Ken Rosewall
Ken Robert Rosewall, born
November 2,
1934 in
Sydney, Australia, is a former champion
tennis player who enjoyed an exceptionally long career at the highest levels. He was the
World No. 1 player for 2 years in the early
1960s and was the runner-up for another 7 years, he features on the "Legends Of Australia" postcard.
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 small (only 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.
He was only 18 years old when he won the
Australian Championships and
French Championships men's singles title. In 1956, partnered with
Lew Hoad, he won the doubles
Grand Slam in tennis, taking all four major championships that year. For several years in their youthful careers Rosewall and Hoad were known as "The Gold-dust Twins."
Rosewall turned professional in 1956 after his surprise victory over Hoad in the United States Championships at Forest Hills, thereby depriving Hoad of winning the Grand Slam. Signed by promoter and former tennis great
Jack Kramer, Rosewall played a series of head-to-head matches against the reigning king of professional tennis,
Pancho Gonzales, and was badly beaten, 51 matches to 26.
|
Rosewall and Hoad in 1954 |
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."
In 1962 and 1963, with Gonzales in semi-retirement, and
Rod Laver a newly fledged pro not yet at the height of his career, Rosewall was clearly the best player in the world on a day-to-day basis. Kramer includes Rosewall in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time.
[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.]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 a Grand Slam finals.
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 his extremely long career, Rosewall played 111 matchs against Rod Laver, winning 49 while losing 62. In 160 matchs against Pancho Gonzales he won 59 and lost 101. In 70 matchs against Lew Hoad he won 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.
*
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
Wembley,
England:
*singles champion -- 1957, 1960-63, 1968-69
* 1968
**
French Open* 1970
** Cincinnati,
US Open* 1971
**
Australian Open, Boston WCT, Dallas, Newport, Vancouver WCT, Washington WTC
* 1972
**
Australian Open, Brisbane, Charlotte WCT, Dallas WCT, Miami WCT
* 1973
** Charlotte WCT, Cleveland WCT, Houston WCT, Osaka, Tokyo
* 1975
** Gstaad, Houston, Jackson
* 1976
** Hong Kong, Jackson WCT
* 1977
** Hong Kong
Adapted from the article Ken Rosewall, from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.*
The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis (
1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
*
List of male tennis players
