Legende tenisa

[Milutinov Tata]

Tenis, kakvim ga znamo danas je nastao sedamdesetih godina devetnaestog veka u Engleskoj. Najstariji teniski turnir je Vimbldon koji je prvi put odigran 1877. godine. Tenis se brzo prosirio i preko okeana u SAD, gde se prvi turnir odrzava 1880., a godinu dana kasnije u Njuportu se igra i prvi US Open.

Zene su relativno brzo pratile muskarce, svoj prvi Vimbldon igraju 1884, a US Open 1887. U Francuskoj prvi RG se igra 1891, ali tek 1925. postaje otvoren turnir (do tada ucestvovali samo Francuzi). U Australiji tenis je debitovao pocetkom dvadesetog veka, prvi AO je odrzan 1905. Davis Kup, musko ekipno takmicenje se igra od 1900. Tenis je bio i olimpijski sport do 1924, a na program letnjih igra se zvanicno vraca 1988. Prvi Pro tur je zapoceo 1926. i time su krenule podele medju teniserima na amatere (koji su mogli da igraju GS turnire) i profesionalce, koji su primali naknadu za igranje, ali nisu mogli vise da se takmice na zvanicnim GS turnirima. Sa prekidima ova podela je trajala sve do 1968 i pocetka Open ere kada su konacno svi teniseri i teniserke dobile pravo da igraju na GS turnirima.

Za ovih vise od sto trideset godina bilo je mnogo sampiona medju muskarcima i damama, ali ovde ce biti reci o onim najvecima. Oni koji su obelezili period do pocetka Open ere bice ukratko pomenuti, dok ce o teniserima i teniserkama, koji su obelezili poslednjih cetrdesetak godina biti mnogo vise reci i slika.

[Milutinov Tata]

Muskarci - period do Drugog svetskog rata

U prvim godinama GS turnira (a i u DC takmicenju) primenjivao se celendz sistem, gde je pobednik iz prethodne godine isao direktno u finale i cekao izazivaca, koji je bio pobednik turnira na kome su ucestvovali svi ostali teniseri i teniserke. Iz tog vremena ima mnogo tenisera i teniserki visestrukih GS sampiona, koji i nisu morali mnogo da se oznoje da bi osvojili trofej. Tek pocetkom dvadesetog veka krece sistem koji je se i danas primenjuje i za tadasnje pobednike se moglo reci da su zaista najbolji od svih.

Prva velika zvezda se pojavila dvadesetih godina proslog veka. Bio je to Vilijam Bil Tilden , ili Veliki Bil. Osvajac 10 GS trofeja, 3 puta pobednik Vimbldona, i 7 puta osvajac US Opena, 6 puta uzastopno u peridu 1920-1925. Nikad nije igrao u Australiji, a dva puta je gubio finale na RG od francuskih musketara, jednom od Lakosta (bilo je 11-9 u petom setu) i jednom od Kosea. Predvodio je americki DC tim do 7 uzastopnih trofeja od 1920. do 1926. Poslednji GS trofej je osvajio na Vimbldonu, 1930. Sledece, 1931. je presao u profesionalce.



Karijera kroz brojke



Sredinom dvadesetih pojavljuje se cuvena generacija francuskih tenisera – 4 Musketara – Rene Lakost, Zan Borotra, Anri Kose i Zak Brunjon (mnogo poznatiji kao dubl igrac). Posle dva uzastopna poraza, osvajaju 6 titula od 1927. do 1932. Sva finala kod kuce su igrali na terenima na RG.





Zan Borotra je osvojio 4 GS titule, 2 Vimbldona, 1 AO (sasvim slucajno, njegov klub je organizovao putovanje, inace u to vreme retko su se teniseri odlucivali na dalek put do Australije) i 1 RG. U finalu US Opena izgubio je od Lakosta i time propustio priliku da postane prvi teniser sa osvojena sva 4 GS trofeja.



Rene Lakost , osvajac 7 GS trofeja, trijumfovao je 3 puta na RG, i ima jos po dve titule sa Vimbldona i US Opena. Poznat po svojoj eleganiciji, jos u to vreme je imao svoju seriju sportske opreme, koja je i danas svetski prepoznatljiv brend.







Anri Kose je takodje osvojio 7 GS titula. Trijumfovao je 4 puta na RG, 2 puta na Vimbldonu i jednom na US Openu.



Interesatno je da su od 1925. do 1932. ova trojica osvojili sve titule na RG, od 1924. do 1929. sve titule na Vimbldonu, i da su prekinuli niz Tildena na US Openu sa 3 uzastopne titule od 1926. do 1928.

Pocetkom tridesetih, pojavljuje se i prvi veliki igrac iz Australije. To je bio Dzek Kroford . Osvojio je 6 GS titula, 4 na domacem terenu na AO, i po jedan RG i Vimbldon. Ono po cemu ce biti upamcen je, da je bio prvi igrac na samo jedan set od godisnjeg Grand Slama. 1933, posle osvojenih AO, RG i Vimbldona, stigao je i do finala US Opena, vodio 2-1 protiv protiv Perija, ali se onda, danasnjim recnikom, potpuno raspao i ubedljivo izgubio naredna dva seta. Sa Perijem je odigrao jos dva finala naredne godine, na AO i Vimbldonu i oba puta bio porazen. Ipak uspeva u njihovom cetvrtom GS finalu na AO 1935. da zabelezi svoj poslednji trijumf na nekom GS. Sa DC timom nikada nije uspeo da uzme titulu.

Spoiler: pokaži

Jack Crawford
Australian Champion 1931, 1932, 1933,1935
Christened John Herbert, 'Jack', Crawford was born in Albury on 22 March 1908 and won the Australian Open four times, from 1931-33 and in 1935.
Known as Gentleman Jack because of his impeccable sportsmanship, Crawford's good looks and stylish play are credited with transforming tennis from a minor to a major Australian sport in the late 1920s. He was so poised and graceful on court that his fans claimed he could have played with a book balanced on his head.
The New South Welshman made his debut at the Australian Championships in 1927, losing an epic first round against Gar Moon.
In 1928 he reached the quarterfinal where he lost to Jean Borotra, the most accomplished international opponent he'd faced in his career to that point.
World No.1 Borotra declared his opponent a future world champion, saying he'd never seen a young player with such great ability and promise and that there were no limits to what Crawford might achieve. Three years later the Frenchman's assessment proved correct when Crawford defeated Harry Hopman in four sets to win the 1931 title, defending the crown over the same opponent in 1932.
At the peak of his powers in 1933, Crawford won his third Australian title, beating American Keith Gledhill in the final. He rolled on to victories at the French Open and Wimbledon and, at Forest Hills later that year, came within one set of becoming the first person in history to win all four majors, losing to Fred Perry in the US Championships final 3-6 13-11 6-4 0-6 1-6.
Perry underlined his dominance over Crawford in the 1934 Australian final but the Aussie turned the tables on the Brit in 1935. Winning the last of his six major singles titles 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-4, in what was his seventh appearance in the final of the championships, Crawford ultimately posted a 52-15 win-loss record at the tournament.

Fred Peri je do kasnih dvadesetih bio poznat kao odlican igrac stonog tenisa, a u tridesetima postao je legenda belog sporta. On je prvi igrac u istoriji koji je uspeo da osvoji sva 4 GS turnira, tzv. karijerni Slam, a poslednji u tom nizu je bio RG 1935. Ukupno je osvojio 8 GS titula, po jednom AO i RG, 3 puta uzastopno Vimbldon u periodu 1934-1936, i 3 puta US Open. Predvodio je britanski DC tim do 4 uzastopne titule od 1933 do 1936. Poslednju GS titulu osvojio je 1936., kada je u finalu US Opena pobedio Donalada Badza sa 10-8 u petom setu. Naredne godine prelazi u profesionalce. Kao i Lakost napravio je liniju sportske odece sa svojim imenom koja je i danas svetski poznati brend.

Spoiler: pokaži

Look closely at the statue of Fred Perry outside Centre Court next time you go to Wimbledon and see if you share my opinion that there seems to be a ghost of a smile on the great man's lips.

The smile is well merited. Perry was unique in Wimbledon's rich history: the first Englishman for 25 years to capture the gentlemen's singles and the only player to win the final in straight sets three times. Also, no Englishman has won Wimbledon since Fred last held aloft the championship trophy in 1936.

Perry, the son of a Labour Member of Parliament and born in the northern town of Stockport, came to tennis via table tennis, at which he became a world champion. His first tilt at the Wimbledon title was in 1929, a month after his 20th birthday, when he qualified and went on to win two rounds in the main draw.

Fred went a round further in 1930 and by the following year had improved enough to be fifth seed. However, he had not improved enough to defeat the seventh-seeded American and eventual champion, Sidney Wood, in the semi-finals.

After a quarter-final spot in 1932, Perry suffered his worst Wimbledon defeat in 1933, going out in the second round to the South African, Norman Farquharson.

By the time the 1934 Championships came round, Fred was already the star of a British Davis Cup team launched on a four-year domination of the competition, and went into Wimbledon as second seed behind the Australian, Jack Crawford.

Already the rumours were flying that Perry was considering turning professional, which in those days meant an immediate ban from all tournaments. But Fred was not interested until he had conquered his personal Everest and won Wimbledon.

He had injured his ankle at the French championships the previous month and did not play again until Wimbledon in a bid to get fully fit. The ankle was fully tested in the third round by the Czech, Roderick Menzel, who won the first set 6-0 and led two sets to one before Fred and his ankle came through.

He then defeated the Australian, Adrian Quist, in straight sets, American George Lott in four and in the semi-finals overcame his 1931 conqueror, Wood, in a tremendous five-set tussle.

The final was an anti-climax as Perry routed Crawford 6-3 6-0 7-5, at one stage reeling off 12 games in succession. The unhappy Crawford double-faulted at match point and Perry had won his first Wimbledon in just an hour and ten minutes, since in those days there was no sitting down or breaks between the change of ends.

As Perry went on to win the 1934 US title and then the French in 1935 speculation mounted about his plans to quit the amateur game, and he certainly continued to be the recipient of offers. But Fred said no to them all before turning to the defence of his title.

He sailed through the field, defeating his old adversary Menzel, this time in straight sets in the quarter-finals, then coming through in four sets against Crawford. The final was even easier, with Fred dropping only ten games against the German baron, Gottfried von Cramm, in a 6-2 6-4 6-4 victory.

By the time the 1936 Championships came round, Perry had lost his US and French titles, beaten in five sets in Paris by von Cramm. Realising by now the only way to make money from his name and abilities was to turn pro, he had determined to do so if he clocked up his hat-trick of Wimbledon wins.

It turned out to be by far the easiest of the three. Only in the semi-finals did he drop a set, to the fast-rising young American, Don Budge, before coming up once more against the German aristocrat, von Cramm.

Perry had always made a habit of "scouting" the opposition and was fascinated to pick up the information from the Wimbledon masseur that his opponent in the final had been treated for a groin strain, and learned the German was having difficulty moving wide on the forehand.

After an opening game which went to ten deuces and 24 points, von Cramm started to grimace as the champion piled the pressure on his forehand and it was all over in 40 minutes, 6-0 6-1 6-1, the fastest Wimbledon men's final since 1881.

FRED PERRY

Singles Champion:1934, 1935, 1936

Doubles Runner-up:1932

Mixed Doubles Champion:1935, 1936

Donald Badz je prvi teniser koji je uspeo da osvoji godisnji GRAND SLAM, 1938, ujedno je i drugi igrac u istoriji, a i najmladji, koji je osvojio karijerni Slam, na istom mestu kao i Peri, na RG 1938. Imao je relativno kratku amatersku karijeru, osvojio je 6 GS titula i to uzastopno, od Vimbldona 1937. zakljucno sa US Openom 1938. Jedan od najzasluznijih za povatak DC titule u SAD posle dvanaest godina i clan sampionskog tima 1937. i 1938. Naredne 1939. godine prelazi u profesionalce.





Jos treba dodati dva tenisera za koje mnogi tvrde da su bili medju najboljim igracima tog doba, ali su vrlo brzo presli u profesionalce, pa nisu ostavili dublji trag medju amaterima. To su Amerikanci, osvajaci po 3 GS trofeja
Elsvort Vajns i Bobi Rigs

Takodje jedan od najboljih igraca tog perioda je bio i Nemac Gotfrid Von Kram koji je osvojio samo 2 GS trofeja, ali bio i ucesnik u jos 5 finala i ciju je karijeru ispratilo dosta kontroverzi, povezanih sa tadasnjim vlastima u Nemackoj.

[harper lee]

Fantasticno. Hvala na ovom topiku MTata.

[georgina]

sjajno tata, uživancija za čitanje i gledanje.

[Milutinov Tata]

Zene - period do Drugog svetskog rata

Slicno kao i kod muskaraca, krajem devetnaestog i pocetkom dvadesetog veka bilo je mnogo igracica koje su redjale titule u serijama. Mozda najupecatljivija iz tog perioda je sedmostruka sampionka i jos 4 puta finalistkinja Vimbldona Dorotea Daglas . Ali posle prvog svetskog rata na evropskoj i svetskoj sceni je zablistala nova zvezda koja je definitivno promenila istoriju zenskog tenisa.

Francuskinja Suzan Lenglen bila je zaista avangarda svog vremena. Prva se pojavila u oskudnijoj odece na mecevima (sa otkrivenim rukama i nogama skoro do kolena), punila je naslovne stranice novina i bila je modernim recnikom "selebreti" svoga vremena, sto je znatno podiglo i vrednost sporta kojim se bavila. Uvek sa viskom emocija na terenu, povremenim dramama, ispijanjima zestokih napitaka u pauzama, svesna svoje velicine koju nije sakrivala. Nadimak koji je imala dovoljno govori za sebe - La Divine. Imala je i jednu karakteristiku koja i danas prati mnoge teniserke, bila je pod velikim uticajem svog oca. Osvojila je 8 GS titula, 6 puta Vimbldon (nijednom nije porazena u Londonu, dva puta je predala mec bez borbe) i 2 puta RG (mada je trijumfovala jos 4 puta, ali tada je turnir bio "zatvorenog" tipa). Prvi Vimbldon je osvojila pobedivsi Daglasovu sa 9-7 u trecem setu, u mecu u kome je spasavala dve vezane mec lopte. U Australiji nikada nije igrala, a na US Open je nastupila samo jednom 1921. i tada je dozivela svoj jedini poraz na GS turnirima. Pod vrlo cudnim okolnostima izgubila je od Mole Bjursted Malori, predajom u drugom setu. Americkoj Norvezanki se naredne godine "osvetila" u finalu Vimbldona. Kraj njene amaterske karijere je bio na mestu njenih najvecih trijumfa, Vimbldonu 1926. na vrlo bizaran nacin, gde je zbog nekih gresaka u protokolu "ostavila" kraljicu da ceka skoro sat vremena njen mec, cime je po domacinima uvredila monarhiju i bila izvizdana kada se pojavila na terenu. Posle tog meca povukla se sa turnira. Ali to nije bio kraj price, jeseni te godine postaje prvi profesionalac u svetu tenisa i za sumu od, po nekim izvorima, cak 100 000 dolara stavlja tacku na amatersku karijeru. Pocetkom naredne godine, definitivno se povlaci iz tenisa.

Spoiler: pokaži

"The Goddess of Tennis" is the heading of a chapter on Suzanne Lenglen in the sport's leading reference work, The Ultimate Book of Tennis. Although some way short of being beautiful, Lenglen fulfilled every other requirement of a sporting goddess - ethereal, all-conquering and a leader in setting trends and fashions. However, she was not just tennis' first prima ballerina, she was its first prima donna too.

Lenglen won six Wimbledons and was never beaten in competition at the All England Club. She also won six championships of her native France and was such a magical attraction in her revealing dresses and flowing tulle headbands that she revitalised and reformed the game in the seven years of her dominance until turning professional, disappearing from the then strictly amateur scene before dying of leukaemia, aged only 39, in 1938.

Suzanne was relentlessly coached by her father Charles, a Paris bus company owner and thanks to hours of such rigorous practice as learning to hit a handkerchief laid on court time after time, had already become a champion when hardly into her teens.

Lenglen was only 20 when she made her initial visit to Wimbledon for the 1919 Championships, the first to be held after the Great War. Despite making her acquaintance with grass court tennis, she swept to the final, or the Challenge Round as it was then known, without dropping a set. Her opponent, Dorothea Lambert Chambers, the defending champion and a seven-time Wimbledon winner, was, at 40, exactly twice her age.

It was a stark contrast, not only in terms of years but also in playing style and clothing. While Mrs Chambers went on court in the sort of constricting dress regarded as the norm in those days, Suzanne wore lightweight, diaphanous clothing which allowed her the sort of athletic movement she had learned early at ballet classes.

Aided by another first in women's tennis, sips from a brandy flask provided by her father between sets, Lenglen outlasted Chambers 10-8, 4-6, 9-7. The measure of Lenglen's subsequent advance to the stage of invincibility was shown at Wimbledon a year later, when against the same opponent she won 6-3, 6-0.

In 1925, she won Wimbledon for the loss of a mere five games, this coming after she had been forced to miss the 1924 Championships because of illness, early signs of the stress which was undermining her health. Someone who could not bear to be beaten, she had consequently lost the ability to enjoy winning. It had instead become a draining necessity.

Lenglen's only tournament defeat occurred in her one bid for the US title in 1921. She travelled to New York, intending not to play tennis but to raise funds for the regions of France devastated by the war.

After a crossing in which she suffered severely from sea sickness and chronic asthma, Lenglen arrived in New York to find she had not only been entered for the tournament without her knowledge but was drawn against the champion, the Norwegian-American Molla Mallory in the second round because of an absence of seeding.

Having lost the first set 6-2 Lenglen collapsed with a coughing fit and defaulted, jeered off court. She was later diagnosed as having whooping cough.

Lenglen's last Wimbledon in 1926 ended in similar turmoil, but just prior to that she played perhaps her most famous match, in the Cannes tournament against Helen Wills, who would become her rival for the crown of greatest player between the wars. Lenglen won that one 6-3, 8-6. It was the only time they met.

At Wimbledon Lenglen progressed serenely into the third round, when Queen Mary turned up to watch. Due to a mix-up, Lenglen was not informed of her starting time and kept the Queen waiting for an hour. The All England Club wanted to default her, but other players managed to persuade them to allow her to remain in the draw. However, when she was booed for a perceived insult to the monarchy, Lenglen decided to withdraw.

It was her farewell, and a wretched one, from a tournament she had dominated so effortlessly.

SUZANNE LENGLEN

Singles Champion:1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925

Doubles Champion:1919, 1920. 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925

Mixed Doubles Champion:1920, 1922, 1925

Pocetkom dvadesetih u Americi se pojavljuje nova zvezda, Helen Vils , kasnije poznata i pod preziemnom Mudi. Osvaja tri uzastopna US Opena, igra cak i jedno finale na Vimbldonu, ali spletom cudnih okolnosti njen i put Lenglen se nikako nisu ukrstili. Jedini medjusobni mec su odigrali 1926. u finalu turnira u Kanu. Mec za koji je vladalo neverovatno intresovanje, i koji je privukao ogromnu paznju tadasnje svetske javnosti. Trijumfovala je Lenglen, a Vils nikada nije dobila priliku za revans. Posle povlacenja Francuskinje, Vils je brutalno izdominirala teniskim terenim osvojivsi ukupno 19 GS titula, i igravsi jos 3 finala, na ukupno 24 GS turnira koje odigrala u svojoj karijeri. U njenoj kolekciji nalaze se 8 Vimbldona, 7 US Opena i 4 RG. Nikada nije nastupila u Australiji. Dva puta, 1928. i 1929. je osvajala 3 GS trofeja. Na Vimbldonu je imala niz od 4 uzastopne titule, na US Openu dva puta po 3. Bila je susta suprotnost od Lenglen, povucena i zatvorena, bez suvisnih emocija i drama na terenu, poznata i po nadimku "Miss Poker Face"

Spoiler: pokaži

It was not until 1990, 52 years after she had set the mark, that Helen Wills Moody's record of eight singles titles at The Championships was finally overtaken by Martina Navratilova's historic ninth Centre Court triumph.

It was appropriate that Navratilova, the greatest of the modern generation, should be the one to set her name in the history books alongside the woman who was the premier player of the pre-war era. Wills Moody had only one real challenger for that honour, Suzanne Lenglen, and the astonishing statistic of two women who between them won 14 Wimbledon singles titles is that they met only once.

It happened at Cannes in 1926. Lenglen, having won her six Wimbledons between 1919 and 1925, was 27 and at the peak of her game, while Wills (who would not marry Frederick Moody until 1929) was just 20 and had only played Wimbledon once, losing to Britain's Kitty McKane (later Godfree) in the 1924 final. That was to be the only defeat she sustained in nine visits to the All England Club.

The Cannes contest went to Lenglen by a score of 6-3, 8-6 and further meetings were ruled out by the Frenchwoman's decision to turn professional, preventing what would have been an epic rivalry, Wills Moody's power and solidity matched against Lenglen's verve and speed.

The quiet and reserved American, who was born in Berkeley, California in 1905, was dubbed Miss Poker Face by the media, with whom she had little rapport. In truth, it was her opponents who should have been left with straight faces as Wills Moody embarked on the most incredible run of success.

Between 1927 and 1932 she did not lose a set, never mind a match, annexing five Wimbledons, four US and four French titles. It was not until the 1933 Wimbledon final that Dorothy Round managed to take a set off her.

Later that year, Wills Moody defaulted to her latest rival and fellow-Californian, Helen Jacobs, in the final of the US Champonships, complaining of back pain. Jacobs had never beaten the seven-time US champion, but she seemed on the brink of it at set-all and 3-0 in the decider when Wills Moody announced she could not continue. It was the only time in their 11 meetings that Jacobs would be able to claim "victory".

Angered by the furore which followed her failure to explain the injury more fully, she never again played the US event but, having had lengthy treatment from her father, a doctor, she continued to garner honours at the All England Club, winning on both of her subsequent appearances, in 1935 and then finally, at the age of 32, in 1938.

On both occasions her opponent was again "the other Helen", Jacobs. But they were very different finals. In 1935 Jacobs led 5-2 in the third set of a gripping contest and actually had a match point, only to fluff an easy volley and then watch helplessly as Wills Moody swept five games in a row. Miss Poker Face was so moved by this extraordinary comeback that she kissed and embraced the startled umpire.

Three years later Jacobs managed to collect just four games in a decidedly one-sided contest, the fourth time she had lost to Wills Moody in a Wimbledon final. It was the Great Helen's farewell to a tournament in which she had lost a total of four sets in all the years of Wimbledon participation.

A reporter for the New York Herald attempted to explain Wills Moody's lack of popularity among American audiences: "She plays her tennis wrapped in a deadly, serious integrity...this is the way to win, but not the way of a crowd pleaser." It was an attitude which inevitably made her more popular, and more at home, with the reserved English crowds.

With the Second World War only a year distant, the face of women's tennis would be much changed by 1946, when Wimbledon got under way once more - apart from ongoing American dominance. The achievements of Helen Wills Moody, who had remarried to Aidan Roark in 1939, seemed established for ever until the emergence of Navratilova.

An accomplished writer and painter in her retirement, Helen Wills Moody Roark died on New Year's Day 1998.

HELEN WILLS-MOODY

Singles Champion:1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1938

Doubles Champion:1924, 1927, 1930

Mixed Doubles Champion:1929

Na ovom snimku je kratak pregled vimbldonskih finala iz 1935, na njemu je i finale muskaraca u kome je trijumfovao Peri.



O rivalstvu i zivotu Lenglen i Vils i njihovom "obracunu" u Kanu ispisana je i knjiga



Daleko u senci ove dve teniserke bile su i neke druge velike sampionke. Amerikanka Helen Dzejkobs je osvojila 5 GS trofeja, 4 puta US Open i to uzastopno od 1932. do 1935. i jednom Vimbldon, ali najvise se pamti po 11 izgubljenih finala, cak 6 puta od Vils. Poznata je i kao prva zena koja je kao deo opreme na Vimbldonu nosila "muski" sorts.



U Australiji je dominirala Dafni Ejkhrst , koja je osvojila 5 titula u trecoj deceniji proslog veka. Samo je par puta nastupala van Australije, bez vecih uspeha. Na zalost umrla je vrlo mlada u 29. godini.

Spoiler: pokaži

Daphne Akhurst
Australian Champion 1925, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1930
Born in Sydney on 22 April 1903, Daphne Akhurst achieved much during her tragically short life, winning five Australian singles titles and nine Australian doubles titles between 1924 and 1931.
Making her debut at the tournament in 1924, Akhurst reached the second round where she fell to Esna Boyd. That match saw the dawning of a rivalry that spanned five years until Boyd's retirement in 1928.
Akhurst exacted revenge over her adversary the following year, claiming her first Australian Championship title after a nervous start 1-6 8-6 6-4 in the pre-tiebreak era.
The New South Welshwoman backed up her win in 1926 with a more straightforward 6-1 6-3 victory, illness partially to blame for her three-set concession of the 1927 final that afforded Boyd her only Australian title.
The pair's 1928 final showdown was described by the Argus newspaper as "as fine an exhibition of women's tennis as has been seen in Australia for some time." Akhurst's steady style of play comprehensively outfoxed hard-hitting Boyd, earning her a 7-5 6-2 victory and her third Australian title. She became the first Aussie woman to reach the world top 10 the same year, peaking at No.3.
Scoring finals victories over Louie Bickerton in 1929 and Sylvia Harper in 1930, Akhurst cemented her status as Australia's most prolific champion of the era. Today she ranks third on the Australian all-time singles champion list behind Margaret Court and Nancye Wynne Bolton.
Married, Akhurst won her last Australian title - the women's doubles with Bickerton - in 1931 as Mrs Roy Cozens. Two years later, in 1933, she suffered an ectopic pregnancy and died aged 29.
The Australian Open women's singles trophy is named the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup in her honour.

Amerikanaka Alis Marbl je osvojila 5 trofeja u 5 finala koja je igrala. Bila je sampionka 4 puta na US Opena, tri puta uzastopno u periodu 1938. - 1940. i jednom na Vimbldonu. Cak tri puta je u finalu dobila Dzejkobs. 1940. je presla u profesionalce. Krajem drugog svetskog rata radila je kao spijun za americku tajnu sluzbu.



Na ovom snimku je pregled finala US Opena 1938., a na njemu je i musko finale u kome je Badz osvojio GRAND SLAM.



Treba pomenuti i americku Norvezanku Molu Bjursted Malori osvajacicu 8 US Opena (4 puta uzastopno, ali tokom prvog svetskog rata od 1915.-1918.) i finalstikinju na jos 3 GS turnira, zatim Britanku Doroti Raund Litil , prvu neaustralijanku sampionku AO, osvajacicu 3 GS trofeja (nalazi se na snimku u delu posvecenom Periju, pregled finala Vimbldona 1934. godine), Nemicu Hilde Kravinkl Sperling trostruku uzastopnu sampionku na RG od 1935. do 1937. i Australijanku Dzoan Hartigan trostruku sampionku AO.


The U.S. team (from left to right): Sarah Palfrey Fabyan Cooke Danzig, Dorothy Bundy Cheney, Helen Wills Moody, Alice Marble, and Helen Jacobs. - 1938.godina

[Opojni zumbul]

Lepo je što postoji ova tema! Za mene su već sada teniske legende Monika Seleš, Martina Hingis i Janifer Capriati, zbog njih sam nekada počeo da pratim i zavoleo tenis

[Milutinov Tata]

Evo filma o najvecim zvezdama zenskog tenisa izmedju dva svetska rata

[Milutinov Tata]

Zanimljiva prica o Fredu Periju


Fred Perry and lover Marlene Dietrich in 1934.

Spoiler: pokaži

Fred Perry is best known today for the chain of leisurewear that bears his illustrious name. But almost three quarters of a century ago, he set Wimbledon ablaze when he won the men's singles – a feat that no Briton has achieved since. He was feted internationally, but in the genteel world of the 1930s no mention was made of his torrid love life.

The first biography of the tennis star, The Last Champion, paints Perry as the heartthrob of his day: flirting with Holly­wood and dating some of the world's most beautiful women, while governments sought his services for propaganda purposes.

The book, written by the Observer's tennis correspondent Jon Henderson, spells out how Perry's glamorous life was a far cry from his humble origins: his father, Sam, had worked in a factory before becoming a powerful figure in the Co-operative movement and a Labour MP. But Perry's immense talents – first at table tennis, eventually becoming world champion; then at lawn tennis – propelled him to international stardom.

It helped that Perry had matinee-idol looks. "He is 6ft tall, weighs around 12 stone; sculptors declare his physique perfect ... women fall for him like ninepins," Henderson quotes one star-struck commentator as having said at the height of Perry's success. "When he goes to Hollywood, male film stars go and sulk in Nevada."

Away from the tennis courts, women and the silver screen were Perry's great loves. Once, while staying at a Boston hotel, Perry and an American tennis player tied bed sheets together to lower themselves down to the floor below to make a social call on two female players. "I shiver when I think of that climb," Perry recalled.

Perry was briefly engaged to an English actress, Mary Lawson, but went on to marry four times. His first marriage was to divorcee Helen Vinson, an actress from Texas; the second, to Sandra Breaux, a model with film ambitions; and the third to Lorraine Walsh, whose drink problem is thought to have contributed to their break-up. All three maintained that Perry had been cruel to them, although Henderson suggests this was largely legalese employed by their divorce lawyers. Perry's fourth wife, Barbara Rise Friedman, stayed with him for 40 years.

But the book's most intriguing suggestion is that Perry enjoyed dalliances with some of Hollywood's leading ladies. He briefly dated the original blonde bombshell Jean Harlow, of whom the Hollywood trade paper Variety once noted: "It doesn't matter what degree of talent she possesses ... nobody ever starved possessing what she's got."

He went on to become a close confidant of screen star Bette Davis, of whom he said: "We were always easy and natural in each other's company ... Not exactly family, but almost."

Perry also romanced Marlene Dietrich while coaching her at tennis. According to Dietrich's daughter, Maria Riva: "Fred Perry taught my mother to play tennis with great patience and lots of little passionate hugs, punctuated with rapid kissing between flying balls."

At the time, Dietrich was also engaged in a lesbian affair with Mercedes de Acosta, a Cuban-American poet referred to as the "smitten Spaniard" by Riva. "I sort of hoped the smitten Spaniard might arrive and witness the Englishman at work, but my mother was very skilful in keeping her admirers from overlapping," said the star's daughter.

Hollywood leading man Clark Gable's former lover Loretta Young also set tongues wagging when she turned up on Perry's arm at Wimbledon, although she played down suggestions of a serious romance. "You can bank on it that I'm not going back to America as Mrs Perry," she told the press.

At the height of his career, film studio RKO offered Perry a contract for two movies at $50,000 each, but the Lawn Tennis Association, the amateur game's governing body in England, talked him out of it.

Perry's on-court prowess was second to none. "Perry's forehand was merely the deadliest weapon in an armoury full of menace," Henderson notes. "He executed his backhand – distinguished by its short backswing – with the powerful efficiency of a butcher laying into a carcass."

It was this ability that saw Perry, a teetotal pipe-smoker, win Wimbledon in 1934, 1935 and 1936, completing a sporting hat-trick that made him one of the world's first truly international sportsmen.

In 1937, he turned professional, after becoming disillusioned with the LTA, upset that it had done little to offer him incentives to remain an amateur. He hired an American promoter and took US citizenship the following year.

Henderson believes that decision, compounded by his desire to stay in America when war broke out, cost Perry a knighthood. He was called up in 1942 and served in the US airforce, spending most of the war in California as the military hierarchy tried, unsuccessfully, to find a propaganda role for him.

Perry's failure to secure a knighthood was in some ways in keeping with his character. He had always felt like an outsider. His friend Dan Maskell, the veteran BBC tennis commentator, recalled: "He was not typically British; there was an aggressiveness and dedication about him that was out of step with the contemporary attitude towards sport."

Indeed, Perry was even known to deviate from the very English sense of fair play. American champion Jack Kramer recalled how Perry would antagonise his opponents by saying "very clevah" whenever an opponent played a particularly good shot. " 'Very clevah' drove a lot of opponents crazy," Kramer said.

When Perry turned professional, an official from the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain wrote to inform him that he should never wear the club sweater again. "I made sure he wouldn't have to worry about that," Perry said. "I sent a sleeve to him as a present."

Though a perennially disappointed nation desperately hopes that a successor will now emerge to emulate Perry's success, aficionados of the sport doubt that England will see his like again.

At Perry's funeral in 1995, a friend recalled how "simply fun to be around" Perry had been – warm and friendly and a bit of a rascal. He told how one day Perry walked into a locker room and declared: "Thank God I'm not playing me today."

In 1957, more than 20 years after winning his last grand slam title, Perry was approached by a Soviet delegation to help the USSR challenge the west's hegemony at tennis. He made two visits to advise the Soviet bloc countries.

On his first, he pushed his hosts to make a grand political gesture, calling on them to allow a player to compete at Wimbledon. Anna Dmitrieva, 17, became that player, and reached the final in the junior tournament in 1958.

[Milutinov Tata]

Jos malo o mecu stoleca

http://blogs.tennis.com/thewrap/2012/04 ... wills.html

[Milutinov Tata]

Evo price o trijumfu Freda Perija na AO 1934. godine. U finalu je pobedio Dzeka Kroforda 6–3 7–5 6–1

Spoiler: pokaži

Perry set sail for Australia from the United States in the autumn of 1933, having won the US title at Forest Hills, New York, in September to secure the first of his eight grand slam titles. Few sportsmen have embraced foreign travel quite as enthusiastically as Perry, and his first trans-Pacific passage, with stop-offs at Tahiti and the Cook Islands, made a lasting impression. ''I do not mind how often I repeat that glorious voyage across the Pacific,'' he wrote.

By now Perry, 25, the precocious, working-class boy from Stockport, Greater Manchester, who so spectacularly gatecrashed the predominantly genteel world of tennis, was the outstanding amateur player in the world. He was supremely fit, having trained hard with the successful Arsenal football sides of that time in defiance of tennis's dim view of extracurricular physical exercise; he also had a supremely competitive game whose defining stroke was a devastating, whipped forehand taken soon after the ball bounced.

Perry received an early warning on his first visit to Australia about how the locals expected people to behave. When he and his doubles partner, Pat Hughes, wore white dinner jackets they had had made in the United States to a reception in Melbourne, they were panned by the press. Ostentation went down as well then with the Aussies as it does now.

At another function, the mayor of Sydney referred to the recent bodyline Test cricket series, which had caused a diplomatic crisis between Britain and Australia when the England fast bowler Harold Larwood, following orders, targeted batsmen rather than the stumps. The mayor asked Hughes, who was captain of the British contingent, whether he too had arrived with a secret weapon. Hughes said he had: Fred Perry.

They were prophetic words. Perry's only meaningful challenge in the Australian championships came in his semi-final against Vivian McGrath, whom one local sportswriter described as ''Australia's Don Bradman of tennis''. Perry raced through the first three rounds, playing particularly well against Australia's No.2, Harry Hopman, before facing McGrath, who was only 17 but had beaten the great American Ellsworth Vines a year earlier. McGrath, one of the first exponents of the two-fisted backhand, won the first two sets before Perry's champion's instinct for survival saw him through. McGrath passed out at the end, overcome by exhaustion.

Remarkably, Perry played 98 games the day before the singles final, winning the doubles with Hughes over the full distance in addition to his long semi-final against McGrath. He used this to have what was almost certainly a psychological dig at Crawford after dominating the final. He commented that fatigue had almost certainly affected Crawford's concentration, knowing full well that he had far more cause than the Australian to be fatigued. It was typical of Perry's tireless mental campaigning against his main rivals that he should use this device to talk up his own fitness.

Two peripheral incidents, rather than the play itself, differentiated that 1934 Australian men's final. One was Perry's ploy, thought up with Jim Hines, the Slazenger sales manager, to paint his racket white. This piece of showmanship was designed to upstage Crawford but rebounded on Perry when the paint ran, and Hines sent out his ''Red Indian'' message.

The other involved barracking, which has always been a staple of Australian sporting events. Niggled by applause when he made a mistake, Perry turned to the crowd after Crawford netted a forehand in the final game and asked: ''Why don't you applaud that one?'' This caused a furore that prompted Perry to ask the umpire: ''Is this a cricket or a tennis match?'' A spectator then called out: ''You asked for it and you got it.''

It was as if Perry and the crowd both needed something to energise them after a disappointingly one-sided match.

[Milutinov Tata]

Evo price i o jednom od najvecih meceva pre drugog svetskog rata, koji je u sebi nosio veliku simboliku. Rec je o mecu u DC, 1937. godine, par nedelja posle vimbldonskog finala izmedju istih rivala. Dva najbolja svetska igraca u tom trenutku (medju amaterima), Amerikanac Donalad Badz i Nemac Gotfrid Von Kram. Mesto odrzavanja London, centralni teren u Vimbldonu. Nezvanicni selektor Nemackog tima je bio Bil Tilden.


Von Cramm (izquierda) y Budge ingresan al Court Central de Wimbledon para definir la serie de Copa Davis entre Alemania y Estados Unidos.

Detaljan opis meca i svih okolnosti tog vremena se nalaze u knjizi "A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played", ciji je autor Marshall Jon Fisher.

Spoiler: pokaži

As was true every year since Wimbledon's tennis stadium was built in 1922, the grass at Centre Court in the summer of 1937 had been worn to brown patches at the baseline and service line during tournament play. Players started, stopped and skidded hundreds of times during matches, and the grass could have used a break to recover after the Wimbledon championships ended in early July. Two weeks later, though, on July 20, the players who had faced each other in the final there were back again. Don Budge, a 22-year-old American, and Baron Gottfried von Cramm of Germany, 28, were scheduled to meet in the sport's premiere team competition, the Davis Cup.

Budge and Cramm were competing in what was essentially a semifinal to determine whether the U.S. or Germany would go to the challenge-round final against England. The match normally would have been staged on Court No. 1, but in a tribute to the renown of the two players, Wimbledon officials moved it to Centre Court. The American star, who had honed his serve and backhand to almost untouchable sharpness, made a likely favorite for the British, since he was taking on the representative of the increasingly bellicose German nation. But the crowd was on Cramm's side: England was already set to play in the final round, and the fans were hoping that the Germans would beat the formidable American team, giving England a better shot at the cup.

Cramm had other supporters that July day, but their backing sent a chill through him: Nazi officials sitting in the royal box expected him to win for the glory of the fatherland. A victory would also reassure them about his patriotism. The German star had refused to join the Nazi Party, and in April he had been interrogated by the Gestapo regarding allegations of homosexual activity -- a crime in Nazi Germany. The handsome, aristocratic Baron von Cramm desperately needed to redeem himself against the homely young American who had learned to play tennis on public courts in California. Cramm's prospects were not encouraging: In the Wimbledon final, Budge had beaten him easily in straight sets.

“Punch drunk from the long-building threat of war, along with eight months of royal scandal and political battles, London was relieved to turn back to that most reliable of diversions: tennis at Wimbledon.”
Read an excerpt from "A Terrible Splendor"

But then the match began, and spectators and players alike soon realized that an extraordinary competition of skill and guile and endurance was under way. James Thurber, the tennis-besotted writer for The New Yorker magazine was on hand, and he would later describe the Budge-Cramm five-set marathon as "the greatest match in the history of the world."

The case for the greatest match or game or championship ever played -- that staple of bar arguments -- inevitably has to be based on something more than simple drama on the field, court, course or ice. The confrontation between two opponents should also speak in a larger way about the world at that moment. A lot of tennis has been played since 1937 -- and for pure athletic drama, nothing could top the 1980 Wimbledon final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe -- but in Marshall Jon Fisher's rich and rewarding "A Terrible Splendor," he makes a strong claim to greatest-ever status for Budge vs. Cramm in the Davis Cup.

Nowadays the Davis Cup has become a largely marginalized but patriotically required nuisance to the already overloaded tennis pro. But back in the 1930s it was a major international sports event, on a par with a heavyweight title bout. In addition to the English fans' self-interested rooting for Germany to knock off the U.S., they brought an affection for Cramm himself to the match. He was a two-time loser in the Wimbledon finals but had displayed such impeccable sportsmanship and style that he had earned the title "the Gentleman of Wimbledon."

Further endearing Cramm to the crowd was his underdog status against Budge, the best player of his day. Budge played a transcendently beautiful brand of tennis -- Mr. Fisher calls it an "unassailable package of power and consistency that many would consider the finest ever even seven decades later." Armed with the game's best backhand, Budge struck the shot so hard that one opponent said, after encountering it at the net, that "you'd swear you were volleying a piano."

Cramm's story provides the emotional ballast of "A Terrible Splendor." In contrast to Budge, whose father was a truck driver, Cramm was a dashing blond member of the German aristocracy, single-mindedly pursuing the game on the court of the family's summer castle and later at Berlin's exclusive Rot-Weiss Club. "Every year that von Cramm steps onto the Centre Court at Wimbledon," reported one observer, "a few hundred young women sit a little straighter and forget about their escorts."

That the young women's interest was in vain was Cramm's secret. His rise to the top of German tennis during the 1930s, just as the Nazis tightened their grip on power, corresponded with the player's dawning realization of his homosexuality -- a proclivity that the Nazis increasingly criminalized. Much of the tension in "A Terrible Splendor," aside from the white-knuckle Davis Cup match, derives from Cramm's attempt to live and compete under Nazi suspicion. On that prewar afternoon at Wimbledon, while Nazi officials were sipping tea with British royalty, Cramm's value as a propaganda tool for Aryan supremacy was being weighed against his liability as a homosexual. As long as Cramm atoned for his Wimbledon loss by winning in this Davis Cup match, Mr. Fisher implies, the German would be spared persecution. Much more than a trophy was at stake.

In addition to the two on-court competitors, a third player looms large in "A Terrible Splendor": Bill Tilden, a tennis superstar of the 1920s who had done much to popularize the sport in America but who had also long feuded with the tennis bureaucracy in the U.S. The American tennis establishment, Mr. Fisher says, was leery of Tilden's off-court flamboyance and rumors about his sexual tendencies. (In the 1940s, Tilden was jailed twice on morals charges involving teenage boys.) In 1937, Tilden was unofficially coaching the German team, having been rebuffed by the Americans.

To this overarching narrative, Mr. Fisher brings a sharp eye for detail. He vividly sketches the anything-goes atmosphere of Weimar Berlin -- the book's fascinating photographs even include one of transvestites at a Berlin nightclub where Cramm met a Jewish actor who became his lover, further endangering the tennis player's fortunes in Nazi Germany.

Mr. Fisher's research has also turned up details that tennis fans will savor. We learn, for instance, that Budge used a "Ghost" model racket that the Wilson sporting-goods company designed specifically for him. It was "a substantial weapon, heavier and with a bigger handle than anyone else's," Mr. Fisher writes. The racket's grip was "combed basswood," just like the one Bill Tilden preferred, rather than the leather wrap that had been adopted by most players. We also learn that a five-set tennis match back then was even more grueling than it is today. Players didn't get a break between every other game, as by modern convention; they got a 10-minute intermission only between the third and fourth sets. Thus, fans were afforded long stretches of continuous play.

One hurdle Mr. Fisher faced in writing "A Terrible Splendor" is that in the titanic confrontation between Don Budge and Gottfried von Cramm, he didn't have two captivating subjects: Budge, however scintillating his tennis might have been, is not a dramatic character. Cramm claims our interest at every turn. No doubt the imbalance is one reason why the author lavishes attention on Tilden, who in truth was a minor factor in the story.

Though Mr. Fisher makes note of "the hyperbole of the day," he occasionally succumbs to it himself -- referring to a tennis match as "an ulcer-inducing cascade of tight moments" might cause readers to reach for the Pepto-Bismol. The author also indulges a little too freely in satisfying his "need to dramatize," as he says, "without knowing for certain exactly what was said or thought." To that end, he presumes a romantic attraction between Tilden and Cramm -- a speculative theme that is simply jarring.

As for the tennis in "A Terrible Splendor," Mr. Fisher spaces out his account of the Davis Cup match, dipping in and out of it as the book moves along. Each of the five sets is given its own chapter, which undermines the momentum of the play as Budge and Cramm battle back and forth. But the account of the action is gripping. Cramm initially goes up two sets, 8-6, 7-5. "He attacked incessantly," Budge said later of his opponent, "and kept me on the run." The American finds his serve in the third set, winning 6-4. Down two breaks in the fourth, Cramm lets up, saving his strength for the fifth, and loses 6-2. NBC radio cancels its programs to stay with the match until the end.

In the stadium, the largely British crowd chants "Deutschland! Deutschland!" as Cramm takes a 3-1 lead in the fifth -- but then Budge storms back. A reporter for the New York Herald Tribune will write that the players were hitting winners "off balls that themselves appeared to be certain winners." James Thurber called the display by both players "physical genius." But someone had to win, and, in the end, Budge prevailed.

"A year later," Mr. Fisher writes in the long final chapter, "Gottfried Cramm was in prison." Here we learn about the postmatch fates of the characters we've met, and as many intriguing storylines emerge as in what has gone before. This is especially true of Cramm: He was imprisoned for "deviant" behavior, released after a few months, drafted into military service and eventually sent to the Russian front after war breaks out. Remarkably, he survives -- and, perhaps even more remarkably, goes on in the 1950s to marry the American heiress to the Woolworth fortune, Barbara Hutton. Troubled by addiction and depression, Hutton had also long nursed an obsession with the dashing German. A friend observed that Cramm "didn't really want to marry her but thought that he could help her."

On the evidence of "A Terrible Splendor," that appraisal is entirely believable. In a life filled with glory and hardship, Cramm seems to have conducted himself unfailingly with honor and sportsmanship. His depiction by Mr. Fisher is a fitting tribute.

Evo sta je Badz rekao o mecu

As Cramm and I were leaving the locker room, the telephone rang and Cramm was called back, and it was Hitler calling him to wish him good luck, in this particular match. Of course it was quite exciting because the fellow who had charge of getting the players out on the court on time had both of us by the arm, he wouldn’t let Cramm go, and Cram was saying, “Yes Mein Fuehrer,” this and that, and it got to be quite a tense moment. However, we finally did get out on the court. And I managed to win the 3rd and 4th, and right away I was down 4-1 in the 5th set. I decided I had to get the net position away from him in the worst way. So with this in mind I made up my mind I would try to return his serve and go in behind it. Well as luck had it I did manage to get my returns in, get in to the net and make some winning volleys. I broke his serve and from there on it went to 6-all. Finally at 7-6 I broke his serve, and after 6 match points, finally won the thing, after a great struggle–falling down on the ground on my last point–but making the shot nonetheless. But as we shook hands at the net, I’ll never forget what Cram said, he said, “Don,” he said, “I’m very happy that I played so well against you, whom I like so much, and it was the best tennis I’ve every played in my life, so congratulations to the best man on this particular occasion.”

Postoje sumnje da telefonskog razgvora nije ni bilo, a to je kasnije tvrdio i Von Kram.


German Gottfried von Cramm, left, and American Don Budge take the court for the 1937 Wimbledon finals. They would play again two weeks later in Davis Cup competition.


Cramm and Adolf Hitler meet in 1933

[Milutinov Tata]

Nemacka teniserka Sili Ausem je prva Nemica koja je osvajala GS trofej. Posle prvog svetskog rata, nemackim teniserima i teniserkama je bilo zabranjeno da se takmice nekoliko godina. Ausem je bila vrlo talentovana teniserka, ali je imala majku vrlo nezgodne naravi, koja je dosta sputavala svoju kcerku. Ipak 1929. upoznavsi ih na francuskoj Rivijeri, Bil Tilden je uspeo da ubedi gospodju Ausem da mu dozvoli da tenira Sili neko vreme i nacinio je od nje pravu sampionku. Tilden i Ausem su osvojili RG u miksu 1930., a te godine je igrala polufinala na dva najveca turnira u Evropi. U polufinalnom mecu na Vimbldonu protiv domace igracice Elizabet Rajan, desio se neobican incident, kada je Sili pala i onesvestila se, pa je zbog toga morala da preda mec. Na zalost to je bio tek pocetak njenih zdravstvenih problema.

Vrhunac njene karijere dolazi naredne. 1931. godine kada je vezala trijumfe na RG i Vimbldonu. U Parizu je pobedila Britanku Beti Nathol 8:6 6:1, a u Londonu svoju godinu dana stariju zemljakinju Hilde Kravinkel. Krajem te godine odlazi na turneju u Juznu Ameriku, gde dobija ozbiljno oboljenje jetre, usled cega je morala neko vreme da miruje i prestane da se takmici. Posle uspesnog oporavka pokusala je da se vrati na teren, ali posle poraza u 1/4 finalu Vimbldona od Helen Dzejkobs 1935. prekida tenisku karijeru. Godinu dana kasnije udaje se za italijanskog grofa. Umire u 54. godini od posledica problema sa jetrom.

Prvo nemacko finale na Vimbldonu 1931 izmedju Ausem i Kravinkel. Trijumfovala je Sili 6-2 7-5.

This 1931 Wimbledon final was famous for being so boring some spectators walked out. Both women played "safe" as they each had blisters so bad they could hardly walk.

Cilly Aussem walking on court with Hilde Krahwinkel in the ladies singles final




Docek u Kelnu posle trijumfa u Vimbldonu

Evo jedne dokumentovane "anegdote" vezane za njenu majku

Berlin, August 20, 1928

Rising German tennis star Cilly Aussem suffered two seemingly unexplainable loses to a lower ranked German Frau von Reznicek. Aussem's mother was convinced Reznicek had hypnotized Cilly!

The story gets even better. Moma Aussem made her charges public by writing a letter to the President of the German tennis Federation, asking him to do something about it.

At a tennis club in Berlin Reznicek demanded a retraction of the charges of hypnotism, "and failing to get it, swung a hard right at Frau Aussem's right ear and a hard left at Frau Aussem's left ear, gaining at least one victory without the use of hypnotism.

Reznicek was banned from tournaments for 6 weeks and both women are countersuing.

[Milutinov Tata]

Poslednji Britanac u finalu Vimbldona



Davne 1938. godine, u finalu Vimbldona su se sastali vladajuci sampion Donald Badz i uz Freda Perija, najbolji igrac Velike Britnije izmedju dva rata, Henri "Bani" Ostin . Ispostavice se da je to pune 74 godine bilo poslednje finale u kome su domacini imali svog predstavnika. Njegova teniska prica je slicna onoj njegovog sadasnjeg naslednika, Endija Marija. Mnogi ga smatraju jednim od najboljih igraca tog vremena koji nije uspeo da osvoji nijednu GS titulu, cak ni u dublovima. Igrao je dva puta u finalu Vimbldona, prvi put 1932. protiv Amerikanca Elsvorta Vajnsa i izgubio vrlo ubedljivo 6-4 6-2 6-0. U svom drugom finalu, doziveo je jos jedna ubedljiv poraz 6-1 6-0 6-3. Dakle samo 10 gemova u dva meca.

Izvestaj sa finala

Video zapis


The final match Grand Slam in men in the course. View of the tennis court and the public. Play on the court (in white clothes): Donald Budge (center) and Bunny Austin (the background), tournament judges (from left).


The finalists for the Grand Slam tennis entering the court, aiming from left Bunny Austin and Donald Budge.


Wimbledon winner Donald Budge (left) accepts congratulations from tennis defeated Bunny Austin (right).

Igrao je jos jedno finale GS i to na Rolan Garosu, 1937. ali je porazen od Nemca Henera Henkla, takodje sa 3-0. Interesatno da mu je Nemac bio protivnik 1938. u polufinalu Vimbldona, ali tada je Ostin odneo ubedljivu pobedu 6-2 6-4 6-0. Ostace upamcen i kao clan DC tima Velike Britanije, zajedno sa Perijem, koji je osvojio 4 uzastopne titule u periodu 1933-1936. U DC je ostvario pobede nad Badzom, Krofordom, Von Kramom i Vajnsom. Takodje, bio je poslednji Britanac (do Marija) koji je osvojio Kvins 1938. godine.

Ostin je bio veliki inovator u tenisu. Bio je prvi koji je poceo da nosi sortseve umesto dugih pantalona. Svoju kreaciju je prvi put pretstavio na USO 1932. na terenima Forest Hilsa, a na Vimbldonu je debitovao u novoj opremi narednog leta. Kraljica Meri, koja je bila veliki ljubitelj tenisa, je bila poznata kao dosta konzervativna i nije se znalo kako ce odreagovati. Pred pocetka njegovog meca je zavladao pravi muk koji je trajo nekoliko minuta, osecala se napetost i veliko iscekivanje u vazduhu. Kraljica je mirno sela na svoje mesto i odgledala mec do kraja, a teniska modna revolucija je dobila odobravanje sa najviseg vrha.


Bunny Austin wearing shorts at Wimbledon in 1933

Takodje Ostin je prvi poceo da primenjuje tehnoloska dostignuca u proizvodnji reketa. On je patentirao teniski rekat sa drskom iz 3 segmenta. Dizajn je bazirao na principima aerodinamike, da bi smanjio otpor vazduha i olaksao pokrete ruke samog igraca. Njegov izum nije imao podrsku medju najboljim igracima tog vremena, tako da nije zaziveo, a posle Ostinovog penzinisanja je pao u zaborav. Koliko je bio ispred svog vremena nama je danas dobro poznato.




Austin with his 3 segmented racket at Wimbledon in 1938

Diplomac sa Kembridza, ozenio se popularnom engleskom glumicom, i postao "selebreti" svog vremena. Imao je priliku da igra tenis i sa Caplinom, druzio se sa najpoznatijim engleskim glumcima, pojavio se par puta u filmovima Alfreda Hickoka, a upoznao je i englesku kraljicu Meri i americkog predsednika Ruzvelta. Bio je veliki Hriscanin i clan Oksfordske Grupe . Izbijanjem rata, zbog prigovora savesti, nije sluzio u vojsci i ubrzo je napustio ostrvo i otisao u SAD. Tamo se kasnije aktivno pridruzio americkoj vojsci, a u Engleskoj je u nekim krugovima dozivljen kao izdajnik, pa je "izbacen" iz All England Cluba. Navodni zvanicni razlog je bilo neplacanje clanarine od 1944. Tek 40 godina kasnije je ponovo primljen posle inicijative svojih savremenika i nekih mladjih generacija. Umro je 2000. godine, samo dva meseca posto je ucestvovao u milenijumskoj paradi sampiona na Centralnom terenu Vimbldonu. Zajedno sa svojom zenom napisao je autobiografiju koja se zove A mixed double.

[alcesta]

Povodom 20 godina od smrti Artura Eša

[Dejan]

Tignor o Ešu

Spoiler: pokaži

This week we’ve learned of a match-fixing scandal in soccer and been reminded, rightly, by Andy Murray, that tennis needs to do more on that other scandalous front, doping. Amid all of that, it comes as welcome, if sad, news that today marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Arthur Ashe from AIDS-related pneumonia. On the one hand, if ever sports could use a figure as upstanding and inspiring as Ashe, it’s now. On the other hand, it’s good to remember that athletics once produced people of his stature, and that tennis was his game.

Who knows what Ashe, who would have turned 70 this summer, would be doing now if he had lived. Maybe he would have been involved with the Obama administration, or with sports on a global scale.

In February 2009, I wrote about Ashe and his quietly effective political activism on this website and in Tennis magazine. That month I had watched Jo-Wilfried Tsonga win the SA Open, a 250-level event in Johannesburg, South Africa, that was discontinued in 2011. Somehow I hadn't immediately made the connection to Ashe and his own, much more controversial attempts to be allowed to play in South Africa in the apartheid-era 1970s. Below is an updated version of what I wrote about Ashe’s first trip there, in 1973.

*****

The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Maybe the phrase should be: The more things change, the less we notice.

Before this week is over and we turn our attention to Rotterdam and Paris, let me take a minute to note that on Sunday, a black tennis player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, won the South African Open in Johannesburg.

My first reaction to that news was something along the lines of, “Maybe Tsonga can keep up his momentum this year.” But looking at the photos from the post-final trophy ceremony, where he posed with local fans, it struck me that not long ago his win would have been (1) of incredible political significance, and (2) impossible.

This was the first year that an ATP event has been held in South Africa since 1995. Before that, “Jo-burg” had been a staple of the tour for decades, a regular stop—there were two tournaments in the city each year in the 70s—in one of the traditional Anglo hotbeds of the sport. Tsonga is the first black player to win the tournament. Which isn’t too surprising, since none entered it until 1973. But I didn't see that mentioned in any of the reports on his win.

In '73, Arthur Ashe made a deal with South Africa’s apartheid government to be allowed into the draw. He had first tried to enter in 1970 and was denied, which led him to call for the South Africa’s ouster from the ITF, and for other nations to boycott Davis Cup ties against the country. That eventually led to South Africa winning the Cup by default over India in 1974, a low point in the competition’s history, but a high point for political commitment in sports.

Three years after his initial attempt, Ashe finally made the trip. He drew criticized from both sides for playing. As Cliff Drysdale, an opponent of apartheid and friend of Ashe, said at the time, there were those in South Africa who believed that apartheid was destined to end in violence, and that by coming there Ashe was actually making the government look humane and prolonging the inevitable (Drysdale himself didn’t buy this argument). On the other side was Bob Hewitt, a transplant to the country from Australia who thought Ashe should mind his own business, because the blacks in South Africa were “happy.” Ashe went anyway, determined to see the system for himself and to show blacks there what one of their own could do if given a chance.

Ashe’s trip was a sensation in the country, to the point where it stunned even him. He was nicknamed “Sipho” in the black township of Soweto, meaning “gift.” His matches were like mini-Super Bowls, where he was cheered by black and white alike. He had forced the tournament’s promoter to allow blacks to sit anywhere in the stadium; normally, apartheid was enforced at tennis matches like anywhere else. One day Ashe found himself being followed by a young black man. When Ashe asked him what he wanted, he said that he’d never seen a free black person before. Ashe was surprised and moved by the statement. As the week went on, though, he noticed a different type of follower. His car was being tailed.

Ashe recorded his reactions to the trip in his 1975 book with DeFord, "Portrait in Motion." Like his fellow amateur era tennis player-scribe, Gordon Forbes, Ashe was one of the most thoughtful athletes you’ll ever read. In its searching quality and calm perceptiveness, the book has parallels to Barack Obama’s "Dreams From My Father," which ends with the future president's own trip to Africa.

Ashe’s descriptions are notable for their depth and intelligence, but also for their lack of political ponderousness or weighty spirituality. He says that he was almost happy to see “Whites Only” signs on public restrooms in South Africa, because not seeing them in that country would have been like not seeing the Eiffel Tower on a trip to Paris. But he also ends with a chilling conversation with a group of whites who continually vote for apartheid candidates. The easy life that the system affords them is so hard to give up, its artifice so hard to confront, that it leads them to justify it by telling themselves that blacks are “children” who need to be taken care of. Perhaps because of his background in an individual sport like tennis, though, Ashe didn’t confuse the political with the personal. He maintained that the white South African players of his era, like Drysdale, Ray Moore, and Gordon Forbes, all products of apartheid, were as fine and intelligent a group of people as he had ever met anywhere.

The SA Open was an eventful tournament on court for Ashe as well. In an early round, he beat Drysdale and sensed that the whites in the crowd were rooting for him, and against their home-country favorite, because Cliff was a critic of apartheid. In the final Ashe faced—who else?—Jimmy Connors, the all-purpose tennis villain of the era. Connors, in his second year on tour, took out Ashe in straight sets. As DeFord says, by the third set the crowd was completely silent as it saw that its hero was going to be outmatched on this day.

Thirty-five years later, Tsonga, a Frenchman whose father is African, went all the way to the title. South Africa is hardly a utopia 15 years after the end of apartheid. And this era of sports has its own troubles as well. As proud as Ashe would have been to see Tsonga win in Johannesburg—Ashe, who was later arrested in anti-apartheid protests, died the year before South Africa became a democracy—he might not have loved the fact that this year’s SA Open was held at a casino, the same week that tennis was facing another match-fixing controversy elsewhere.

The most famous tennis event of 1973 was the Battle of the Sexes, another example of the sport as a social force for change. Ashe’s trip to South Africa, which was perhaps even more significant, has been overshadowed by it. They’re really flip sides of the same coin. Ashe and Billie Jean King were born in the same year, 1943; each was a product of tennis’ amateur era, which was a kind of sporting apartheid. They reacted to its exclusivity in opposite ways but ended in similar positions. In populist California, King chaffed at women’s second-class status in the sport and became the game's outspoken feminist rebel. In Old South Richmond, Va., Ashe was schooled by his coach in the amateur sporting code and became tennis’ consummate gentleman rebel.

Isn’t it interesting that the transition from the amateur era to the Open era of tennis produced two of the most politically significant athletes of the last four decades in any sport? There were injustices then, just as there are discouraging aspects to today’s pro era; we produce great champions and people now, but nobody with the stature or conscience of Ashe and King. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If nothing else, Ashe’s legacy is someone like Tsonga, a charismatic international superstar, potent symbol of success for a continent, and all-around good guy who, rather than being banned from South Africa, was probably paid a whopping fee just to come there. The fact that his title was hardly a blip on anyone’s radar screen shows just how thoroughly things have been transformed, from a sporting perspective, since the 1970s. The next World Cup, in 2010, will be held in South Africa.

It wasn't always that way. The twin universes of sports and culture were up for grabs in the late 60s and early 70s. Tennis should be proud that it had a player like Arthur Ashe, who, in his gentlemanly way, did some of the grabbing. You know you’ve succeeded as a rebel when nobody even notices what you changed.