Roy Emerson - Biography

Biography

Emerson was born on a farm in Blackbutt, Queensland. His family later moved to Brisbane and was able to receive better tennis instruction after attending Brisbane Grammar School and Ipswich Grammar School.

Emerson won his first Grand Slam tournament doubles title in 1959 at Wimbledon (partnering Neale Fraser). In 1961, he captured his first Grand Slam tournament singles title at the Australian Championships, beating compatriot Rod Laver in four sets in the final. Later that year, Emerson claimed his second Major singles crown when he again beat Laver in the final of the U.S. Championships.

Affectionately known as "Emmo" on the tour, the six-foot right-hander was known for training hard and always being ready for strenuous matches because of his outstanding level of fitness. He was primarily a serve-and-volley style player, but was also able to adapt to the rigours of slow courts, allowing him to enjoy success on all surfaces.

From 1963 to 1967, Emerson won five consecutive men's singles titles at the Australian Championships. His six Australian singles crowns are a record for a male player.

1963 also saw Emerson capture his first French Championships singles title, beating Pierre Darmon in the final.

Emerson's first Wimbledon singles title came in 1964, with a final victory over Fred Stolle. Emerson won 55 consecutive matches during 1964 and finished the year with 109 victories out of 115 matches. He won three of the year's four Grand Slam events that year (failing to win only the French Open).

Emerson was the World No. 1 amateur player in 1964 and 1965 according to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and in 1967 according to Rex Bellamy. In 1965, he successfully defended his Australian and Wimbledon singles crowns. He was the heavy favourite to win Wimbledon again in 1966, but during his fourth round match he skidded while chasing the ball and crashed into the umpire's stand, injuring his shoulder. He still finished the match, but was unable to win.

Emerson's last Major singles title came at the French Championships in 1967 – the year before the open era began. His 12 Major singles titles stood as a men's record until 2000, when it was surpassed by Pete Sampras.

Emerson had 10 straight victories in Grand Slam tournament finals (the last ten in which he participated), which remains an alltime record.

Emerson's final Grand Slam doubles title was won in 1971 at Wimbledon (partnering Laver). His 16 Grand Slam doubles crowns were won with five different partners. From 1960–1965, he won six consecutive French Open men's doubles titles. Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and tennis great, writes in his 1979 autobiography that "Emerson was the best doubles player of all the moderns, very possibly the best forehand court player of all time. He was so quick he could cover everything. He had the perfect doubles shot, a backhand that dipped over the net and came in at the server's feet as he moved to the net. Gene Mako and Johnny van Ryn could hit a shot like that sometimes, but never so often nor as proficiently as Emerson."

Emerson was also a member of a record eight Davis Cup winning teams between 1959 and 1967.

Emerson's 12 singles and 16 doubles titles make him one of the leading players in Grand Slam tournament history. All his Grand Slam singles titles, however, were won against an amateur field at a time when many of the world's best players had turned professional and were unable to compete in the Grand Slam events. Kramer, himself one of the greatest players of all time, did not consider Emerson worthy of inclusion in his 1979 list of the 21 best players to that date. In 1968, moreover, Emerson came into the French Open as the defending champion and lost in the quarterfinals to Pancho Gonzales, who had been the most dominant player in the professional ranks for much of the 1950s but was almost 40 years old by the beginning of the open era. Eight years Gonzales's junior, Emerson seldom managed to beat him in a dozen matches as a professional. In the Champions Classic of 1970 in Miami, Florida, Emerson did beat Gonzales in straight sets, 6–2, 6–3, 6–2.

Emerson's last top-20 ranking was in 1973, primarily owing to his winning his 105th and final career title at the Pacific Coast Championships in San Francisco. He defeated Roscoe Tanner, Arthur Ashe, and Björn Borg in the last three rounds of that tournament. Emerson played just a few tournaments through 1977. He made a last appearance in the Gstaad, Switzerland tournament in 1983.

Although he exited the tournament circuit, Emerson did not retire. In the late 1970s, Roy served as a player/coach for the Boston Lobsters in World Team Tennis. He mostly played doubles with the Lobsters and often teamed with fellow Australian Tony Roche. In the 1978 season, the last season under the original iteration of World Team Tennis, Roy coached the Lobsters to the Eastern Division Championship and into the League Playoff Finals against the Los Angeles Strings. While the Lobsters were the favorites to win the Championship that year, their young star, Martina Navratilova, was forced to have surgery to remove calcium deposits from her shoulder and missed the finals. As a result, the Los Angeles Strings led by Chris Evert and Ilie Nastase prevailed in the championship round.

The final Lobster team that Emerson coached consisted of Tony Roche, Mike Estep (for part of the season), and Emerson himself as the male players. When Estep got hurt, he was replaced by the Australian player Dale Collings, who at the time, along with Colin Dibley, was reputed to have the fastest serve in professional tennis. The women on the team were headed by Navratilova and included Terry Holliday, Anne Smith and Una Keyes, who was a local New England amateur champion. Shortly after the 1978 season, the owners of World Team Tennis voted to disband the league. It later was resurrected by Billie Jean King with a lesser season and an emphasis on younger up and coming players.

Emerson now resides in Newport Beach, California and has a home in Gstaad where he holds a tennis clinic each summer. The main court for the Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad has been named "Roy Emerson Arena" in his honour. His son, Antony, was an All-American in tennis at Corona del Mar High School and the University of Southern California and played on the professional tour briefly. Roy and Antony won the United States Hard Court Father-and-Son title in 1978. Roy briefly coached promising juniors at East Lake Woodlands in Oldsmar, Fl. His students included Pat Cash, Kim Warwick, and Derek Damico.

Emerson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1982.