11th

1933 – Britain’s Fred Perry thwarts Australian Jack Crawford’s bid for a Grand Slam by defeating him at US Tennis championship. Italian tennis player Nicky Pietrangeli was born. He won two singles titles at the French Championships, 1959 and 1960 and is considered by many to be Italy’s greatest-ever tennis champion. He also won the Roland Garros men’s doubles title in 1959 (together with Orlando Sirola), and the mixed doubles in 1958. At Wimbledon, Pietrangeli was a single semi-finalist in 1960, when he lost to Rod Laver in 5 sets. He won the Italian Open in 1957 and 1961 and was ranked World No. 3 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph in 1959 and 1960 and also by Ned Potter in 1961. Pietrangeli represented Italy in the Davis Cup between 1954 and 1972. He played in a record 164 Davis Cup rubbers, winning a record 120. He was a player on the Italian teams which reached the Davis Cup final in 1960 and 1961. Both finals were played on grass courts in Australia, and the Italians were not able to overcome the strong Australian team which included Laver, Roy Emerson and Neale Fraser. After retiring as a player, Pietrangeli became Italy’s Davis Cup team captain and guided them to winning their first-ever Davis Cup in 1976. Pietrangeli was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1986. On his 73rd birthday, the old tennis stadium in Foro Italico of Rome was named in his honour; he is among the very few tennis players to have received such an honour while still living (others include Laver and Margaret Court). 1935 – US captures Davis Cup for 7th straight year. 1937 – US Men’s National Championship: Don Budge beats Gottfried von Cramm (6-1, 7-9, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1), US Women’s National Championship: Anita Lizana beats Jadwiga Jedrzejowska (6-4, 6-2). 1955 – US Men’s National Championship: Tony Trabert beats Ken Rosewall (9-7, 6-3, 6-3), US Women’s National Championship: Doris Hart beats Patricia Ward Hales (6-4, 6-2). 1977 – Men’s US Open: Guillermo Vilas beats Jimmy Connors (2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-0). 1982 – Chris Evert wins her 6th and final US Open Tennis match at West Side Tennis Club in Forrest Hills, New York. She beat Hana Mandlikova to take the title (6-3, 6-1). 1983 – Men’s US Open: Jimmy Connors beats Ivan Lendl (6-3, 6-7, 7-5, 6-0). 1988 – Men’s US Open: Mats Wilander beats Ivan Lendl (6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4), in the longest final in the then Open history. 1993 – Women’s US Open: Steffi Graf beats Helena Sukova (6-3, 6-3). 1994 – Men’s US Open: Andre Agassi beat Michael Stich (6-1, 7-6, 7-5).2005 – Men’s US Open: Roger Federer beats Andre Agassi (6-3, 2-6, 7-6, 6-1), Women’s US Open: Kim Clijsters beats Mary Pierce (6-3, 6-1). 2016 – Men’s US Open Stan Wawrinka beats Noval Dukovic (6-7, 1-7, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3).

 

                                                                           

12th

1925 – 20th Davis Cup: USA beats France in Philadelphia (5-0). 1934 – US Men’s National Championship: Fred Perry beats Wilmer Allison (6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 8-6). 1935 – 55th US Men’s National Championship: Wilmer Allison beats Sidney Wood (6-2, 6-2, 6-3). 1936 – US Men’s National Championship: Fred Perry beats Don Budge (2-6, 6-2, 8-6, 1-6, 10-8), 50th US Women’s National Championship: Alice Marble beats Helen Jacobs (4-6, 6-3, 6-2). 1965 – US Men’s National Championship: Manuel Santana beats Cliff Drysdale (6-2, 7-9, 7-5, 6-1), US Women’s National Championship: Margaret Court beats Billie Jean Moffitt (8-6, 7-5). 1966 – US Men’s National Championship: Fred Stolle beats John Newcombe (4-6, 12-10, 6-3, 6-4), 80th US Women’s National Championship: Maria Bueno beats Nancy Richey (6-3, 6-1). 1971 – Men’s US Open: Stan Smith beats Jan Kodes (3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6), Women’s US Open: Billie Jean King beats Rosemary Casals (6-4, 7-6). Born today Moroccan tennis player Younes El Aynaoui. He is a five-time singles winner on the APT Tour and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 14 in March 2003, at the age of 31. His long career has been plagued by injuries and he did not play competitive tennis between September 2008 and January 2010. However, in December 2009 he scheduled to play at the ATP Champions Tour tournament in London, where he made his debut at the senior tour. He received a gold medal – the nation’s highest sporting honour – from King Mohammed VI. In a 2003 poll by leading Moroccan newspaper L’Economiste, readers named El Aynaoui their favourite role model for society, ahead of the prime minister and athletics star Hicham El Guerrouj. The centre court of the Royal Tennis Club in Marrakech is named after El Aynaoui. 1976 – Men’s US Open: Jimmy Connors beats Bjorn Borg (6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4), Women’s US Open: Chris Evert beats Evonne Goolagong Cawley (6-3, 6-0). 1981 – Women’s US Open: Tracey Austin beats Martina Navratilova (1-6, 7-, 7-6). 1982 – Men’s US Open: Jimmy Connors beats Ivan Lendl (6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4). 1987 – Women’s US Open: Martina Navratilova beats Steffi Graf (7-6, 6-1). 1992 – Women’s US Open: Monica Seles beats Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (6-3, 6-3).  Born today in Belarusia Sviatlana Pirazhenka, she has won two singles and 17 doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career. On 18 August 2014, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 371. On 7 July 2014, she peaked at world number 253 in the doubles rankings. Pirazhenka made her WTA tour debut at the 2014 Gastein Ladies, partnering Irina Falconi in doubles. The pair lost their first-round match against Kateryna Bondarenko and Nicole Melichar in three sets. 1993 – Men’s US Open: Pete Sampras beats Cedric Pioline (6-4, 6-4, 6-3). 1999 – Men’s US Open: Andre Agassi beats Todd Martin (6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2), Women’s US Open: Serena Williams beats Martina Hingis (6-3, 7-6). 2004 – Men’s US Open: Roger Federer beats Lleyton Hewitt (6-0, 7-6, 6-0), Women’s US Open: Svetlana Kuznetsova beats Elena Dementieva (6-3, 7-5).  2009 – America player John Kramer died at the age of 88. A World No. 1 player for a number of years, and one of the most important people in the establishment of modern men’s “Open”-era tennis, he was the leading promoter of professional tennis tours in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a relentless advocate for the establishment of Open Tennis between amateur and professional players. An International Tennis Federation (ITF) proposal to introduce Open tennis lost by five votes in 1960, but became a reality in 1968. In 1970, he created the Men’s Grand Prix points system. In 1972, he helped found the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with Donald Dell and Cliff Drysdale, and was the first Executive Director. He was unpaid at his request. In that role, he was the leader of an ATP boycott of Wimbledon in 1973, for the banning of Nikola Pilić from the tournament. 2011 – Men’s US Open: Novak Dokovic beats Rafael Nadal (6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1), Women’s US Open: Samantha Stosur beats Serena Williams (6-2, 6-3). 2015 – Women’s US Open: Flavia Pennetta of Italy beats fellow Italian Roberta Vinci (7-6, 4-7, 6-2).

 

                         

13th

1924 -19th Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in Philadelphia (5-0). 1930 – 50th US Men’s National Championship: John Doeg beats Frank Shields (10-8, 1-6, 6-4, 16-14). 1931 – Born today was Canadian top ranked tennis player of the 1950s and early 1960s, Robert Bédard. He is the most recent Canadian to win the Canadian Open singles championship, triumphing in 1955, 1957, and 1958. He was runner-up in 1954.He won the doubles title three times, in 1955, 1957, and 1959 with compatriot Don Fontana. He won the mixed doubles title in 1959 partnering Mariette Laframboise. He won the Montreal Cup at age 20. He was singles champion of the Nova Scotia Open in 1952, 1955, and 1957. Bédard competed in (the main draw at) the French Championships twice, Wimbledon four times, and the US Nationals eleven times. His best showing at a grand slam event was reaching the round of 32, which he did once at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, both in 1954, and four times at Forest Hills, in 1955, ’56, ’59, and in 1961. Bédard reached the finals of the 1954 Stuttgart Open, was a quarter-finalist at the 1957 Italian Open and won a silver medal at the 1959 Pan American Games. In the latter event he defeated Mexican Francisco Contreras in the semi-finals but lost the final to Luis Ayala, thus capturing the silver medal. Bédard was a Canadian Davis Cup member from 1953 to 1961, and again in 1967, and had a career win-loss record of 11 and 22, 8 and 15 in singles and 3 and 7 in doubles. 1934 – Born today British tennis player turned coach Tony Pickard. He is best known as long-time coach of former World number 1 Stefan Edberg. He captained the Great Britain Davis Cup team led by Tim Henman, and was Greg Rusedski’s coach in 1997-98.  Has also coached Anne Keothavong. 1959 – US Men’s National Championship: Neale Fraser beats Alex Olmedo (6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4), Women’s National Championship: Maria Bueno beats Christine Truman Janes (6-1, 6-4). 1964 – US Men’s National Championship: Roy Emerson beats Fred Stolle (6-4, 6-2, 6-4), US Women’s National Championship: Maria Bueno beats Carole Caldwell Graebner (6-1, 6-0). 1970 – 90th Men’s US Open: Ken Rosewall beats Tony Roche (2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3), 90th Women’s US Open: Margaret Court beats Rosemary Casals (6-2, 2-6, 6-1).  1971 – Born on this day, Croatian player and coach Goran Ivanišević He is the only person to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard, which he achieved in 2001, having previously been runner-up at the championships in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Before the 2001 tournament, he was ranked 125th and after his victory – 16th. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 2 (behind Pete Sampras) in 1994. He coached Marin Čilić from September 2013 to July 2016, leading Čilić to his biggest achievement to date, the 2014 US Open title. 1981 – Men’s US Open: John McEnroe beats Bjorn Borg (4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3).1987 – Born today Tsvetana Pironkova, Bulgarian professional tennis player and the current no. 1 Bulgarian in the WTA rankings. She started playing tennis at the age of four on being introduced to the sport by her father, who later coached her. After playing at a junior level and winning the Atlantic Cup, she made her senior international debut in 2002 at International Tennis Federation tournaments. Early in her career, Pironkova won six international singles titles at the ITF circuit. Pironkova made her WTA tour debut at the İstanbul Cup in 2005, and achieved moderate success earlier in her career. That changed in 2010, when she entered Wimbledon with a 1–4 career record at the event, and went on reach the semi-finals of the tournament, becoming just the second Bulgarian tennis player in history to reach the semi-final stage of a Grand Slam in singles. She garnered wide recognition for her performance, and after her semi-final finish reached her highest WTA Singles ranking at no. 31 in September 2010. Pironkova followed it up with a quarter-final run at the event the following year, earning her the nickname “The Wimbledon Darkhorse”. Described as a dramatic ranking phenomenon, she is known for upstaging higher ranked opponents at Grand slam tournaments.  1992 – Men’s US Open: Stefan Edberg beats Pete Sampras (3-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2). 1998 – Men’s US Open: Patrick Rafter beats Mark Philippoussis (6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0), Women’s US Open: Lindsay Davenport beats Martina Hingis (6-3, 7-5). 2001 – Died today aged 79, Jaroslav Drobný, former World No. 1 amateur tennis champion as well as being an ice hockey player. He left Czechoslovakia in 1949 and travelled as an Egyptian citizen before becoming a citizen of Great Britain in 1959, where he died. In 1954, he became the first and, to date, only player with African citizenship to win the Wimbledon Championships (aside from dual citizen Roger Federer, who holds South African citizenship but officially represents only Switzerland in sports). He began playing tennis at age five and, as a ball-boy, watched world-class players. He played in his first Wimbledon Championship in 1938, losing in the first round to Alejandro Russell. After World War II Drobný was good enough to be able to beat Jack Kramer in the fourth round of the 1946 Wimbledon Championship before losing in the semi-finals. In 1951 and 1952 he won the French Open, defeating in the final Eric Sturgess and then retaining the title the following year against Frank Sedgman. Drobný was the losing finalist at Wimbledon in both 1949 and 1952 before finally winning it in 1954 by beating Ken Rosewall for the title, the first left-hander to capture Wimbledon since Norman Brookes. He won three singles titles at the Italian Championships (1950, 1951 and 1953).He was ranked World No. 1 in 1954 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph. He also won the French Open doubles title in 1948, playing with Lennart Bergelin, and he won the mixed doubles title paired with Patricia Canning Todd at 1948 French Open. 2010 – 130th Men’s US Open: Rafael Nadal beats Novak Dokovic (6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2), 130th Women’s US Open: Kim Clijsters beats Vera Zvonareva (6-2, 6-1). 2015 Men’s US Open: Novak Dokovic beats Roger Federer (6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4)

 

                            

14th

1929 – US Men’s National Championship: Bill Tilden beats Francis Hunter (3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4). 1947 – US Men’s National Championship: Jack Kramer beats Frank Parker (4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3), US Women’s National Championship: Louise Brough beats Margaret Osborne du Point (8-6, 4-6, 6-1). 1976 – born today, Argentina player Agustín Calleri Shaal, who was given the nickname Gordo, which means Fat in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay. He picked up firs ATP win in 1999 over Jan Vacek at Roland Garros. He also advanced to first quarter-final at Umag. In 2000 he made the third round in Roland Garros, before losing to Andrei Medvedev. He beat Marat Safin in Kitzbühel and pushed Pete Sampras to two tie-breakers in US Open’s third round. Then in 2001 he won three challenger events beating Juan Ignacio Chela and David Nalbandian. He finished in Top 50 for his first time in 2002, and had match points to Nicolás Massú in Buenos Aires final. In 2003 he won his first ATP title of his career in Acapulco where he defeated Gastón Gaudio Marcelo Ríos, Felix Mantilla and then Mariano Zabaleta in the final and reached his career-high ranking of World Number 16. He also posted a stunning win against former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in Davis Cup. In 2004 he beat Andre Agassi in Miami before losing to Vince Spadea and reached the decisive match at Costa Do Sauipe. In 2005 he lost the final in Amersfoort to Chilean Fernando González. Calleri won his second career title in the 2006 Generali Open at Kitzbühel which came 3 years after his first title in Acapulco for the loss of only one set along the way he defeated Nicolás Massú, Gastón Gaudio, Fernando Verdasco before defeating fellow countryman Juan Ignacio Chela 7–6 (9) 6–2 6–3. Calleri made his first final on hardcourt in New Haven losing to Russian Nikolay Davydenk 6–4 6–3 and after this result will move inside the top 30 in the ATP rankings. At the 2007 US Open, Calleri made it to the third round after defeating Lleyton Hewitt 4–6 6–4 6–4 6–2. Calleri announced his retirement in February 2010 at the age of 33. 1987 – Men’s US Open: Ivan Lendl beats Mats Wilander (6-7, 6-0, 7-6, 6-4). 2009 – Men’s US Open: Juan Martin del Potro beats Roger Federer (3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2), Women’s US Open: Kim Clijsters beats Caroline Wozniacki (7-5, 6-3)

 

                     

15th

1923– US Men’s National Championship: Bill Tilden beats Bill Johnston (6-4, 6-1, 6-4). 1936 – Australian player Ashley Cooper, he was ranked World number 1 amateur player for 1957 and 1958 and won four singles and doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments. Cooper won his first Grand Slam singles title at the 1957 Australian Championships where he defeated compatriot Neale Fraser in the final in four sets. Cooper had his best year in 1958, becoming one of only eleven men to win three of the four Grand Slam events in the same year. He successfully defended his Australian singles title after a straight-sets victory in the final against Malcolm Anderson. In July he won his first Wimbledon title after beating Fraser in the final, and followed up with a first singles title at the US Championships, again defeating Anderson in the final. Additionally, Cooper was a semi-finalist at the French Championship, losing to Luis Ayala in five sets. The right-handed Cooper was the top ranked player in both 1957—when he was a Wimbledon and Forest Hills finalist, and Paris semi-finalist—and in 1958. Cooper played on the Australian Davis Cup team that won the cup in 1957, and were finalists in 1958. In 1959, he married Helen Wood, Miss Australia 1957, and in January turned professional after signing a contract with Jack Kramer. Upon retiring as a player, Cooper served as a tennis player development administrator with Tennis Queensland, where he has been based for nearly fifty years. He presently also sits on the Board of Directors for Tennis Australia. Cooper was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 and the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 2007, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his service to tennis. In 2009 Cooper was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame. 1971 – South African player Wayne Ferreira was born today. As a junior player, Ferreira was ranked world no. 1 junior doubles player and no. 6 junior singles player. He won the junior doubles title at the US Open in 1989. He turned professional in 1989 and won his first ATP doubles title in Adelaide in 1991. 1992 was Ferreira’s breakthrough year on the tour. He started out by reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open. In June he won his first ATP singles title at Queen’s Club, London. His second singles title came just a few weeks later at Schenectady, New York. He also teamed-up with compatriot Piet Norval to win the men’s doubles silver medal for South Africa at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. After a quieter year in 1993 in which he didn’t win any singles titles, Ferreira came back strongly in 1994 to win a career-best five singles titles. He then won another four events in 1995. The biggest titles of Ferreira’s career came at Toronto in 1996 and Stuttgart in 2000 (both Tennis Masters Series events). Ferreira teamed-up with Amanda Coetzer in 2000 to win the Hopman Cup for South Africa. Ferreira is third (to Roger Federer’s record 65 and Feliciano López’s 60 as of 2017 Australian Open) for the most consecutive Grand Slam tournament appearances in men’s tennis. He participated in 56 consecutive Grand Slams between the 1991 Australian Open and the 2004 US Open. Ferreira’s best Grand Slam results came at the Australian Open – where he reached the semi-finals twice in 1992 and 2003. During his career, Ferreira won 15 top-level singles titles and 11 doubles titles. His career-high rankings were world number 6 in singles (in May 1995) and world number 9 in doubles (in March 2001). Though Ferreira retired from the professional tour in 2005, he still plays on the Outback Champions Series senior tour. He finished both 2006 and 2007 fourth on points in that series. He is now residing in Lafayette, California. Ferreira is currently president and CEO of EcoloBlue, Life and Energy, an environmental and renewable resources corporation based in Miami, Florida and Lafayette, California. He is one of few players with a positive record against Roger Federer. Ferreira teamed up with Federer in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 2001. They got to the third round and were due to face Donald Johnson and Jared Palmer (the eventual champions) before Federer withdrew to focus on his singles campaign.

                          

16th

1870 – Tennis gold medallist at the first modern Olympics at the 1896 Games in Athens, John Mary Pius Boland, was born today. He was an Irish Nationalist politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for South Kerry 1900–1918. Boland visited his friend Thrasyvoulos Manos in Athens during the Olympics, and Manos, a member of the organising committee, entered Boland in the tennis tournament (as you do!!). Boland promptly won the singles tournament, defeating Friedrich Traun of Germany in the first round, Evangelos Rallis of Greece in the second, Konstantinos Paspatis of Greece in the semi-finals, and Dionysios Kasdaglis of Egypt in the final. Boland then entered the doubles event with Traun, the German runner whom he had defeated in the first round of the singles. Together, they won the doubles event. They defeated Aristidis and Konstantinos Akratopoulos of Greece in the first round, had a bye in the semi-finals, and defeated Demetrios Petrokokkinos of Greece and Kasdaglis in the final. When the Union Flag and the German flag were run up the flagpole to honour Boland and Traun’s victory, Boland pointed out to the man hoisting the flags that he was Irish, adding “It [the Irish flag]’s a gold harp on a green ground, we hope.” The officials agreed to have an Irish flag prepared. 1922 – US Men’s National Championship: Bill Tilden beats Bill Johnston (4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4). 1927 – Rene Lacoste beats Bill Tilden for US Lawn Tennis Association title. 1940 – American top player of the 1050s and early 1960s Butch Buchholz was born today. An outstanding junior, he won all three Boys’ Singles slam titles in a row during 1958–1959 – French Open and Wimbledon in 1958 and the Australian Open in 1959. (The US Open was the last Grand Slam event to add a Juniors Championship, waiting until 1973 to finally do so). Buchholz was ranked by Lance Tingay the World Number 5 amateur player in 1960, and was ranked four times in the US Top 10. He played for the US in the Davis Cup from 1959–60. He turned professional in 1961, winning the United States Pro Championship in 1962, by beating Pancho Segura in the final. Buchholz was an original member of Lamar Hunt’s Handsome Eight, a group of players signed by in 1968 for the newly formed professional World Championship Tennis (WCT) group. Since retiring as a player, Buchholz has served tennis in many professional and administrative capacities. He has been the Commissioner of World Team Tennis from 1977-1978, an Executive Director of the Association of Tennis Professionals from 1981-1982, and member of the men’s pro council from 1981-1983. In 1985, Buchholz founded the Lipton International Players Championships (now known as the Miami Masters), which is now a leading event on both the men’s and women’s tours. Buchholz helped create Altenis, a management company which oversees tennis tournaments in Latin America. He also helped secure the continuation of the Orange Bowl International Tennis Tournament, a prominent international junior event in Florida. In 1992, Buchholz teamed-up with Arthur Ashe to found the ‘Good Life Mentoring Program’, benefiting hundreds of elementary and middle school children in the greater Miami area. In 2005, Buchholz was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. 1948 – American professional player Rosie Casals was born on this day. Rosemary Casals earned her reputation as a rebel in the tennis world when she began competing in the early 1960s. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 tournaments, and was a motivating force behind many of the changes that occurred in women’s tennis during the 1960s and 1970s. While still just a teenager, Casals began to rebel on the court. She hated the tradition of younger players competing only against each other on the junior circuit. Gutsy and determined right from the start, Casals wanted to work as hard as possible to better her game. For an added challenge, she often entered tournaments to play against girls who were two or three years older. Junior tennis was the first of several obstacles Casals faced during her tennis career. At five-feet-two-inches tall, she was one of the shortest players on the court. Another disadvantage for her was class distinction. Traditionally, tennis was a sport practiced in expensive country clubs by the white upper class. Casals’s ethnic heritage and poor background immediately set her apart from most of the other players. “The other kids had nice tennis clothes, nice rackets, nice white shoes, and came in Cadillacs,” Casals told a reporter for People. “I felt stigmatized because we were poor.” Unfamiliarity with country club manners also made Casals feel different from the other players. Traditionally, audiences applauded only politely during matches and players wore only white clothes on the court. Both of these practices seemed foolish to Casals. She believed in working hard to perfect her game and expected the crowd to show its appreciation for her extra efforts. In 1972 at the tradition-filled courts of Wimbledon, she was nearly excluded from competition for not wearing white. Later in her career, she became known for her brightly coloured outfits, designed for her by Ted Tinlin.  By age 16 Casals was the top junior and women’s level player in northern California. At 17 she was ranked eleventh in the country and was earning standing ovations for her aggressive playing style. More experience on the national and international levels of play helped Casals improve her game. In 1966 she and Billie Jean King, her doubles partner, won the US hard-court and indoor tournaments. That same year they reached the quarter-finals in the women’s doubles at Wimbledon. In 1967 Casals and King took the doubles crown at Wimbledon and at the United States and South African championships. The two dominated women’s doubles play for years, becoming one of the most successful duos in tennis history. (They are the only doubles team to have won U.S. titles on grass, clay, indoor, and hard surfaces). Casals was also a successful individual player, ranking third among U.S. women during this period. Casals soon became involved in another innovation: World Team Tennis (WTT). WTT involved tennis teams, each made up of two women and four men, from cities throughout the United States. Matches included both singles and doubles games. Casals won 112 professional doubles tournaments, the second most in history behind Martina Navratilova. Her last doubles championship was at the 1988 tournament in Oakland, California, where her partner was Navratilova. Casals played in a total of 685 singles and doubles tournaments during her career. Despite her victories on the courts, Casals continued to fight tennis traditions on several fronts. Amateur tennis players had always been favoured over professionals. Because many amateur tennis players came from non-wealthy backgrounds, they were forced to accept under-the-table money in order to continue playing. This, in turn, made them professionals and prevented them from entering major tournaments that allowed only amateurs to play, such as Wimbledon. Fighting against this discrimination, Casals worked for an arrangement that allowed both amateur and professional tennis players to compete in the same tournaments. Casals’s together with Billie Jean King challenged the large difference in prize monies awarded to male and female players. Even though they worked as hard and played as often as men, women earned much smaller prizes. In 1970 Casals and other women threatened to boycott the Pacific Southwest Championships if they were not paid higher prize money and not given more media attention. The ruling body of US tennis, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), refused to listen to their demands. In response, the women established their own tournament, the 1970 Virginia Slims Invitational. The attention generated by this successful tournament, which was won by Casals after a victory in the final over Judy Dalton, quickly brought about the formation of other women’s tournaments and greater prize monies for women. 1991 – former Latvian player Diāna Bukājeva was born today. She holds a win–loss record of 5–0 for Latvia in Fed Cup competition, having represented her country in 2007 and 2008 in Mauritius and Armenia respectively. Her latter appearances helped the team get promoted to Group II of the 2009 Fed Cup Europe/Africa Zone.

                             

17th

1927 – US Men’s National Championship: Rene Lacoste beats Bill Tilden (11-9, 6-3, 11-9). 1928 – US Men’s National Championship: Henri Cochet beats Francis Hunter (4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3). 1934 –  born today Maureen “Little Mo” Connolly, the winner of nine Grand Slam singles titles in the early 1950s. In 1953, she became the first woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments during the same calendar year. The following year, in July 1954, a horseback riding accident seriously injured her right leg and ended her competitive tennis career at age 19. At the 1951 US Championships, the 16-year-old Connolly defeated Shirley Fry to become, at that time, the youngest ever to win America’s most prestigious tennis tournament. Her coach at the time was Eleanor Tennant. Connolly won Wimbledon and successfully defended her US title in 1952. For the 1953 season, she hired a new coach, the Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman, and entered all four Grand Slam tournaments for the first time. She defeated Julie Sampson Haywood in the Australian Championships final and Doris Hart in the finals of the French Championships, Wimbledon, and the US Championships to become the first woman, and only the second tennis player after Don Budge, to win the world’s four major titles in the same year, commonly known as a “Grand Slam”. She lost only one set in those four tournaments. Connolly won the last nine Grand Slam singles tournaments she played, including 50 consecutive singles matches. During her Wightman Cup career from 1951 through 1954, she won all seven of her singles matches. Connolly’s achievements made her the darling of the media and one of the most popular personalities in the US; she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press for three straight years, from 1951 through 1953.In 1954, Connolly did not defend her title at the Australian Championships but successfully defended her French and Wimbledon championships. 1939 – US Men’s National Championship: Bobby Riggs beats Welby van Horn (6-4, 6-2, 6-4), US Women’s National Championship: Alice Marble beats Helen Jacobs (6-0, 8-10, 6-4). 1952 – Harold Solomon, Australian player was born today. His career-high world ranking was Number 5 in 1980. Solomon began playing tennis when he was five. He was ranked as high as second in the United States in his junior career, and won the Clay Court Championship when he was 18 and was named All-American at Rice University. He turned professional when he finished university in 1972, and first won pro matches in 1974. At the French Open, Solomon’s best was reaching the singles final 1976. He reached the quarter-finals in 1972 and 1976, and made it to the semi-finals in 1974 and 1980. At the US Open, he was a semi-finalist in 1977.He also won the tournament now known as the Cincinnati Masters twice (in 1977 and 1980), and was a finalist at the 1976 and 1978 United States Pro Championships. Solomon won a total of 22 professional singles titles. He was ranked in the top 10 singles players worldwide in 1976, 1978, 1979, and 1980, and was among the top 20 from 1974 to 1980.His best year was in 1980, when his win-loss record was 64–23. He appeared in Playgirl Magazine‘ list of 10 sexiest men that same year. Solomon played doubles with Eddie Dibbs. In 1976 they were ranked No. 4 worldwide, and were among the top ten in 1974, 1975, and 1976. They were nicknamed “The Bagel Twins.” He played in the Davis Cup for America in 1972, 73,74, and 78, with a record of nine wins and four losses. He served as president of the ATP between 1980 and 1983 and later on its Board of Directors. Solomon began coaching in the 1990s, working with Jennifer Capriati, Mary Joe Fernandez, and others. Some of his players participated in Grand Slam events and the Olympic Games. 1960 – 80th US Men’s National Championship: Neale Fraser beats Rod Laver (6-4, 6-4, 9-7), Women’s National Championship: Darlene Hard beats Maria Bueno (6-4, 10-12, 6-4). 1985  – Born today, Tomáš Berdych from Czechoslovakia, whose most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon championship, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champion Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, and world No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. In the final, he lost to Rafael Nadal in straight sets. Berdych’s biggest career win to date was the Paris Masters in 2005 as an unseeded player, defeating Ivan Ljubicic in the final. Berdych has reached the semi-finals of all four Grand Slams. Alongside his Wimbledon performance in the same year, he reached the semi-finals of the 2010 French Open, defeating fourth seed Andy Murray in straight sets in the fourth round, and dropping no sets until his loss in the semi-finals to Robin Söderling. At the 2012 US Open he defeated world No. 1 Roger Federer, again at the quarter-final stage, before losing to eventual champion Murray. During the 2014 Australian Open he lost to eventual champion Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets during the semi. He is the second player (after David Nalbandian) to defeat Roger Federer multiple times in Grand Slam events before the semi-final stage. He has the distinction of being one of three players, the others being Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Stan Wawrinka, to defeat all the Big Four in major events.As well as his Paris Masters win, Berdych has reached the finals of the Miami Masters in 2010, Madrid Open in 2012 and Monte Carlo Masters in 2015. He first reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 4 in May 2015. He also played the longest ATP doubles match ever, with Lukáš Rosol, defeating Marco Chiudinelli and Stanislas Wawrinka in the first round of the 2013 Davis Cup 6–4, 5–7, 6–4, 6–7, 24–22. The match was played on 2nd February 2013, lasting 7 hours, 2 minutes. It was the second longest ATP match ever (singles and doubles combined).  1991 – Justyna Jegiołka was born today in her native Poland. She has won two singles and 16 doubles titles on the ITF tour in her career. On 6th October 2014, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 298. On 18 April 2016, she peaked at world number 191 in the doubles rankings. Jegiołka made her WTA tour debut at the 2013 Qatar Total Open partnering Veronika Kapshay in doubles, where she lost in the first round to Shuko Aoyama and Megan Moulton-Levy. 1994 – saw the death of Vytautas “Vitas” Kevin Gerulaitis, at the tender age of 40, An American professional tennis player. In 1975, Gerulaitis won the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon, partnering with Sandy Mayer. He won the men’s singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977 (Gerulaitis won the tournament that was held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament). Gerulaitis also won two Italian Open titles, in 1977 and 1979, and the WCT Finals in Dallas, in 1978.Gerulaitis led the Pittsburgh Triangles to the World TeamTennis championship title at Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena in 1975 and was coached by Fred Stolle from 1977 until 1983. In February 1981 he won a star-laden invitational tournament in Toronto, defeating John McEnroe in the final after having defeated Jimmy Connors in the semi-final. During his career Gerulaitis won 25 top-level singles titles and 8 doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 3 which he reached on February 27th 1978. Known for his exceptionally quick hands at the net and his outstanding court coverage, in 1985 Gerulaitis teamed with Bobby Riggs to launch a challenge to female players after the famous Battle of the Sexes. The stunt, however, was short-lived when Gerulaitis and Riggs lost a doubles match against Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. He retired from the professional tour in 1986. He was a regular tennis commentator on the USA network between 1988 and 1994. Gerulaitis coached Pete Sampras during the 1994 Italian Open in Rome, when Sampras’ coach, Tim Gullikson, was on a family vacation. Sampras won the title by defeating Boris Becker in the final in straight sets. Gerulaitis is the subject of a Half Man Half Biscuit song from the McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt album, “Outbreak of Vitas Gerulaitis”. He died while visiting a friend’s home in Southampton, Long Island, when an improperly installed pool heater caused carbon monoxide gas to seep into the guesthouse where Gerulaitis was sleeping, causing his death by carbon monoxide poisoning. Gerulaitis failed to show up for a dinner at that evening and his body was found the following day by a maid who went to the guesthouse.