Bud Collins is perhaps the world’s best authority on the history of tennis. In his new book THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS, Bud summarizes the Australian Open, which on January 19 in Melbourne. THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS book ($35.95, New Chapter Press) features a comprehensive look at the Australian Open including championship scrolls and scores of all events, results from the singles quarterfinals onward and tournament records (that are even more comprehensive than the tournament’s record book and media guide!) For more information on the book, go to www.tennistomes.com.
Tennis had been played Down Under for 25 years before a national championship was organized in 1905 in Melbourne at the Warehousemen’s Ground-this four years after six British Colonies had come together as the Commonwealth of Australia. It was men only at first, as was the case with the U.S. and Wimbledon championships. The tournament was called the Australasian Championships, a cooperative venture with neighboring New Zealand, a country that also shared a Davis Cup team with the Aussies,
notably in the person of Kiwi Tony Wilding. Wilding and Aussie Norman Brookes won four Cups for Australasia: 1907-08-09, 14. New Zealand dropped from the alliance in 1922, and in 1927 this event became the Australian Championships.
Strikingly, the first champ in 1905, and 64 years later the first champ of the “Open” era were Rodneys: Rodney Heath, the initial victor over Arthur Curtis, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in a field of 17; Rodney Laver, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, over Spaniard Andres Gimeno in a field of
48 at Brisbane in 1969. In 1906, Wilding was the first foreigner to win, 6-0, 6-4, 6-4, over Francis Fisher in the champ’s hometown, Christchurch.
Not until 1922 did women enter the picture when 27-yearold Mall Molesworth beat 20-year-old Esna Boyd, 6-3, 10-8, in the final in Sydney. They played alongside the men, except for three separate tournaments, 1980-82. Dorothy Round, in 1935 at Melbourne, was the first female outsider as champion, beating Nancy Lyle in an all-English final, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Dorothy Bundy (now a Hall of Famer as Mrs. Cheney), was the first American woman to win, defeating Dorothy Stevenson, 6-3, 6-2, in 1938 at Adelaide. That year, another Yank, Don Budge, launched the original Grand Slam with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, victory over John Bromwich. The courts for the tournament were grass until 1988. Then a rubberized hard court surface called Rebound Ace complemented the new national tennis complex called Flinders Park (the name changed to Melbourne Park in 1998). Because that pavement became sticky on very hot summer days, it was replaced in 2008 by hard courts called plexicushion, colored blue rather than the customary green.
Though Melbourne has been the site of the tournament since 1972, it moved about often in earlier days among five Australian cities: Brisbane (1907, 15, 23, 56, 60, 64, 69); Sydney (1908, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34, 37, 40, 47, 51, 54, 58, 62, 66, 70-71); Perth (1909, 13, 21); Adelaide (1910, 20, 26, 29, 32, 36, 38, 46, 49, 52, 55, 59, 63, 67); Melbourne (1911, 14, 24, 27, 30, 33, 35, 39, 48, 50, 53, 57, 61, 65, 68); and two in New Zealand: Christchurch (1906); Hastings (1912). Melbourne was the most successful host after the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club erected a 12,000 seat concrete horseshoe in 1927. Stadia at White City, Sydney (1922), Memorial Drive, Adelaide (1920), and Milton Courts, Brisbane, were other prominent locations.
Australia, lagging behind the other three majors in prestige, interest, prize money and player fields, needed a lift and got a tremendous one in 1988 with christening of the attractive new playpen, Flinders/Melbourne Park. Modernity took over. Suddenly the Australian was the style-setter with a retractable roof for the principal stadium (named Rod Laver Arena in 1992), seating 14,820. In 2000, another such arena was added, the Vodafone Arena seating 11,000 and also with a retractable roof. The Aussies were ahead of the game with no bothersome rain-outs, nor TV networks stalled with nothing live to show. Strangely (obtusely?), Wimbledon and the U.S. weren’t respective copycats when the new Court 1 and Ashe Stadium were opened, respectively, in 1997.
Abandoned, as a big-time stop on the tour as Forest Hills had been in 1978, famed Kooyong (using temporary stands to pack in 17,500 for the 1953 Davis Cup final) settled into a comfortable private club existence. An attendance (140,000) was set for Kooyong’s farewell to the Open, 1987. That was quickly surpassed at Melbourne Park. In 2008, the event drew a record 605,735 fans.
Two championships were held in 1977 when the tournament moved from January to December dates, and no event was held in 1986 to readjust to the traditional January date. The tie-breaker was adopted in 1971, not in force for ultimate sets, the fifth for men, third for women.
Showing some reluctance in joining the “Open” era, the Australian was the last of the three majors to take the plunge, remaining amateur in 1968, then integrating with $25,000 in prize money the following year. That figure accelerated to $18,813,400 in 2008, prize money equally paid the women since 2001. Laver got $5,000 as the 1969 champ, Margaret Smith Court $1,500, a pittance compared with $1,217,930 in 2008 with singles winners Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova winning just shy of $1.2 million. The event’s championship cups honor the memory of two bygone champs, both Australian, Daphne Akhurst for the women and Norman Brookes for the men. Alas for the citizenry, no homebody has clung to that silver since Chris O’Neil in 1978 and Mark Edmondson in 1976.
Margaret Smith Court
"Majors Not Grand Slams" Says Bud Collins
NEW YORK – Bud Collins, the Hall of Fame tennis journalist and personality and author of the new book “The Bud Collins History of Tennis,” wants to set the record straight. Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Ana Ivanovic and the Williams sisters will not be vying for a “Grand Slam” title in New York at the 2008 U.S. Open. They will be seeking a “major” championship.
“I really wish everyone in tennis would get the word usage correct – a ‘Grand Slam’ is when you sweep in one year all four major tournaments – the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open,” says Collins. “If you win the U.S. Open – you will have one a ‘major tournament’ not a ‘Grand Slam.’ You cannot say Pete Sampras has won 14 Grand Slams. He has won 14 majors. Roger Federer has won 12 major titles – not 12 Grand Slams. Ana Ivanovic did not win her first Grand Slam title at the French Open. She won her first major title.”
Only five players have won a Grand Slam in singles – Don Budge in 1938, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969, Margaret Smith Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988. “Rod Laver won two Grand Slams – one in 1962 and another in 1969 – and overall he won 11 major singles titles,” says Collins.
In “The Bud Collins History of Tennis,” Collins writes of how the Grand Slam came into being. Writes Collins, “Jack Crawford, the stylish Australian of the 1930s, had no idea when he departed his homeland by steamship in the spring of 1933 that he would, unknowingly, be the instigator of a concept eventually known as the Grand Slam. He had won the Australian title for the third successive year, defeating Californian Keith Gledhill, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-2, and was headed for Europe.
“In Paris, Jack became the first non-Frenchman to seize the championship of France, dethroning Henri Cochet of France, 8-6, 6-1, 6-3. Then, crossing the Channel to London, he lifted the Wimbledon title from another Californian, Ellsworth Vines, in a splendid final, 4-6, 11-9, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
“Nobody had won those three majors in a row, but Jack had enough. He’d been through a grueling campaign, was bothered by asthma and insomnia, and wanted to go home. However, as an amateur he was controlled by his country’s tennis administration, the LTAA (Lawn Tennis Association of Australia), insisting that he play the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills because a fee due the Association for his appearance was involved.
[ad#adify-300×250]
“The prospect of his winning that one, too, intrigued a New York Times columnist, John Kieran. If he did, wrote Kieran, it would be something like a “grand slam” in bridge. But Crawford didn’t, although he battled gamely to the final. Drained physically and emotionally, he led Brit Fred Perry two-sets-to-one but could win only one more game, falling, 6-3, 11-13, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
No Grand Slam, which Jack hadn’t set out to accomplish, anyway. But the idea had sprouted, and it made an impression on a kid in California, 18-year-old Don Budge. Having become No. 1 and retrieved the Davis Cup for the U.S. in 1937, Budge determined that 1938 would be his last as an amateur. He wanted a goal, something extra, and quietly set out (telling no one but his buddy, doubles partner Gene Mako) to conquer the Big Four, as they were known-the only countries to win the Davis Cup.
With little difficulty, losing three sets in 24 matches (one to Mako in the U.S. final), Budge posted the initial Grand Slam. It was duly noted by Allison Danzig, tennis correspondent for the New York Times. But it took a long time catching on. However, nurtured as a pro by Mr. Grand Slam, Budge, who dined out on it, the Slam became a popular term in tennis. Also a misused one, as proprietors of the four majors carelessly called their events Grand Slams, confusing the public. Although there is no written rule, a Grand Slam has come to be accepted as winning all four within a calendar year. Each tournament is a major, not a Slam.”
The Bud Collins History of Tennis ($35.95, 784 pages, New Chapter Press, www.newchapterpressmedia.com) is the ultimate compilation of historical tennis information, including year-by-year recaps of every tennis season, biographical sketches of every major tennis personality, as well as stats, records, and championship rolls for all the major events. The author’s personal relationships with major tennis stars offer insights into the world of professional tennis found nowhere else.
Among those endorsing the book include the two women who hold the Wimbledon record for most total titles (noted by Collins in the book) – Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King – who both won 20 Wimbledon titles each in their careers. Said Navratilova, “If you know nothing about tennis, this book is for you. And if you know everything about tennis-Hah!-Bud knows more, so this book is for you too!” Said King, “We can’t move forward if we don’t understand and appreciate our past. This book not only provides us with accurate reporting of the rich tennis history, it keeps us current on the progress of the sport today.”
New Chapter Press is also the publisher of “The Roger Federer Story, Quest for Perfection” by Rene Stauffer and “Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games” by Tom Caraccioli and Jerry Caraccioli. More information on New Chapter Press can be found at www.newchapterpressmedia.com.
Roger Federer is going for his fifth-straight US Open
Roger Federer is going for his fifth-straight US Open title in Flushing Meadows when the 2008 U.S. Championships kick off Monday in New York at the USTA/Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. His first title run was in 2004, when he beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 7-6, 6-0 in the final. Rene Stauffer, the author of the book “The Roger Federer Story, Quest for Perfection,” reflects on Federer’s first win in Flushing in this exclusive book excerpt. For more information on the book, go to www.rogerfedererbook.com.
Roger Federer’s victory at the 2004 US Open provided new content for the record books of tennis. Statisticians and historians of the game quickly discovered that he was only the second man in the “Open Era” of professional tennis (since 1968) to win a Grand Slam final with two 6-0 sets. The other was the Argentinean Guillermo Vilas, who dominated American Brian Gottfried 6-0, 6-3, 6-0 at Roland Garros in 1977. The last time a player won a final at the U.S. Championships with two 6-0 sets came back in 1884 in only the fourth edition of the U.S. national championship and in the days of tennis infancy.
In the United States, 6-0 sets are referred to as “bagels” with a “double bagel” being considered the bitterest variety when a match is lost 6-0, 6-0. In German-speaking countries, these whitewashes are called a “bicycle.” Although, Lleyton Hewitt was able to force a second-set tie-break against Federer in the US Open final, he was not spared the shame of the “double bagel” or “the bicycle.” The Australian Associated Press (AAP) exaggerated that Hewitt’s loss was “the greatest humiliation in the history of Grand Slam finals.” One reporter in the post-match press conference even had the audacity to ask Hewitt if it was difficult to swallow a “double bagel.”
More importantly in historical significance was that Federer, with his victories at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, became only the fourth man in the Open Era of tennis to win at least three of the four Grand Slam titles in a calendar year. Mats Wilander from Sweden was the last man to manage such a feat in 1988, as did Rod Laver, who won all four Grand Slams in 1969, and Jimmy Connors, who won the Australian, Wimbledon and the US Open in 1974. Don Budge was the first player to win all four major titles in the same year-the Grand Slam-in 1938. The term “Grand Slam” was first coined when American tennis writer Allison Danzig suggested in 1938 that Budge scored a Grand Slam of victories-like a winning bridge player-at the four most prestigious championships of the year.
Laver, a left-hander given the nickname the “Rockhampton Rocket,” even managed to win the Grand Slam twice-once in 1962 as an amateur and again in 1969 as a professional. In Laver’s time, however, this accomplishment had a different value and was less significant than today as three of the four Grand Slam events were played on grass courts, unlike the four different surfaces of today’s game.
In women’s tennis, three players have won the Grand Slam-the American Maureen Connolly (1953), the Australian Margaret Smith Court (1970), as well as Steffi Graf (1988). The German, who married Andre Agassi after her tennis career, also won at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 giving her the distinction of winning what is called the “Golden Slam.” Martina Hingis, like Federer, won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 1997, narrowly missing the Grand Slam, with her surprising loss to Iva Majoli in the French final preventing her from joining this elite club.
[ad#adify-300×250]
In New York, Federer once again proved his ability to amplify his performance in the final stages of the tournament. He became the first professional player to win all of his first four Grand Slam tournament finals. It was almost equally amazing that in this feat, he lost only one set in his eight matches in the semifinals and finals. In the meantime, Federer’s US Open final marked the 11th straight victory in a tournament final. For Federer, a tournament final proved to be his greatest motivation. His attitude was simple-what’s the use of all the effort and match victories if you ultimately lose in the final? Winners stay, losers go.
The coup at Flushing Meadows transformed him into a sports star on Broadway. The American media celebrated him lavishly and some journalists even asked the question at such a pre-mature stage if he would be the man who would break Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles.
Federer remained grounded and modest in the hour of his greatest achievement in the United States. “I honestly never expected to win the US Open,” he said. “Until a year ago, I always had problems in the United States. The Americans always play with more confidence in their home tournaments than anywhere else. Conditions are difficult with the high heat and humidity.”
But he admitted something else; “I had a strange feeling before the final because everybody was talking about how long it had been since anybody had won his first four Grand Slam finals. I knew that I only had this one chance to do this.” Some were already talking that Federer was in a position to achieve the Grand Slam, but he didn’t allow these musings of grandeur to mislead him. “I would be really happy if I were to win one of the four Grand Slams next year,” he said the day after his US Open triumph during an extended interview session with a select group of journalists. “I know that I have to work hard for each match and for each title. It’s crazy what’s happening to me now. It’s out of this world.”
Federer’s US Open title generously extended his points lead on the No. 1 ranking. His margin between him at No. 1 and Roddick, his next challenger at No. 2, was extended from 1390 points to 2990 points-the equivalent of three Grand Slam titles. It would be impossible for any player to overtake him before the end of the year, even if Federer lost every match for the rest of the year. In the last four years, the year-end Tennis Masters Cup was the final determining tournament to decide the year-end No. 1 player. However, 2004 was not a normal year and thanks to the US Open, the year-end No. 1 was already in the books.
The Monday after the US Open brought Federer to the realization that the clocks tick differently in the American media world. He was chauffeured in a stretch limousine from one television station to another-7:45 am at ESPN’s show “Cold Pizza,” then at 8:30 am to the “CBS Early Show” and then at 9:30 am at “Live with Regis and Kelly,” followed by a photo shoot in Times Square, and a meeting with a select group of print journalists at the Hard Rock Café. At 2:30 pm, he was a guest on John McEnroe’s television talk show, and finally he appeared on the “Charlie Rose Show.” He had to prove his dexterity at ping-pong at two of his television appearances. Many things are possible in the United States, but setting up a tennis court in a television studio is not one of them.