Tony Trabert
Marion Anthony (Tony) Trabert (born
August 16,
1930 in
Cincinnati, Ohio) is a former
tennis champion and longtime tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivation speaker. In his 1979 autobiography
Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Trabert in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time
[ In his 1979 autobiography Kramer considered the best player 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.] Trabert was a standout athlete, a starter on the basketball team and 1951
University Intercollegiate singles championship winner at the
University of Cincinnati.
Trabert's record in 1955 was one of the greatest ever by an
American tennis player. He won the three most prestigious tournaments in amateur tennis - the
French,
Wimbledon, and
American championships - en route to being ranked
World No. 1 among the amateurs for that year. Only Grand Slam winners
Don Budge and
Rod Laver have ever achieved the same feat. Trabert's own chance at a Grand Slam was stopped with a loss in the semi-finals at the
Australian championships. Trabert won 18 tournaments in 1955, compiling a match record of 106 wins to 7 losses.
An extremely athletic right-hander who mostly played a
serve and volley game, Trabert also won the French singles in 1954 and the U.S. championship in 1953. In fact, he won the only five Grand Slam event finals he appeared in. He won the French doubles in 1950, 1954, and 1955. Trabert, along with
Vic Seixas, was an American
Davis Cup team mainstay during the early 1950s, during which time the Americans reached the finals 5 times, winning the cup in 1954. It was their only victory over the dominant
Australian teams during the decade.
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Trabert (left) in Australia in the early 1950s |
Having reached the top amateur ranking in '55, Trabert turned professional in 1956. He was beaten on the head-to-head tour by the reigning king of professional tennis
Pancho Gonzales, 74 matches to 27. He beat Gonzales for the
French Pro Championship in 1956, however, and beat
Frank Sedgman for the same title in 1959. He was runner-up to Sedgman in the
London Indoor Pro in 1958; in the
U.S. Pro Championships he was runner-up to
Alex Olmedo in 1960.
Forty years after his matches with Gonzales, Trabert told interviewer Joe McCauley "that Gonzales' serve was the telling factor on their tour â€" it was so good that it earned him many cheap points. Trabert felt that, while he had the better groundstrokes, he could not match Pancho's big, fluent service."
[The History of Professional Tennis, Joe McCauley ]In 2004, Trabert announced that the Wimbledon Championships he was commentating that year would be his last.
Trabert was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame in
Newport, Rhode Island in 1970.
Wins (5)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1953 | U.S. Championships | Vic Seixas | 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 |
| 1954 | French Championships | Art Larsen | 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 |
| 1955 | French Championships (2)| Sven Davidson | 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 | | 1955 | Wimbledon Championships | Kurt Nielsen | 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 | | 1955 | U.S. Championships (2)| Ken Rosewall | 9-7, 6-3, 6-3 | | |
*
The Game â€" My 40 Years in Tennis (
1979) â€" Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
*
The History of Professional Tennis (
2003) Joe McCauley
*
Trabert's inductee page at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
