoter and former tennis great Jack Kramer has tried to sign the "Whiz Kids" (Hoad and Rosewall) in late 1955 without success but one year later Rosewall accepted Kramer's offer. Rosewall, during the Challenge Round of the Davis Cup, tried to convince his partner Hoad to do the same but this one turned down the proposition.
Then Rosewall played his first professional match on January 14, 1957 at Kooyong (Melbourne) against the reigning king of professional tennis, Pancho Gonzales. But as Rosewall explained it later there was a huge gap between the amateurs level and the pros level : in their series of head-to-head matches in Australia and in the US (until May) Rosewall was clearly beaten by Gonzales, 50 matches to 26. During this period Rosewall also entered two tournaments, the Australian Pro at Sydney in February and the U.S. Pro at Cleveland in April : he was respectively crushed in straight-sets by Sedgman (second best pro in 1956) and by Segura (third best pro in 1956). This confirmed the difference of level between the best professionals and the best amateurs at the time. After World War II among the best amateurs, players such as Dinny Pails, Frank Parker, Ken McGregor, Ashley Cooper, Mal Anderson, Mervyn Rose, Alex Olmedo, Barry MacKay, Earl "Butch" Buchholz or Fred Stolle failed in the pro ranks. But nevertheless other talented and hard working players succeeded after a few months or a year, to win some great pro events : Kramer, Pancho Segura, Gonzales, Frank Sedgman, Trabert, Hoad, Andres Gimeno, Rod Laver. Rosewall was also in this case and in September 1957 he caught the Wembley crown over Segura in a tournament where only Sedgman and Trabert among the best were missing. At the end of the year Rosewall won an Australian tour featuring Hoad, Sedgman and Segura.
In 1958 Rosewall had the opportunity to show that he was yet one of the best if not the best player on clay. The previous year no French Pro (also entitled World Pro Championships on Clay when organized at Roland Garros) had been held but in 1958 the French Pro came back and Rosewall beat successively Kramer, Sedgman and an injured Hoad to claim the title. Rosewall was also second at Forest Hills Pro and second (with Gonzales and Sedgman) in Los Angeles (the two last tournaments being one of the most important of the year).
In 1959 for the first time since he turned pro he led Gonzales, still the pro king, in head-to-head matches, 3-2 (even 5-2 according to The Times (New York) and the Sunday Times (of England) wrote Peter Rowley in Ken Rosewall Twenty Years at the Top p 182). Besides that Rosewall won the two 1959 editions of the Queensland pro (in January and in December).
Next year Rosewall was incorporated in a new World Pro tour, from January to May, featuring Gonzales, Segura and the new recruit Alejandro "Alex" Olmedo. This tour was perhaps the peak of Gonzales's entire career. The finals standings were : 1) Gonzales 49 matches won - only 8 lost, 2) Rosewall 32-25, 3) Segura 22-28, 4) Olmedo 11-44. Rosewall was therefore far behind Gonzales in this tour, the American having won almost all their direct confrontations (14-3 sure and probably 15-4). Halfway through the North American part of the tour the standings were Gonzales 23-1 (his only match lost 6-4 4-6 13-11 to Olmedo in Philadelphia) and Rosewall 11-13.
Just after Gonzales played and won a minor tournament on May 16, 1960 and decided to retire (as often it was temporary because rapidly needing money Gonzales was back on December 30, 1960). In the absence of Gonzales Rosewall became clearly the leader, winning 6 tournaments in particular the two greatest tournaments of the year, the French Pro at Roland Garros and Wembley (Hoad was finalist in Paris and captured also four tournaments making him second to Rosewall).
In "2006 standards" Gonzales would not have been ranked number one because he has only played 4 and a half months in 1960 (one tour and one tournament) : he wouldn't have accumulated enough "Race points" to be the first but in 50's or 60's standards he was, for many (McCauley in particular) the number one (at the time Hoad considered Gonzales the best and Rosewall didn't consider himself as the pro king) but others thought that Rosewall's successes in the very big tournaments made him the number one in the world. Robert Geist who ranks them equal proposes a good compromise between the diverse opinions.
After ten years of World touring, Rosewall decided to take long holidays in order to profit from his family : he didn't enter any competition in the first half of 1961 (but he trained his long-time friend Hoad when the pros toured in Australia) where Gonzales back to the courts (after a seven and a half-month retirement) won another World tour featuring Hoad, Olmedo (replacing Rosewall), Gimeno and the two new recruits MacKay and Buchholz (Segura, Trabert, Cooper and Sedgman sometimes replaced the injured players). In summer Rosewall returned to the circuit and won the two biggest events by far (because there were all the best players and these events had a small tradition : the French Pro at Roland Garros (clay) and Wembley Pro (wood)) in 1961. At Roland Garros the Australian captured the title by beating Gonzales in the final 2-6 6-4 6-3 8-6 and at Wembley he defeated in the final Hoad, Gonzales's winner in the semifinals.
After having won on clay and on wood Rosewall ended the season by winning on grass at the New South Wales Championships, Sydney, proving he was an all-court player and then the best one.
Robert Roy of L'Équipe, Kléber Haedens and Philippe Chatrier of Tennis de France, Michel Sutter (who has published "Vainqueurs 1946-1991 Winners"), Christian Boussus (1931 Roland Garros amateur finalist), Peter Rowley, Robert Geist, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Rod Laver and also the New York Times and World Tennis magazine considered Rosewall as the new #1 in the world.
Then Rosewall has completely dominated the pro circuit : not only he has retained his Wembley and Roland Garros crowns still the two biggest events by far in 1962 but he has also won 5 (Adelaide, Melbourne, Geneva, Milan and Stockholm) of the next 6 biggest tournaments (in 1962 there have been only small tours not very important). He has thus captured 7 of the 8 biggest events that year, the only one he lost was Zurich where he was defeated in the semifinals by Segura who in his turn left the title to Hoad (Rosewall also won 2 small tournaments in New Zealand and 1 more, the Australian TV Series).
McCauley has traced 6 Rosewall's defeats in the whole year but Trabert (in Tennis de France) wrote that in an Australian TV series in February Rosewall has won 10 matches consecutively but has lost the last one (to Hoad) so Rosewall has lost at least 7 matches in 1962 (it is yet very little).
Since Hoad has turned pro in July 1957 no very great player, except perhaps Gimeno, became professional : the best pro ranking ever reached by the best amateurs (Ashley Cooper, Mal Anderson, Rose, Olmedo, Buchholz, MacKay, Ayala) who joined the pro ranks after Hoad, was the fifth place of Buchholz in 1963 (according to Sedgman in January 1964) and in 1964 (see official points rankings below). In January 1963 a great amateur player, Rod Laver (winner with Australia of the Davis Cup and titlist of 21 amateur tournaments including the four Grand Slam tournaments), made his pro debut.
Once more the best pros proved they were the best ones. In an Australasian tour (Australia + New Zealand) played on grass Rosewall defeated Laver 11 matches to 2 (and Hoad crushed Laver 8-0). Followed a US tour with Rosewall and Laver again, Gimeno, Ayala and two Americans Buchholz and MacKay (Hoad was not chosen because there would have been to many Australians). In the first phase (lasting two months and a half) of this tour each player faced each other one about eight times, Rosewall ended first (31 matches won - 10 lost), Laver second (26-16), Buchholz third (23-18), Gimeno fourth (21-20), MacKay fifth (12-29) and Ayala sixth (11-30). In the first month (the detailed results of the month and a half left are unknown) Rosewall faced Laver 4 times without any defeat. Then a second and final phase of the tour opposed the first (Rosewall) and the second (Laver) of the first phase to determine the final winner (the third (Buchholz) met the fourth (Gimeno)). In 18 matches Rosewall beat Laver 14 times to definitely conquer the US tour first place (Gimeno beat Buchholz 11-7). Then came in mid-May the season of the tournaments. In those occasions Rosewall only beat Laver 4-3 but Rosewall won 5 tournaments (against 4 to Laver) and in particular the 3 or 4 greatest tournaments of the year 1963 : chronologically the U.S. Pro at Forest Hills (without Gimeno and Sedgman) on grass where he defeated Laver 6-4 6-2 6-2, the French Pro at Coubertin on wood where his victim in the final was again Laver who later praised his winner (in his autobiography "The education of a tennis player" page 151 Laver wrote "...I played the finest tennis I believe I've ever produced, and he beat me"), The Wembley Pro on wood (Hoad finalist) and the Italian Pro at Rome (Laver beaten 6-4 6-3 in the final). In those biggest tournaments Rosewall has won 4 times whereas Laver has reached 3 finals and 1 quarters (Wembley), "Rocket" (Laver’s nickname) becoming thus the second player in the world. If we except 4 (or 5) unknown results in confrontations which took place in the first phase of the US tour phase, in 1963 Rosewall has then beaten Laver 33 matches to 9. Knownig that Rosewall had also won the greatest events this clearly indicates that not only Rosewall was the number one in 1963 but also that the best pros were almost surely the best players in the world during the previous years.
In 1964 Rosewall has won one very big tournament : the French Pro over Laver on wood (at Coubertin). At the end of the South African tour, Rosewall also beat Laver 6-4 6-1 6-4 in a Challenge Match considered by some as a World Championship match, held in Ellis Park, Johannesburg. In the official pro points rankings (7 points for the winner, 4 points for the finalist, 3 points for the third player, 2 for the fourth one and 1 point to each quarter-finalists) taking into account 17 (or 18) pro tournaments, Rosewall ended #1 in 1964 with 78 points, the next players were Laver #2 (70 points), Gonzales #3 (48 points), Gimeno #4 (47 points), Buchholz #5 (31 points), Hoad #6 (29 points), Olmedo #7 (26 points) and Ayala #8 (7 points). Nevertheless that ranking a) brushed aside at least 11 or 12 tournaments because McCauley has traced at least 29 pro tournaments played by the touring pros (plus some minor tournaments) and several short tours and b) granted each tournament the same points and then was unfair to the big events where Laver was globally superior to Rosewall.
The majority of tennis witnesses (Joe McCauley, Robert Geist, Michel Sutter... among the journalists and the players themselves) agreed this points rankings for they considered Rosewall the number one in 1964. Rod Laver himself after his triumph over Rosewall at Wembley said "I’ve still plenty of ambitions left and would like to be the World’s No.1. Despite this win, I am not that yet – Ken is. I may have beaten him more often than he has beaten me this year but he has won the biggest tournaments except here. I’ve lost to other people but Ken hasn’t.".
Laver has made a great season and could too claim the top rank. "Rocket" has captured two very great tournaments, a) the U.S. Pro (outside Boston) over Rosewall (suffering from food poisoning) and Gonzales and b) Wembley pro over Rosewall in one of their best match ever (Gonzales has won the probably fourth greatest tournament of that year, the U.S. Pro Indoors, at White Plains, defeating in succession Anderson, Laver, Hoad and Rosewall). Laver was equal to Rosewall in big direct confrontations, 2 all (Coubertin and Johannesburg for Rosewall, US Pro and Wembley for Laver).
Rosewall has the edge over Laver if we consider their clashes against their greatest rival, Gonzales : that year Rosewall has beaten Gonzales 11 times out of 14 while Laver was beaten by Gonzales 7 times out of 12. But Laver won one more tournament (including small 4-man events) than Rosewall (11 to 10) and above all Rocket was clearly superior to Rosewall in minor direct confrontations, defeating Rosewall ten times out of eleven making thus a 1964 Laver-Rosewall win-loss record of 12-3. So the pros leadership began to change.
Next year until mid-September Rosewall and Laver were quite equal, the latter winning more tournaments including the US Pro Indoors at New York City and the Masters Pro at Los Angeles but Rosewall struck two great blows during the summer 1965 by winning very easily the U.S. Pro on the Longwood C.C (outside Boston) grass courts crushing Gonzales, 6-3 6-2 6-4, and Laver, 6-4 6-3 6-3, in the last rounds and again Laver, 6-3 6-2 6-4, in the French Pro on the fast wooden courts at Coubertin. But from Wembley to the end of the year, Laver became irresistible and Rosewall had to recognize Laver's supremacy.
1966 was the year of the greatest rivalry between the two Australians who dominated all the other players. They shared all the titles and the finals of the five greatest tournaments. Rosewall won the Madison Square Garden (the biggest prize money ever to date) and his cherish French Pro tournaments over Laver, the latter capturing Forest Hills Pro, the U.S. Pro (outside Boston) and Wembley Pro with Rosewall finalist (or second) each time. Of the main tournaments contested by the troupe, Laver won 9, Rosewall 8 and Gimeno 3. If we include lesser tournaments Laver won 15, Rosewall 9 and Gimeno 6. In head-to-head matches between Rosewall and Laver, Rosewall won 6 out of 13. Rosewall was then the clear undisputed vice-king of the courts.
Rosewall's true decline began in 1967 when many players defeated several times Sydney's Little Master. Not only Laver reached the apogee of his career, almost invincible on fast courts and then the undisputed pros' king, but Gimeno threatened Rosewall's second place. The 20 main tournaments of the year where shared by a) Laver, ten titles including the 5 biggest ones, all played on fast courts (U.S. Pro outside Boston, French Pro, Wembley Pro, Wimbledon Pro, Madison Square Garden, World Pro in Oklahoma, Boston Pro (not to confuse with the U.S. Pro), Newport R.R., Johannesburg Ellis Park, Coubertin Pro in April (not to confuse with the French Pro at Coubertin in October)), b) Rosewall, six titles (Los Angeles, Berkeley, U.S. Pro Hardcourt in St Louis, Newport Beach, Durban and Cape Town), c) Gimeno, three titles (Cincinnati, East London, Port Elizabeth) and d) Stolle, one tournament (Transvaal Pro). Including lesser tournaments Laver's supremacy was even more obvious : 1) Laver 18 tournaments plus two small tours, 2) Rosewall 7 tournaments, 3) Stolle 4 tournaments and 4) Gimeno 3 tournaments. In head-to-head matches Rosewall trailed Laver 5-8 and was equal to Gimeno 7-7 (Gimeno-Laver : 4-12).
Before 1967 Gimeno was always led by Rosewall in direct confrontations but that year they split their matches (Rosewall defeated Gimeno in Los Angeles, Madison Square Garden, St Louis, Newport, Johannesburg (challenge match), Durban and Wembley whereas Gimeno won in Cincinnati, U.S. Pro, East London, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg (tournament), Marseille, French Pro). Having won much more tournaments than Gimeno, Rosewall deserved nevertheless the second place behind Laver, the latter being for the first year the #1 by far after the 1964-1966 close rivalry between the two Australians.
Forbidden to contest the greatest traditional events during nearly 11 years and 4 months (11 Davis Cup, 11 Wimbledon amateur, 11 U.S. amateur, 11 French amateur, 12 Australian amateur) from 1957 to March 30, 1968, Rosewall has reached his best level during this period (in particular from 1960 to 1966) by winning at least 61 tournaments (including 16 less-than-eight-man events) and 7 small tours.
[edit] The "Open-Closed" career : March 30, 1968 - July 1972
There were different sort of players in 1968 :
- the supposed amateur players, dependant of their national and international federations, allowed to play the amateur events and also the open events but couldn't receive official prize money,
- the registered players, also dependant of their national and international federations so eligible to play the Davis Cup and forbidden to play pro events as an amateur, but authorized to take prize money in the open events contrary to an amateur (what an oddly situation, example : Okker)
- the professionals under contract with NTL who had to play NTL tournaments
- the professionals under contract with WCT who had to play WCT tournaments (at the beginning of the open era Dave Dixon, WCT boss, didn't allow his players to enter tournaments where NTL players were present : there was no WCT player at the two first open tournaments, Bournemouth and Roland Garros 1968, while all the NTL players were present). The first tournament where NTL and WCT players competed against each others, was the U.S. Pro, held at Longwood outside Boston in June 1968 between Roland Garros Open and Wimbledon Open
- the freelance professionals (Hoad, Ayala, Owen Davidson, Mal Anderson, ...).
In 1968 there were a) an amateur circuit including the Davis Cup (that event will be "closed" to any "contract" professional until 1972 included) and the Australian Championships, b) two pro circuits : the "World Championship of Tennis (WCT)" circuit and the "National Tennis League (NTL)" circuit which met on 4 tournaments, c) an open circuit (with a little more than 10 tournaments).
Many events were then still reserved to the amateur players between 1968 to 1972.
Two tournaments were at the top in 1968 : Wimbledon (a 128-man field) and the US Open (a 100-man field), played on grass, where all the best competed.
The third position can probably be claimed by Roland Garros Open as being a Grand Slam tournament but with a field less strong than the two first ones because among the best claycourt players were missing in particular Santana, Okker and Newcombe, Roche (as the 6 other WCT players).
Next probably came the first Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles (64-man field, played on hardcourt) with all the best players.
Behind these four tournaments, the next ones (in disorder) were possibly the Queen's Club tournament (the Graebner-Okker final cancelled due to rain which also delayed the first matches in Wimbledon) and the greatest pro tournaments where all the pros (NTL and WCT) could compete (but without any leading amateur or registered player) as the U.S. Pro (outside Boston, on grass), the French Pro (coming back to Roland Garros after the 5-edition interlude at Coubertin), the Jack Kramer Tournament of Champions at Wembley in November (and perhaps the Madison Square Garden Pro in December with the 4 best pros of each organization).
In this context Rosewall played in 1968 almost all the NTL pro tournaments, the four "NTL-WCT" tournaments and some open tournaments. He then entered his first "open" tournament at 33 years 5 months and 19 days, not very young to say the least, at Bournemouth on clay ("open" because among the pros only the NTL players entered and the amateurs were mainly British) : he successively defeated Gimeno and Laver. In the second open tournament, Roland Garros (then the first Grand Slam Open tournament) Rosewall confirmed his status of the probably best claycourt player in the world (in fact since 1960 but 1966). Then he knew some bad defeats by some of the uprising 1967 amateur players (Roche twice on grass at the US Pro and at Wimbledon open, Newcombe on clay at the French Pro and Okker still on grass at the U.S. Open) but his end of the year was better : he reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open, he was finalist to Laver of the Pacific Southwest Open, defeating in their single 1968 meeting the new US Open winner, Arthur Ashe, 6-3 6-2 and in November he captured the Wembley pro tournament over WCT player, John Newcombe. At 34 Rosewall was still ranked #3 in the world behind Laver and Ashe by Lance Tingay and Bud Collins.
His true decline having begun in 1967, 1969 confirmed it : Rosewall wasn't then anymore the best claycourt player because Laver stole him the crown in the final of Roland Garros and moreover the Little Master just won two tournaments that year and was ranked #5 by Collins and Tingay.
Having won, at 35, almost all the great events but Wimbledon, this tournament became Rosewall's priority in the 70's. The obvious reason this tournament eluded him was that Rosewall was forbidden to enter the tournament for ten editions (1957-1966, in 1967, a pro tournament was held, Laver beating Rosewall in the final (in fact Laver and Rosewall are then respectively five times winner and five times finalist of the tournament and not four times as always told) when he was at his best and particularly from 1961 to 1965 (except 1964) when he was probably the best grasscourt player.
Knowing that he could reached the last rounds of the French tournament and then being too tired to correctly play at Wimbledon as he made the experience in 1968 and 1969 (he lost as early as the 4th and 3rd round those years at Wimbledon), Rosewall then decided not to play anymore Roland Garros in the 70's in order to be in good condition for Wimbledon.
Being a NTL player at the beginning of 1970 he didn't play the Australian Open held at the White City courts at Sydney in January (if the NTL players were absent, the WCT players were there) because McCall, the NTL boss, and his players thought (it is true) that prize money was very low for a Grand Slam tournament. But two months later, in March, a tournament, sponsored by Dunlop, was organized at the same site, with a much more dense field because of a) a better prize-money and b) a better date : there was about the same best players as in the Grand Slam tournament and in addition this time not only the NTL pros came but even some independent pros who usually never made the trip Down Under as Nastase (this one never played an Australian tournament and particularly the Grand Slam tournament before the 1981 Australian Open when he was largely past his prime, at 35 years old, if we except ... the March 1970 Dunlop tournament at Sydney). Many considered this tournament as the unofficial Australian Open with Laver dominating Rosewall in five sets. After the weak Roland Garros without any WCT (this organization having absorbed the NTL then had about 24 players under contract) player and particularly Rosewall who in any case wouldn't have entered the tournament for the reason explained above, all the best met at Wimbledon. This time a rested Rosewall reached the final (after his two previous years disappointments) and extended the young Newcombe, his 9 and a half-year-old junior, to 5 sets but without success. 2 months later in the U.S. Open (one of the two 1970 Grand Slam tournaments with all the best players) Rosewall took a bitter revenge in their semifinal clash in three straight sets before overcoming Tony Roche in the final.
To fight against the WCT and NTL promoters who controlled their own players not allowed to compete where they wanted (now a Federer or a Davydenko can enter any tournament he wishes whereas a Stolle or a Newcombe couldn't choose their tournaments in those years), Kramer invented, probably in December 1969, the Grand Prix circuit open to every player. The first Grand Prix circuit was born in 1970 including 20 tournaments from Bournemouth (begun on April 27) to Stockholm (ended on December 1). These tournaments gave points according their categories and the players's performances and the top six players in ranking points were invited in a big 6-man tournament called the Masters (at Tokyo) held for the first time. All the amateurs and all the independent pros fully invested themselves in this circuit while the contract pros played firstly their circuit and eventually played in some Grand Prix tournaments (for instance Roy Emerson ended third in the prize money rankings because he concentrated (and had to) mainly on the NTL-WCT circuit whereas he was ranked only 20th in the Grand Prix circuit. But Rosewall or Laver succeeded well in the two circuits. The final Grand Prix ranking was 1) Cliff Richey (independent pro), 2) Arthur Ashe (independent pro), 3) Ken Rosewall (contract pro). Thus qualified for the Masters Rosewall was again third behind 1) Stan Smith, the winner (a U.S. Army employee who had to serve his "boss" just after the Masters in December 1970 until April next year, then missing all the tournaments including the Australian Open in March 1971) and 2) his 1970 nemesis, Laver.
Nevertheless after his 1967-1969 steady decline, 1970 saw a rejuvenated Rosewall who was just one set short of winning the two greatest competitions by far.
1970 was a year where no player really dominated the circuit and different arguments can be given to designate the World Champion
Some, among them Newcombe himself and the panel of journalists which made the WCT draw for 1971, considered Laver as the best player in 1970 because he had won much more tournaments (13), much more money and had a very positive head-to-head record against the best players (he led Rosewall 5-0 (Dunlop Open at Sydney, St. Louis WCT, New York (Tennis Champions Classic), Louisville and the Masters at Tokyo) and Newcombe 3-0 (Queen's Club, Louisville, Los Angeles) but Rocket miserably failed at Wimbledon and Forest Hills, the two big tournaments of that year, losing each time in the round of 16.
Other tennis witnesses, as Joe McCauley or Lance Tingay, ranked Newcombe first because he has won the greatest tournament, Wimbledon (Rosewall #2 in both rankings, Laver respectively #3 and #4, Roche respectively #4 and #3).
But if we consider that Wimbledon and Forest Hills were the two big events of 1970 there remains Newcombe (Wimbledon's winner) and Rosewall (Forest Hills's winner) to chose the number one player in the world. If we except the fifth set lost by Rosewall against Newcombe at Wimbledon, many statistics favour Rosewall :
- in their two Grand Slam tournaments clashes each one has won one match but Newcombe has won the greater title (advantage Newcombe) and Rosewall has won more sets (5-3) (advantage Rosewall)
- Rosewall ended third in the Grand Prix circuit and Newcombe ended seventh and then didn't even qualify for the Masters where only the 6 first were admitted. Rosewall also finished third of the Masters (advantage Rosewall)
- In the other tournaments with the best fields (US Pro indoor at Philadelphia, US Pro outside Boston, Dunlop Open at Sydney, Pacific Southwest in Los Angeles and Wembley) both players were even : Rosewall was runner-up at Dunlop and semi-finalist at Wembley and Newcombe was runner-up at Los Angeles and semi-finalist at Philadelphia
- In the Pro circuit including the First Annual Tennis Champions Classic and the WCT circuit, Rosewall has a better record than Newcombe. In Tennis Champions Classic, a succession of challenge matches, Newcombe played and lost his two matches against the old Gonzales (6-4 6-4 6-2) and the old ... Rosewall (5-7 7-5 6-1 6-2) while Rosewall ended second of the event, winning 4 matches and losing 2. In the WCT circuit Rosewall won 2 tournaments and Newcombe only one (advantage Rosewall)
- In all the circuits Rosewall has won 6 tournaments out of 24 and Newcombe only 4 out of 24 (slight advantage to Rosewall).
- In head-to-head matches Rosewall has beaten Newcombe 5 times out of 6 (Rosewall's only defeat was at Wimbledon) (very clear advantage to Rosewall).
- Finally Rosewall earned $140,455 while Newcombe $78,251.
Judith Elian of the French sports paper L'Équipe, approved this statistics by ranking Rosewall as the number one player (ahead of Newcombe) and the panel of experts for the 'Martini and Rosso' Cup, also had Rosewall at Nr.1 narrowly over ... Laver.
Finally, again another opinion was emitted which was probably the best compromise between all the diverse opinions : the three Australians ranked co-number ones as Robert Geist wrote in his book DER GRÖSSTE MEISTER Die denkwürdige Karriere des australischen Tennisspielers Kenneth Robert Rosewall.
After his finals at Sydney and at Wimbledon and his victory at the U.S. Open in 1970 Rosewall continued in 1971 his good performances in the great grasscourt tournaments. One year after the first Dunlop Open held in Sydney, Rosewall was back for the second Dunlop tournament at Sydney which was this time the real Australian Open, held in March 1971 on the White City Courts. For once this tournament deserved the 'Grand Slam tournament' label. Among the 14 first editions of the Open tournament (1969-1982) only the 1969 and the 1971 editions had a strong field with many (but not all) of the best players. Since it was sponsored by Dunlop in 1971 all the WCT players (including the ancient NTL players since spring 1970) entered (Newcombe, Rosewall, Laver, Roche, Okker, Ashe (a WCT player since the beginning of the year) and so on) and some independent pros also came (nevertheless Smith (under Army's service), Richey, Graebner and the not yet good grasscourt players Nastase and Kodes were missing). In this tournament Rosewall lost no sets and defeated Roy Emerson, Tom Okker and Arthur Ashe in the last rounds and therefore won his second consecutive Grand Slam tournament.
As most (but not all) WCT players Rosewall didn't play Roland Garros (as in 1970) and still tried to reach his seventies goal, Wimbledon : in the quarterfinals Rosewall had to fight for about four hours against Richey, 6-8 5-7 6-4 9-7 7-5 whereas Newcombe had a very easy match against Dibley, 6-1 6-2 6-3. Therefore in the semis the old Rosewall was no match for the fitted Newcombe. Later Rosewall, as some (but not all) other WCT players (Laver, Gimeno, Emerson, Drysdale, Stolle, Roche ...), was absent at Forest Hills (due obviously to the growing conflict between the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) and the WCT organization but also because of his children's illnesses).
As a contract pro Rosewall couldn't play the Davis Cup and thus concentrated mainly on the WCT circuit organized similarly to the Grand Prix circuit (then became the equivalent for the independent pros) : 20 tournaments (including the Australian Open that year), each giving the same points amount and the top eight players in ranking WCT points were invited in a big 8-man tournament (the 21th), the WCT Finals (the equivalent of the Grand Prix Masters for the WCT players), played in November at Houston (quarters and semis) and at Dallas (final). When the WCT players were off they could play tournaments of the other pro circuit, managed by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) ("The officials"), the Grand Prix circuit (supposed to be the "Traditional circuit") rather reserved in 1971 to the "independent pros". Nevertheless that year some tournaments (for example the Berkeley tournament which had a stronger field than the US Open's) were held by both organizations. But the war between "The officials" and WCT climaxed in a ban by the ILTF beginning on January 1, 1972, of the WCT players from the Grand Prix circuit.
Rosewall ended third of the 1971 WCT circuit behind Laver and Okker : then qualified for the the 8-man WCT Finals he took the title, taking his revenge over Newcombe (who had beaten Rosewall at Wimbledon) in the quarters, defeating Okker in the semis and beating Laver, 6-4 1-6 7-6 7-6, in the final in what was considered at the time as the best match, with their 1970 Sydney final, between the two rivals since their 1968 Roland Garros final.
Though he has played few Grand Prix tournaments, as a WCT player, he had enough Grand Prix Points to play the Masters held about ten days after his WCT Finals victory but he refused the invitation for he was very tired after such a long season and he took his holidays of end of the year (Newcombe knew the identical situation and acted the same and strangely enough both players came back at the same tournament, the 1972 Australian Open).
Rosewall won 8 tournaments and about 79.2% of his matches (76 out of 96) in 1971. In direct confrontations he trailed Newcombe 1-3, Laver 2-3 but has dominated Smith 1-0 (Rosewall never met Kodes that year).
Collins, Elian or Geist ranked Rosewall third after Newcombe and/or Smith. Tingay ranked Rosewall 4th, Rino Tommasi 1st, and the Martini-Rossi award was given jointly to Smith and Newcombe : that year too, as in 1970, there was no clearly undisputed number one.
1972 was a true return to separate circuits because all the traditional events organized by the ILTF and held from January 1 to July were forbidden to the WCT players : as ever the Davis Cup but also Roland Garros and Wimbledon. The 1972 Australian Open organizers used a trick to avoid the ILTF's ban of the WCT players : they held the tournament from the previous year, on December 26, 1971, that is to say six days before the ILTF's ban could be applied, to January 2, 1972. Thus all the contract (and, of course, independent) pros could have come but few were interested because the tournament was held during Christmas and the New Year's Day. In moving the dates from March (in 1971) to December-January they almost killed the tournament which happily strengthened since 1983. A fragile agreement in the spring of 1972 let the WCT players come back to the traditional circuit in August (in Merion, WCT players Okker and Roger Taylor played, the latter defeating independent pros Connors and Malcolm Anderson in the final rounds) : thus the U.S. Open, won by Ilie Nastase, was the very greatest event of the year. Only in this tournament all the best valid players were present without any exception (Tony Roche suffering from his tennis elbow for most of the 1971-1973 period, wasn't there). Later that year two other tournaments had good fields with WCT and independent pros : the Pacific Southwest Open at Los Angeles and to a lesser extent, Stockholm both won by Stan Smith.
In many 1972 rankings there were 6 or 7 WCT players in the world top10 (the 3 or 4 independent pros were Smith, Nastase, Orantes and sometimes Gimeno (an ancient NTL then WCT player)) so the WCT Finals held in May at Dallas were considered as one of (if not the first) the greatest events after the U.S. Open. In what is considered one of the two best matches played in 1972 (with the Wimbledon final) and the best Rosewall-Laver match of the open era (Laver wrote that the two Australians have played better matches between them in the obscure pre-open days, citing their 1963 French Pro final as a summit; McCauley, as a lucky witness, considered the same thing for their 1964 Wembley final), Rosewall won his last very great title of his long career, 4-6 6-0 6-3 6-7 7-6.
Because of the ILTF's ban once again Rosewall couldn't enter Wimbledon.
[edit] The real Open career : August 1972 - 1980
As explained before from August 1972 the players could enter almost all the tournaments they wanted and the real open era began (at Forest Hills they created the ATP)
Rosewall won 7 tournaments in 1972 (including the very depleted Australian Open) and was ranked, by Judith Elian or Tingay or McCauley, #3 behind Smith and Nastase (Bud Collins permuting Nastase and Rosewall).
The beginning of 1973 was identical to the second half of 1972 for Rosewall : a desert. After his second round loss at the 1972 U.S. Open (against Mark Cox) he recorded his probable worst defeat in his whole career against Karl Meiler in his first match (second round) of the 1973 Australian Open (once again with a very weak field because as in 1972 just Rosewall and Newcombe among the Top20 came). More important : between May 1972 (victory at Dallas) and April 1973 (victory at Houston, River Oaks) Rosewall captured only two minor titles, Tokyo WCT (not giving points for the WCT Finals) and Brisbane (in December 1972) where the only Top20 player was himself. If 1967 has been the first year of a relative decline with however many highlights, 1973 (and more accurately his "after-Dallas 1972") has been the real start of Rosewall's true decline : admittedly he was still one of the best players but not one fighting for the first place.
Still no Rosewall at Wimbledon (the edition of the ATP players' boycott).
His best performances in 1973 were firstly his semifinal at the U.S. Open (as in 1972 the greatest event of the year) and secondly his 3rd place at the WCT Finals (he was beaten by Ashe in the semis and defeated Laver for 3rd place). He also won at Houston WCT (already told), Cleveland WCT, Charlotte WCT, Osaka and Tokyo.
1974 was the first year since 1952 that Rosewall hasn't win any single tournament : he entered 8 tournaments (the one at Hong-Kong not finished because of rain) and reached 3 finals including Wimbledon and Forest Hills. Due to the two last strong performances he was ranked between the second (Tingay) and the seventh place (Collins) by many tennis journalists (only 7th in the ATP rankings because he played too few tournaments knowing that he succumbed to the charms of the World Team Tennis "organization" ("circus" would be a more appropriate term)).
He still stayed in the Top10 (ATP, Collins, Tommasi) or the Top15 in 1975 winning 5 tournaments (Jackson, Houston-River Oaks, Louisville, Gstaad, Tokyo Gunze Open) and his two singles in Davis Cup against New-Zealand (this event has been finally open to contract pros in 1973 : that year Rosewall was selected by Neale Fraser for the semifinals doubles). Rosewall made his last attempt at Wimbledon, at over 40, and as in his first Wimbledon Open (in 1968) he lost in the same round (4th) and against the same player (Tony Roche).
In 1976 Rosewall quit the Top10 but stayed in the Top20 for he won 3 tournaments Brisbane, Jackson WCT and Hong-Kong (over Nastase then the 3rd player in the world).
1977 was the Rosewall's last year in the Top20 : this means he has been one of the best players for 26 years (in the Top20 from 1952 to 1977). He won his last tournament at Hong-Kong at 43 years old.
Then he gradually retired and in October 1980, at nearly 46, he played his last tournament at Melbourne indoor defeating Butch Walts, the American ranked #49 by the ATP, in the first round before Paul McNamee ended Rosewall's career.
[edit] One of the greatest players of all time though being also one of the most underrated players
It is almost sure that from 1948 the best player in the world of a given year, has always been a professional player. Knowing that the pros couldn’t enter any traditional event organized by the International Federation (Davis Cup, ...) or by any National Federation (Grand Slam tournaments, ...) until at least April 1968, their great successes are now almost completely forgotten because today’s foundations are the Grand Slam tournaments.
For instance Budge in 1939 or Kramer in 1949 were as dominant as Federer is in the mid-2000s but being pros at the time they don’t appear in the Wimbledon or the US championships roll of those years. Consequently all the great players who have had a great pro career before 1968 are underrated and Ken Rosewall is no exception.
Because Rosewall has reached his peak in the forgotten pro circuit before 1968 and because his personality was overshadowed by those of Hoad (in the amateur circuit) and Gonzales (in the pro circuit) he is extremely underrated. Imagine that in 1963 when he was by far the number one in the world his anonymity was such that once he was refused to enter the Madison Square Garden while he had to play. His very humble answer to the guard was : "I am one of the players".
Many persons have asked Rosewall how many Grand Slam tournaments he would have won if open tennis had existed at his time and he said : "It’s difficult to say. I could beat the good players and lost to the best players ... I wasn’t handicapped by any physical problems, so there’s good chance I would have won more Grand Slams;" and he added in his usual very modest manner : "if not I would have gone pretty close".
Indeed the answer is not easy not to say impossible. Nevertheless a rough estimation can be made by trying to analyse Rosewall's career by distinguishing two periods : until 1967 and from 1968 :
a) Until 1967 the greatest events were held in the pro ranks. Therefore it is arguable to say that a) Rosewall’s successes in the amateurs ranks were all devaluated whereas b) his pro triumphs were the truly great ones. He won a weak Roland Garros amateur in 1953 because the four best players (Kramer, Segura, Sedgman Gonzales), being all professionals, were absent. But his French Pro victory in 1958 at the same Roland Garros stadium was a great triumph because all the best players (Gonzales, Sedgman, Hoad, Segura, Trabert) also entered alongside the Australian player.
b) Since 1968 tennis was open but frequent disputes occurred between the International Federation, the WCT promoters and the incipient ATP association and then involved many players defections in some Grand Slam tournaments. Wimbledon 1972 was forbidden to all the pros under contract with the WCT, the 1973 edition was boycotted by the ATP ; the WCT didn’t enter Roland Garros 1970, few came in 1971 and none could enter the 1972 edition. Some WCT players didn’t play the 1971 U.S. Open and finally almost all the Australian Opens from 1970 to 1982 had weak fields because they were held during Christmas and the New Year’s Day or had very low prize money (1970). The only great Australian Open of the era took place in 1971 because there was good prize money and it was held in ... March.
Consequently the WCT Finals at the beginning of the 70s were greater tournaments than the depleted Grand Slam Open tournaments cited above.
We can deduce that Rosewall has probably won about 21 major tournaments comparable to the Grand Slam tournaments of the modern era i.e. tournaments with a minimum of tradition where all or almost all the best players entered.
Here is the rough list :
- Wembley Pro 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963
- New York City-Madison Square Garden Pro 1966
- French Pro 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966
- French Open 1968
- U.S. Pro 1963, 1965
- U.S. Open 1970
- Australian Open 1971
- WCT Finals 1971, 1972
Don’t appear in the list above
neither his Grand Slam amateur successes (the Australian Amateur Championships in 1953 and 1955, the French Amateur in 1953 and the U.S. Amateur in 1956)
neither his 1972 Australian Open victory
nor his 1968 Wembley Pro crown (this last tournament is omitted given that since 1968, with open tennis at last arrived, the greatest tournaments weren’t any more the traditional pro events as Wembley Pro or the US Pro or the French Pro but (more or less) the Grand Slam Open tournaments and/or the WCT Finals and the Masters).
This list is much better than the list of his official record of 23 Grand Slam tournaments including 4 Grand Slam Amateur tournaments (Australia 53, 55 - Roland Garros 53 - Forest Hills 56), 15 Grand Slam Professional tournaments until 1967 (Wembley Pro 57, 60, 61, 62, 63 - French Pro 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66 - US Pro 63, 65) and 4 Grand Slam Open tournaments since 1968 (Roland Garros 68, US Open 70, Australia 71, 72) because that list includes depleted tournaments and brushes aside some greater events.
Therefore in tennis history only Tilden, Gonzales or Laver can claim as many great victories as Rosewall very far ahead the recordmen of the Open era as Sampras, Borg, Connors or Federer.
In his autobiography "The education of a tennis player" Laver wrote that Rosewall was the most underrated player of tennis history.
Laver also said, in the same book, that, in his mind, Paris and Rosewall were as firmly linked as Sydney and oysters. Indeed we can note that Rosewall is the recordman of French Championships singles titles, 10 crowns far ahead of Borg (6 titles) and Cochet (the latter has 5 and not 4 crowns because he has also captured a French Pro in 1936), an almost completely unknown exploit : 8 Pro, 1 Open and 1 Amateur titles. 6 of these tournaments were held at Roland Garros on clay then Rosewall is also corecordman with Borg of Roland Garros titles, another unknown feat, and the 4 other ones were played at Stade Pierre de Coubertin, indoor on wood. Between his defeat at Roland Garros Pro against Hoad for 3rd place on September 13, 1959 and his loss to Laver in the final of the Paris Pro Championships on April 9, 1967, Rosewall stayed unbeaten at Paris, winning 7 French Pro in a row from 1960 to 1966.
Rosewall is also the player who has won the most singles titles of Wembley Pro in the pre-open era (5) ahead of Gonzales (4) and Laver (4), a tournament which was often the most important of the time. In adding their less important Wembley victories in the open era, Rosewall and Laver have, each one, captured 6 crowns.
In spite of all this great successes, Rosewall is often forgotten in many all-time greats lists though he has fully dominated the first half of the sixties and in particular in 1962 and in 1963 when he was almost invincible.
[edit] Overall singles titles (at least 120) of Ken Rosewall 1950-1980
Sources: Michel Sutter, Vainqueurs Winners 1946-2003, Paris 2003; Joe McCauley, The History of Professional Tennis, London 2001; Robert Geist, Der Grösste Meister Die denkwürdige Karriere des australischen Tennisspielers Kenneth Robert Rosewall, Vienna 1999 ; Tony Trabert in Tennis de France
Before about 1972 tennis results weren't automatically preserved as it is now with the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and the ATP. So many of them are missing. Nevertheless the most important ones have been preserved. Right now we can affirm that Ken Rosewall has won at least 120 tournaments in his whole career (the ATP just recorded tournaments from 1968 and even then some are missing, for example the Dunlop Sydney Open in March 1970 or the 1973-1974 New South Wales Championships).
The dates are those of the last day. They are relatively sure but sometimes there are slight differences of some days (for instance McCauley proposes September 20, 1958 for the French Pro whereas Michel Sutter indicates September 22) and other times just the month is known (and not the day).
This list includes 4-man tournaments.
Amateur career
1950 : (0)
1951 : Manly January (1)
1952 : (0)
1953 : Australian amateur Championships-Melbourne (Grand Slam amateur tournament) January 17; Roland Garros amateur (Grand Slam tournament) May 31; Pacific Southwest-Los Angeles September 20 (3)
1954 : Manchester June 5; Victoria-Melbourne December 5 (2)
1955 : Australian amateur Championships-Adelaide (Grand Slam amateur tournament) January 31; Queen's June 19; Queensland-Brisbane November 8 (3)
1956 : Bastad July 15; Deauville July 30; Newport(US) August 20; US amateur-Forest Hills (Grand Slam amateur tournament) September 6; New South Wales-Sydney November 17; South Australia-Adelaide November 22; Victoria-Melbourne December 15; (7)
Pro career : Rosewall forbidden to play the Davis Cup and all the Grand Slam tournaments
1957 : London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley September 28 (1)
1958 : Eastbourne Pro August 16; French Pro-Roland Garros (World Pro Hard Courts played on clay) September 20 (2)
1959 : Queensland Pro-Brisbane January 24; Palermo Pro (4-man tournament) August 25; Queensland Pro-Brisbane December 19 (3)
1960 : Australian Pro Indoor-Melbourne May 10; San Francisco Pro June 18; Los Angeles Pro June 26; French Pro-Roland Garros September 18; London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley September 24; Manila Pro November 28 (6)
1961 : French Pro-Roland Garros September 17; London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley September 23; New South Wales Pro-Sydney December 3 (3)
1962 : South Australian Pro-Adelaide January 13; Victorian Pro-Melbourne January 20; the Australian TV Series February; Wellington (4-man tournament) probably March; Auckland (4-man tournament) probably March; Geneva Pro September 2; French Pro-Roland Garros September 16; London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley September 22; Milano Pro September 29; Stockholm Pro October 12 (10)
1963 : Los Angeles Pro June 16; US Pro-Forest Hills June 29; French Pro-Coubertin (played indoor on wood) September 15; London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley September 21; Italian Pro-Roma September 30 (5);
1964 : Melbourne Pro (4-man tournament) January 11; Masters Round Robin Pro-Los Angeles June 8; St Louis Pro June 14; Milwaukee Pro June 28; San Remo Pro (4-man tournament) August 6; Venice Pro (4-man tournament) August 11; Cannes Pro August 16; French Pro-Coubertin (played indoor on wood) September 13; Hanover Pro September 28; Western Province Pro-Cape Town October (10)
1965 : Queensland Pro-Brisbane January 16; Greater Washington Pro-Reston June 27; St Louis Pro July 4; US Pro-Longwood (outside Boston) July 19; French Pro-Coubertin (played indoor on wood) September 13; Scandinavian Pro-Helsinki September 27 (6)
1966 : South Australian Pro-Adelaide January 15; New South Wales Pro-Sydney January 26; Madison Square Garden Pro-New York March 26; Casablanca Pro May 23; San Rafael Pro June 27; Newport Pro July 10; French Pro-Coubertin (played indoor on wood) October 2; Benoni Pro October 12; Johannesburg Round Robin Pro October 20 (9)
1967 : BBC2 Pro-Wembley (4-man tournament) (not to confuse with the traditional London Indoor Pro Championships-Wembley) April 5; Los Angeles Pro May 28; Pacific Coast Pro-Berkeley June 4; US Pro Hardcourt-St Louis (not to confuse with the US Pro outside Boston) June 18; Newport Beach Pro June 25; Natal Pro-Durban September 10; Western Province Pro-Cape Town September 16 (7)
Pro and Open career
1968 : NTL Paris Pro (5-man tournament) April 20; Bournemouth April 27; Roland Garros (Grand Slam open tournament) June 9; Fort Worth Pro NTL August 18; Jack Kramer Tournament of Champions-Wembley Pro November 21 (5)
1969 : Bristol June 14; Chicago September 11 (2)
1970 : Hollywood Pro February 14; Corpus Christi WCT February 22; Eastbourne June 20; Newport (UK) July 11; Cincinnati July 26; US Open-Forest Hills (Grand Slam open tournament) September 13 (6)
1971 : Australian Open-Sydney (Grand Slam open tournament) March 14; Johannesburg April 17; Denver April 25; Newport (UK) July 10; Washington WCT July 18; US Pro-Longwood WCT (outside Boston) August 8; Vancouver WCT October 10; WCT Finals-Houston&Dallas November 17; (8)
1972 : Australian Open-Melbourne (Grand Slam open tournament) January 2; Hollywood (Fla) WCT March 5; Hilton Head WCT March 25; Charlotte WCT April 23; WCT Finals-Dallas May 14; Tokyo WCT October 7; Brisbane December 2 (7)
1973 : Houston-River Oaks WCT April 8; Cleveland WCT April 15; Charlotte WCT April 22; Osaka October 7; Tokyo October 14 (5)
1974 : (0)
1975 : Jackson March 30; Houston-River Oaks April 27; Louisville May 11; Gstaad July 13; Tokyo Gunze Open November 30 (5)
1976 : Brisbane January 26; Jackson WCT March 21; Hong-Kong November 14 (3)
1977 : Hong-Kong November 13 (1)
1978 : (0)
1979 : (0)
1980 : (0)
[edit] Pro tours won (at least 7) by Ken Rosewall during years of banishment : 1957-1967
In the pre-open years the professionals played sometimes more often in tours than in tournaments : in 1937 Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. played 70 matches in two tours and 0 match in tournament. In his first five months in the pro ranks (from January to May 1957) Rosewall played 76 matches in tour against Gonzales and only 9 matches in tournaments. In the sixties the trend was reversed. All that to say that if these players had had the opportunity to play as many tournaments as the 21st century players, they would have had even more singles titles.
Unhappily several tours results in tennis history are completely unknown.
Below the dates are somewhat unprecise and sometimes the detailed results are unknown but the winner is certain.
1957 : Australian pro tour with Rosewall winner (detailed results unknown) over Hoad, Sedgman, and Segura, each man playing 20 matches, November-December
1958 : Perrier Trophy pro tour with Rosewall winner (detailed results unknown) over Segura, Trabert and Hoad August 2 - October 25
1959 : South African pro tour final standings : 1) Rosewall 12 matches won - 2 lost, 2) Segura 9-5, 3) Ashley Cooper 7-7, 4) Malcolm Anderson 4-10, 5) Mervyn Rose 3-11 November
1962 : New Zealand pro tour 1) Rosewall 4-1, 2) Gimeno 3-2, 3) Sedgman 2-3, 4) Ayala 1-4 probably March
1963 : Australasian (Australian+NewZealander) pro tour Rosewall defeated Laver 11-2 (12 out of 13 scores are perfectly known) January (begun on 6); U.S. tour with Rosewall winner over Laver, Gimeno, Buchholz, MacKay and Ayala : in the first phase 1) Rosewall 31-10, 2) Laver 26-16, 3) Buchholz 23-18, 4) Gimeno 21-20, 5) MacKay 12-29, 6) Ayala 11-30 then a second phase opposing a) the top2 to determine the final winner and b) places 3 and 4 to determine the final 3rd player, final standings : 1) Rosewall (defeated Laver 14-4 in the second phase), 2) Laver, 3) Gimeno (defeated Buchholz in the second phase 11-7), 4) Buchholz, 5) MacKay 12-29, 6) Ayala 11-30 February 8 - end of May
1964 : Facis Trophy (Trofeo Facis) pro tour Rosewall winner over Gimeno, Gonzales and Buchholz July 28 - August 11; September 29 - October 8
[edit] Rosewall's participations in great team events
Davis Cup : Rosewall has won 17 singles matches out of 19 and 2 doubles out of 3. Rosewall was a member of the Australia teams winner of the 1953, 1955, 1956 and 1973 editions.
Kramer Cup : in this pro "Davis Cup-format" team event, held just 3 years in a row (1961-1963) and opposing the following subcontinents Australia, Europe, North America and South America, Rosewall has won 9 singles matches out of 10 and 4 doubles out of 5. Australia has won the 3 editions.
[edit] Rosewall’s combined amateur-professional annual rankings (rough estimations due to the absence of official rankings before 1973)
Until 1972 only tennis experts or players made their own rankings and until 1967 most of these rankings were relative to the amateur players who generally were less good than the best pros this is why Ken Rosewall seldom appears, wrongly, in rankings established between 1957 and 1967.
Then in 1973 the ATP listed his own rankings every fortnight and some years later every week but they had many imperfections because in the seventies and the eighties they didn’t take into account such events as the Davis Cup, the WCT Finals and the Masters (later called the Singles Championship and in the 2000’s the (Tennis) Masters Cup) and not enough points were (and still are) allotted to the Grand Slam tournaments. Since there have been improvements (but not sufficiently) because now the Masters Cup give ATP points.
Therefore other rankings proposed by tennis experts or by the players themselves could be more accurate : for instance in 1975 Arthur Ashe ended the year 4th at the ATP ranking but almost everyone thought that the American was the number 1 as John Barrett, Bud Collins, Barry Lorge, Judith Elian put it and that Connors, though #1 at the computer ranking didn't deserve that place.
Given that a) before 1968 there were few or no combined pro-amateur rankings and b) before 1973 there was no ATP rankings and c) that the latter weren't (and still aren't) perfect here are rough estimations of Rosewall's annual rankings :
| Year | Rosewall's ranking (rough estimation) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Top20 | In his amateur ranking Lance Tingay placed Rosewall tenth with his doubles partner Lew Hoad. We can guess that professionals Gonzales, Segura, Kramer, Budge, Riggs, Kovacs and Pails were possibly better than Rosewall so this one was probably at the bottom of the Top20 |
| 1953 | Top10 | That year Lance Tingay ranked Rosewall second amateur behind Trabert. Given that professionals Kramer, Segura, Sedgman, Gonzales were surely better than Rosewall and that pros Budge, Kovacs, McGregor and Pails were probably in the same league as Trabert and Rosewall, both amateurs could possibly claim to be first tenners. |
| 1954 | Top10 | Many experts ranked Rosewall fourth amateur behind Trabert/Drobny and Seixas and knowing that professionals Kramer, Budge, Kovacs, McGregor and Pails severely declined (most of them because of age), Rosewall was undoubtedly one of the Top10 player. |
| 1955 | perhaps 5 | Everybody ranked Rosewall amateur runner-up to Trabert. Since 1954 the pros’ level has strongly decreased given that a) no new blood entered, b) the old pros as Kramer, Budge or Riggs got of course older and c) Sedgman has little played due to health problems : therefore just Gonzales, Segura and perhaps Kovacs, the 3 first pro players according to ‘Lawn Tennis and Badminton’ were above Trabert and Rosewall. |
| 1956 | perhaps 6 | Sedgman having returned to the circuit in full form and Hoad having excceeded Rosewall in the amateurs, Rosewall can be ranked below Gonzales, Sedgman, Segura, Trabert and Hoad. This was the beginning of the «Big Six» era (which ended in 1960), i.e. when these six players dominated the tennis world. |
| 1957 | perhaps 2 | Hoad has proved to everyone that he was the best amateur by far in mid-1957 because he crushed, 6-2 6-1 6-2 in the Wimbledon final the future best amateur Ashley Cooper. After this match Hoad turned pro and during three months he was regularly beaten by the best pros, Gonzales, Segura, Sedgman, Trabert and Rosewall thus proving that these six players were above Cooper. Rosewall, having won Wembley pro and the December Australian tour over Hoad, Sedgman and Segura, probably deserved the #2 spot in the world. |
| 1958 | 3 or 4 or 5 | With his French Pro success Rosewall was one of the best. Robert Geist's (pro-amateur combined) ranking : 1 Gonzales, 2 Hoad, Rosewall; Jack March, promoter of the Cleveland pro tournament being also at the time the U.S. Pro, ranked the best as 1) Gonzales, 2) Hoad, 3) Segura, 4) Trabert, 5) Rosewall, 6) Sedgman. |
| 1959 | 3 | Frank Sedgman proposed the following ranking : 1 Gonzales, 2 Hoad, 3 Rosewall; Ashley Cooper confirmed Sedgman's opinion but suggested that Sedgman should be the #4; Mal Anderson writing in World Tennis, stated that Kramer established a tournament points system to decide the best players in the world : 14 tournaments chosen with all the same points which was unfair to the major tournaments more important than others (7 points for the winner, 4 for the runner-up, 3 for 3rd place, 2 for 4th and 1 for each quarterfinalist), the final positions were : 1 Hoad, 2 Gonzales (only 11 tournaments played), 3 Rosewall, 4 Sedgman, 5 Trabert, 6 Anderson, 7 Segura, 8 Cooper; Kramer's own pro ranking (different from the points ranking) : 1 Gonzales, 2 Sedgman, 3 Rosewall, 4 Hoad, 5 Trabert, 6 Segura, 7 Cooper, 8 Anderson, 9 Rose, 10 McGregor, 11 Hartwig; L'Équipe (Robert Roy) pro-amateur combined ranking : 1 Gonzales, 2 Sedgman, 3 Rosewall, 4 Trabert, 5 Hoad, 6 Segura, 7 Kramer, 8 McGregor, 9 Hartwig, 10 Cooper, 11 Rose(for the first time L'Équipe ranked pros and amateurs together); Robert Barne (Kramer's Australian manager) 's pro ranking : 1 Hoad, 2 Gonzales, 3 Rosewall, 4 Sedgman, 5 Trabert, 6 Segura, 7 Cooper, 8 Anderson, 9 Rose. |
| 1960 | 1 with Gonzales | Kramer ranked Gonzales first, Robert Roy (L'Équipe) chose Rosewall as the top dog and Robert Geist co-ranked the two players equal. |
| 1961 | 1 | Robert Roy (L'Équipe) Kléber Haedens and Philippe Chatrier (Tennis de France), Michel Sutter, Christian Boussus (1931 Roland Garros amateur finalist), Peter Rowley, Robert Geist, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe and so on considered Rosewall as the number 1 in the world. |
| 1962 | 1 | Nobody thought otherwise. |
| 1963 | 1 | Idem. |
| 1964 | Top2 | The 1964 official points system ranked Rosewall #1 ahead Laver #2, McCauley and Laver himself approved but many voices say that Laver deserved at least to be ranked equal if not better. |
| 1965 | 2 | Almost everybody and McCauley in particular think that Laver was the new king and Rosewall the new vice-king. |
| 1966 | 2 | Exactly the same as above : corroborated by Pierre Barthès the new French pro recruit in 1966 who said in Tennis de France that Rosewall was just behind Laver (and that Hoad was still the best when he was « hot » but that wasn’t often the case). |
| 1967 | 2 | Laver undisputed king and Rosewall his second (McCauley, Kramer, Bud Collins) |
| 1968 | 3 or 4 | Rosewall the third best player for Tingay, Collins and the fourth one for McCauley. |
| 1969 | 5 | Tingay and Collins ranked him 5th. |
| 1970 | 1 with Newcombe and Laver | The panel of experts for the 'Martini and Rosso' Cup, ranked Rosewall Nr.1 narrowly over Laver. Judith Elian from L'Équipe placed Rosewall first ahead Newcombe, Roche and Laver. McCauley and Tingay placed Rosewall second to Newcombe. The panel of journalists which made the WCT draw for 1971 ranked Rosewall #2 in 1970 behind Laver and Robert Geist co-ranked Rosewall, Laver and Newcombe #1. |
| 1971 | perhaps 3 | Elian, Collins and Rex Bellamy ranked Rosewall third after the duet Newcombe/Smith. |
| 1972 | perhaps 3 | Tingay, Frank Rostron and Elian ranked Smith, Nastase and Rosewall in this order. Collins reversed Nastase and Rosewall. |
| 1973 | between 6 and 9 | Elian placed Rosewall at the 7th rank, Tennis Magazine (US) at 9 and ATP at 6. |
| 1974 | between 2 and 8 | Rosewall was ranked at almost all places from the 2nd (Tingay) to the 8th (ATP). |
| 1975 | Top10-Top15 | ATP seemed to have overrated Rosewall (6th place) because all the tennis experts have ranked Rosewall from the 7th place (Barry Lorge) to beyond the tenth one (Elian). |
| 1976 | Top15 | Collins ranking : 1) Connors, 2) Borg, 3) Nastase, …, 14) Rosewall (ATP : 13). |
| 1977 | Top15 | ATP : 12. |
Rosewall has then been 26 years in a row in the Top20, 20 years in the Top10 and probably at least 12 years as one of the 3 best players and for about 9 years has been either the best or the second.
[edit] Rosewall-Laver head-to-head matches : 61 (at least) - 72 (at least)
Sources: Joe McCauley, The History of Professional Tennis, London 2001; World Tennis (the US Magazine); World of Tennis (Annuals edited by John Barrett); ATP
Obviously as for pre-open tours or tournaments, pre-open matches results are often unknown.
Gonzales and Laver are the two players that Rosewall has more often met. His meetings with Laver are better documented and detailed than those with Gonzales so below are the main results of the matches between the two Australians.
Robert Geist's latest estimation of the Rosewall-Laver meetings is 66-75.
Knowing that Rosewall turned pro in 1957 and Laver in 1963 the two players couldn’t meet between 1957 to 1962 included.
The statistics of their meetings show a strong Laver’s domination from 1964 to 1970 (and even 1972) but they are biaised before when Rosewall was the best of the two Australians : a) in Rosewall’s favour in 1963 and b) above all in Laver’s favour until 1962. In 1963 they met about 46 times (including the unknown results) i.e. about the third of their whole career meetings. Rosewall being better than Rocket that year, the 1963 statistics clearly favoured Muscles. On the other hand from 1957 to 1962 though Rosewall was much better than Laver he never beat him since they couldn’t play each other thus automatically the 1957-1962 statistics, showing a 0-0 result, truly advantage Laver (in 1956 both players toured in the amateur circuit but apparently never faced each other).
No results are to hand, in particular the Rosewall-Laver meetings, in the following list :
New Zealand tour with Rosewall, Laver, Hoad and Sedgman, February 1964
Manila Pro, September 28-29, 1965
Tour in Nairobi, Entebbe, Accra and Lagos in October-November 1966
Italian tour (4 cities) with the pro troupe, August 1967
Spain tour with Laver, Rosewall, Gimeno and Stolle, October 1967
Match stopped :
Manly, Tour match, January 24, 1965, Rosewall-Laver 6-2 3-2, rain stopped play
Here is a detailed enough list knowing that it can be completed and detailed at any time. Sometimes chronology is not fully respected in order not to mix tours results with tournaments matches : for example the two Australians met on April 1, 1963 in the Cleveland tournament between two parts of their US tour (from February 8 to the end of May). Their Cleveland result is listed after their tours results therefore after May results though the tournament took place from March 30 to April 2.
| Year | Year global results | Events | Rosewall’s wins | Laver’s wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950-1980 | 61 - 72 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1950-1962 | 0 - 0 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1963 | 33 - 9 | Australasian tour : Rosewall-Laver 11 - 2 (with one Rosewall's win not informed) | Sydney White City, Grass, January 6, 6-3 6-3 6-4 (or 6-3 6-3 6-3) | |
| Brisbane Milton, Grass, January, 3-6 10-8 6-2 6-3 | ||||
| Melbourne Grass January 19, 6-3 3-6 7-5 6-2 | ||||
| Canberra, Grass, January, 10-8 6-3 | ||||
| Adelaide, Grass January , 6-1 6-2 6-2 | ||||
| Auckland, Grass, January, 6-4 6-4 | ||||
| Dunedin, Grass, January, 10-8 6-4 | ||||
| Napier, Grass, January, 6-1 6-3 | ||||
| Palmerston North, Grass, January, 7-9 6-3 6-4 | ||||
| Masterton, Grass, January, 6-2 6-3 | ||||
| Wellington, Grass, January, 6-3 6-3 | ||||
| Hamilton, Grass, January, 6-3 7-5 | ||||
| One Rosewall's win not informed | ||||
| U.S. tour first phase (no complete results today) | New York Madison Square Garden, Indoor, February 10, 12-10 | |||
| College Park (Md), Indoor, February 14, 8-5 | ||||
| Baltimore (Md), Indoor, February 17, 8-4 | ||||
| Montréal Canada, Indoor, February 22, 8-6 | ||||
| Probably 4 other matches xxx | xxx | |||
| xxx | xxx | |||
| xxx | xxx | |||
| xxx | xxx | |||
| U.S. tour second and final phase : Rosewall-Laver 14 - 4 (many detailed results missing) | New York Madison Square Garden (match 1), Indoor, April 24, 6-0 6-3 | |||
| Medford (Oregon), Indoor, May 21, 6-1 6-3 | ||||
| ? , Indoor, May 22, 6-2 6-2 | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Rosewall's win | ||||
| Laver's win | ||||
| Laver's win | ||||
| Laver's win | ||||
| Cleveland tournament, 3rd place, Indoor, April 1 | 9-7 | |||
| Los Angeles Pro, Final, , June 16 | 14-12 6-4 6-3 | |||
| U.S. Pro-Forest Hills, Final, Grass, June 29 | 6-4 6-2 6-2 | |||
| Kitzbühel Pro, Final, , August 12 | 6-3 6-4 6-4 | |||
| Cannes Pro, Final, , August 18 or 19 | 6-2 6-3 6-4 | |||
| French Pro-Paris Stade Coubertin, Final, Indoor Wood, September 15 | 6-8 6-4 5-7 6-3 6-4 | |||
| Italian Pro-Rome, Final, , September 30 | 6-4 6-3 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1964 | 3 - 12 | Western Australian Pro-Perth, Round-robin match, Grass, January (3 ?) | 6-2 6-1 | |
| Melbourne Pro, Final, Grass, January 11 | 6-4 6-4 | |||
| Monterey (Calif.) Pro, Semifinal, , June 20 | 11-9 6-3 | |||
| U.S. Pro-Longwood outside Boston, Semifinal, Grass, July 11 | 6-3 6-3 7-9 6-2 | |||
| Nottingham (UK), Tour match, , July | 6-2 6-3 | |||
| Knokke-le-Zoute Pro, Round of 4 (of a 4-man tournament), , July 22 | 6-1 6-1 | |||
| Montreux, Tour match, , September 1 | 6-1 6-3 | |||
| French Pro-Paris Stade Coubertin, Final, Indoor Wood, September 13 | 6-3 7-5 3-6 6-3 | |||
| Wembley Pro, Final, Indoor Wood, September 19 | 7-5 5-7 4-6 8-6 8-6 or 7-5 4-6 5-7 8-6 8-6 | |||
| Faenza, Tour match, , October 6 | 7-5 6-4 | |||
| Torino, Tour match, , October 8 | 8-6 6-2 | |||
| Bloemfontein, Tour match, , October | 8-6 6-4 | |||
| East London, Tour match, , October | 6-4 3-6 6-4 | |||
| Durban, Tour match, , October | 6-4 9-7 | |||
| Johannesburg-Ellis Park, challenge match, , October | 6-4 6-1 6-4 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1965 | 5 - 13 | Queensland Pro-Brisbane, Final, Grass, January 16 | 6-8 6-2 6-4 | |
| South Australian Pro-Adelaide, Final, Grass, January 31 | 6-3 6-4 | |||
| Victorian Pro-Melbourne, Final, Grass, February 13 | 2-6 6-1 6-4 | |||
| Greater Seattle Pro, Semifinal, , June 5 | 6-8 15-13 6-4 | |||
| Lake Tahoe Pro, Semifinal, , June 19 | 6-3 3-6 6-1 | |||
| Reston Pro, Final, , June 27 | 8-6 6-1 | |||
| St Louis Pro, Semifinal, , July 3 | 6-1 6-4 | |||
| Newport Pro, Round-robin match, , between July 6 & 12 | 31-21 | |||
| Newport Pro, One of the final play-off matches, , between July 6 & 12 | 31-28 | |||
| U.S. Pro-Longwood outside Boston, Final, Grass, July 19 | 6-4 6-3 6-3 | |||
| French Pro-Paris Stade Coubertin, Final, Indoor Wood, September 13 | 6-3 6-2 6-4 | |||
| Brighton (UK), Tour match, , September 19 | 1-6 6-2 6-4 | |||
| Nairobi Pro, Final, , October | 6-1 4-6 6-2 | |||
| Rhodesian Pro-Bulawayo & Salisbury, Final, , October | 3-6 6-4 6-1 | |||
| Natal Pro-Durban, Final, , October | 6-2 8-6 | |||
| East London, Tour match, , October | Laver's win, score unknown | |||
| Johannesburg-Ellis Park, Tour match, , October | 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-4 | |||
| Western Province Pro-Cape Town, Final, , November 4 | 4-6 6-3 6-3 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1966 | 6 - 7 | Victorian Pro-Melbourne, Final, Grass, January 22 | 6-3 6-0 | |
| Shepparton, Tour match, Grass, January 23 | 7-5 9-7 | |||
| Western Australian Pro-Perth, Final, Grass, January 29 | 6-2 10-8 | |||
| Madison Square Garden Pro-New York City, Final, , March 26 | 6-3 6-3 | |||
| Forest Hills Pro, Round-robin match, Grass, between June 8&12 | 31-20 | |||
| Forest Hills Pro, Final, Grass, June 12 | 31-29 | |||
| San Rafael Pro, Round-robin match, , June 27 | 31-29 | |||
| Newport Pro, Round-robin match, , July 9 or 10 | 31-23 | |||
| U.S. Pro-Longwood outside Boston, Final, Grass, July 16 | 6-4 4-6 6-2 8-10 6-3 | |||
| Wembley Pro, Final, Indoor Wood, September 17 | 6-2 6-2 6-3 | |||
| French Pro-Paris Stade Coubertin, Final, Indoor Wood, October 2 | 6-3 6-2 14-12 | |||
| Johannesburg Round Robin Pro (not to confuse with South African Pro-Johannesburg the previous week), Final, , October 20 | 31-26 | |||
| Western Province Pro-Cape Town, Final, , October 23 | 5-7 6-4 7-5 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1967 | 5 - 8 | Boston Pro (not the U.S. Pro), Final, , April 2 | 6-4 6-0 | |
| Paris Pro-Stade Coubertin (not the French Pro), Final, , April 9 | 6-0 10-8 10-8 | |||
| Los Angeles Pro, Final, , May 28 | 6-2 2-6 7-5 | |||
| Pacific Coast Pro-Berkeley, Final, , June 4 | 4-6 6-3 8-6 | |||
| Madison Square Garden Pro-New York City, Final, , June 9 | 6-4 6-4 | |||
| Newport Beach Pro, Final, , June 25 | 6-3 6-3 | |||
| World Pro-Oklahoma City, Final, , July 4 | 6-2 3-6 6-4 | |||
| Newport Pro, Round-robin match, , between July 18&23 | 31-20 | |||
| Wimbledon World Pro, Final, , August 28 | 6-2 6-2 12-10 | |||
| Transvaal Pro-Pretoria,Benoni&Klerksdorp, 3rd place played at Pretoria, fast Hard, September 6 | 6-3 6-2 | |||
| East London Pro, 3rd place, , September 11 | 8-5 | |||
| Mbabane, Tour match, , September 24 | 6-2 8-6 | |||
| Wembley Pro, Final, Indoor Wood, October 28 | 2-6 6-1 1-6 8-6 6-2 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1968 | 2 - 4 | BBC2 World Invitation Champs Pro-Wembley, Final, , April 18 | 6-3 10-8 | |
| Bournemouth Open, Final, Clay, April 27 | 3-6 6-2 6-0 6-3 | |||
| NTL Wembley Invitation Pro, Final, , May 6 | 6-0 6-1 6-0 | |||
| NTL Madison Square Garden Pro-New York City, Final, , May 18 | 4-6 6-3 9-7 6-4 | |||
| Roland Garros Open, Final, Clay, June 9 | 6-3 6-1 2-6 6-2 | |||
| Pacific Southwest Open-Los Angeles, Final, Hard, September 23 | 4-6 6-0 6-0 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1969 | 1 - 7 | Philadelphia Open, Semifinal, , February 8 | 6-4 6-2 | |
| Orlando Pro, Final, , between February 10&15 | 6-3 6-2 | |||
| Oakland Pro, Semifinal, , February 25 | 6-3 6-3 | |||
| BBC2 World Pro-Wembley, Final, , May 24 | 8-6 6-0 | |||
| Roland Garros Open, Final, Clay, June 8 | 6-4 6-3 6-4 | |||
| U.S. Pro-Longwood outside Boston, Semifinal, , July 14 | 6-3 5-7 6-2 6-3 | |||
| Fort Worth Pro, Final, , August 17 | 6-3 6-2 | |||
| Hamburg, One-night stand, , October | 2-6 7-5 8-6 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1970 | 0 - 5 | Dunlop Sydney Open-White City, Final, Grass, March 22 | 3-6 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-3 | |
| St Louis WCT, Final, , June 1 | 6-1 6-4 | |||
| Tennis Champions Classic Pro-New York City, Final, , July 16 | 6-4 6-3 6-3 | |||
| Louisville WCT, Semifinal, , August 1 | 6-4 1-6 6-1 | |||
| Masters-Tokyo, Round-robin match, fast Indoor Carpet, December 15 | 5-6 6-3 6-5 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1971 | 2 - 3 | Tennis Champions Classic Pro-Madison Square Garden New York City, One-night stand, , January 2 | 6-3 6-2 7-5 | |
| Washington WCT, Round of 16, Clay, August (15 ?) | 5-7 6-3 6-1 | |||
| Fort Worth WCT, Quarterfinal, Hard, August 1 | 7-5 5-7 6-2 | |||
| Berkeley WCT, Final, Hard, October3 | 6-4 6-4 7-6 | |||
| WCT Finals-Houston&Dallas, Final played at Dallas, Indoor Carpet, November 18 | 6-4 1-6 7-6 7-6 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1972 | 1 - 3 | U.S. Pro Indoor-Philadelphia WCT, Final, Indoor Carpet, February 13 | 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-2 | |
| Toronto WCT, Final, Indoor Carpet, February 20 | 6-1 6-4 | |||
| Houston River Oaks WCT, Final, Clay, April 9 | 6-2 6-4 | |||
| WCT Finals-Dallas, Final, Indoor Carpet, May 14 | 4-6 6-0 6-3 6-7 7-6 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1973 | 1 - 1 | WCT Finals-Dallas, 3rd place, Indoor Carpet, between May 9&13 | 6-3 6-2 | |
| Sydney Indoor, Semifinal, , November 10 | 6-4 3-6 8-6 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1974 | 0 - 0 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1975 | 0 - 0 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1976 | 2 - 0 | WCT Avis Challenge Cup, Round-Robin match, Hard, February 15 | 6-4 6-1 6-3 | |
| Houston River Oaks WCT, Round of 16 (first tour), Clay, between April 5&10 | 3-6 6-4 6-3 | |||
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1977 - 1980 | 0 - 0 |
[edit] Grand Slam Tournament wins
- Australian Championships:
- singles champion - 1953, 1955, 1971, 1972
- doubles champion - 1953, 1956, 1972
- French Championships:
- singles champion - 1953, 1968
- doubles champion - 1956
- Wimbledon Championships:
- doubles champion - 1953, 1956
- singles finalist - 1954, 1956, 1970, 1974
- US Championships
- singles champion - 1956, 1970
- doubles champion - 1956
[edit] Miscellaneous comments
In his 1979 autobiography, Kramer writes that "Rosewall was a backcourt player when he came into the pros, but he learned very quickly how to play the net. Eventually, for that matter, he became a master of it, as much out of physical preservation as for any other reason. I guarantee you that Kenny wouldn't have lasted into his forties as a world-class player if he hadn't learned to serve and volley."
Kramer, who always underrated Rosewall, nevertheless includes the Australian in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time.[1]
During his long playing career he remained virtually injury-free, something that helped him to still win tournaments at the age of 43 and remain ranked in the top 15 in the world. Although he was a finalist 4 times at Wimbledon, it was the one major tournament that eluded him.
Rosewall was a finalist at the 1974 U.S. Open at 39 years 310 days old, making him the oldest player to participate in two Grand Slam finals in the same year.
In 1995 Gonzales said of him: "He became better as he got older, more of a complete player. With the exception of me and Frank Sedgman, he could handle everybody else. Just the way he played, he got under Hoad's skin, but he had a forehand weakness and a serve weakness." In 160 matches against Pancho Gonzales he won probably 59 and lost 101. In about 70 matches against Lew Hoad he won about 45 and lost 25.
Rosewall was also known as being extremely careful about his spending, like a number of other Australian players of the time. The Australians themselves characterized this as having "short arms and deep pockets." Kramer writes that an Australian radio reporter once asked Pancho Segura what his single biggest thrill in tennis had been. "'The night Frank Sedgman bought dinner,' Segoo replied."
A grandfather of five, Rosewall now lives in Northern Sydney, where he still plays an occasional game of tennis.
Rosewall was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1980.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Writing in 1979, Kramer considered the best ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.
[edit] Sources
- The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
[edit] External links
|
* Open Era | (1969) Rod Laver | (1970) Arthur Ashe | (1971-72) Ken Rosewall | (1973) John Newcombe | (1974) Jimmy Connors | (1975) John Newcombe | (1976) Mark Edmondson | (1977 [Jan]) Roscoe Tanner | (1977 [Dec]) Vitas Gerulaitis | (1978-79) Guillermo Vilas | (1980) Brian Teacher | (1981-82) Johan Kriek | (1983-84) Mats Wilander | (1985) Stefan Edberg | (1986) No competition | (1987) Stefan Edberg | (1988) Mats Wilander | (1989-90) Ivan Lendl | (1991) Boris Becker | (1992-93) Jim Courier | (1994) Pete Sampras | (1995) Andre Agassi | (1996) Boris Becker | (1997) Pete Sampras | (1998) Petr Korda | (1999) Yevgeny Kafelnikov | (2000-01) Andre Agassi | (2002) Thomas Johansson | (2003) Andre Agassi | (2004) Roger Federer | (2005) Marat Safin | (2006) Roger Federer |
|
* Open Era | (1968) Ken Rosewall | (1969) Rod Laver | (1970-71) Jan Kodeš | (1972) Andrés Gimeno | (1973) Ilie Năstase | (1974-75) Björn Borg | (1976) Adriano Panatta | (1977) Guillermo Vilas | (1978-79-80-81) Björn Borg | (1982) Mats Wilander | (1983) Yannick Noah | (1984) Ivan Lendl | (1985) Mats Wilander | (1986-87) Ivan Lendl | (1988) Mats Wilander | (1989) Michael Chang | (1990) Andrés Gómez | (1991-92) Jim Courier | (1993-94) Sergi Bruguera | (1995) Thomas Muster | (1996) Yevgeny Kafelnikov | (1997) Gustavo Kuerten | (1998) Carlos Moyà | (1999) Andre Agassi | (2000-01) Gustavo Kuerten | (2002) Albert Costa | (2003) Juan Carlos Ferrero | (2004) Gastón Gaudio | (2005-06) Rafael Nadal |
|
* Open Era | (1968) Arthur Ashe | (1969) Rod Laver | (1970) Ken Rosewall | (1971) Stan Smith | (1972) Ilie Năstase | (1973) John Newcombe | (1974) Jimmy Connors | (1975) Manuel Orantes | (1976) Jimmy Connors | (1977) Guillermo Vilas | (1978) Jimmy Connors | (1979–81) John McEnroe | (1982–83) Jimmy Connors | (1984) John McEnroe | (1985–87) Ivan Lendl | (1988) Mats Wilander | (1989) Boris Becker | (1990) Pete Sampras | (1991–92) Stefan Edberg | (1993) Pete Sampras | (1994) Andre Agassi | (1995–96) Pete Sampras | (1997–98) Patrick Rafter | (1999) Andre Agassi | (2000) Marat Safin | (2001) Lleyton Hewitt | (2002) Pete Sampras | (2003) Andy Roddick | (2004–06) Roger Federer |
