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Arthur Ashe

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American World No. 1 professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles.

Ashe was the first black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980. He was ranked World No. 1 by Harry Hopman in 1968 and by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and World Tennis Magazine in 1975. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at No. 2 in May 1976.

In the early 1980s, Ashe is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. Ashe publicly announced his illness in April 1992 and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993.

On June 20, 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the United States President Bill Clinton.

Early life

Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe on July 10, 1943. He had a brother, Johnnie, who was five years younger. In March 1950, Ashe's mother Mattie died from complications related to a toxemic pregnancy (now known as pre-eclampsia) at the age of 27. Ashe and his brother were raised by their father who worked as a handyman and salaried caretaker-Special Policeman for Richmond's recreation department.

Ashe Sr. was a caring father and strict disciplinarian who encouraged Arthur to excel in both school and in sports, but forbade him to play American football, a popular game for many black children, due to his son's slight build, something that meant Arthur's childhood nicknames were "Skinny" or "Bones". The Ashes lived in the caretaker's cottage in the grounds of 18-acre Brookfield park, Richmond's largest blacks-only public playground, which had basketball courts, four tennis courts, a pool and three baseball diamonds. Ashe started playing tennis at 7 years of age and began practicing on the courts where his natural talent was spotted by Virginia Union University student and part-time Brookfield tennis instructor, Ron Charity, who as the best black tennis player in Richmond at the time, began to teach Ashe the basic strokes and encouraged him to enter local tournaments.

Ashe attended Maggie L. Walker High School where he continued to practice tennis. Ron Charity brought him to the attention of Robert Walter Johnson, a physician, and coach of Althea Gibson, who founded and funded the Junior Development Program of the American Tennis Association (ATA). Ashe was coached and mentored by Johnson at his tennis summer camp home in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1953 when Ashe was age 10, until 1960. Johnson helped fine-tune Ashe's game and taught him the importance of racial socialization through sportsmanship, etiquette and the composure that would later become an Ashe hallmark. He was told to return every ball that landed within two inches of a line and never to argue with an umpire's decision. In 1958, Ashe became the first African-American to play in the Maryland boys' championships. It was also his first integrated tennis competition.

In 1960, precluded from playing Caucasian youths in segregated Richmond during the school year and unable to use the city's indoor courts which were closed to black players, Ashe accepted an offer from Richard Hudlin, a 62-year-old St. Louis teacher, tennis coach and friend of Dr. Johnson, to move to St. Louis and spend his senior year attending Sumner High School where he could compete more freely. Ashe lived with Hudlin and his family for the year, during which time Hudlin coached and encouraged him to develop the serve-and-volley game that Ashe's, now stronger, physique allowed. Ashe was able to practice at the National Guard Armory indoor courts and in 1961, after lobbying by Dr. Johnson, he was granted permission to compete in the previously segregated U.S. Interscholastic tournament and won it for the school.

In December 1960 and again in 1963, Ashe featured in Sports Illustrated, appearing in their Faces in the Crowd segment. He became the first African-American to win the National Junior Indoor tennis title and was awarded a tennis scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1963. During his time at UCLA, he was coached by J.D. Morgan and practiced regularly with his sporting idol, Pancho Gonzales, who lived nearby and helped hone his game. Ashe was also a member of the ROTC which required him to join active military service after graduation in exchange for money for tuition. He was active in other things, joining the Upsilon chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity on campus. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Ashe joined the United States Army on August 4, 1966. Ashe completed his basic training in Washington and was later commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Adjutant General Corps. He was assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point where he worked as a data processor. During his time at West Point, Ashe headed the academy's tennis program. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on February 23, 1968 and was discharged from the Army in 1969.

Career

In 1963 Ashe became the first black player ever selected for the United States Davis Cup team. In 1965, ranked the number 3 player in the United States, Ashe won both the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles title and the doubles title (with Ian Crookenden of New Zealand), helping UCLA win the team NCAA tennis championship.

In 1966 and 1967, Ashe reached the final of the Australian Championship but lost on both occasions to Roy Emerson.

1968 was another groundbreaking year for Ashe. He won the United States Amateur Championships against Davis Cup Teammate Bob Lutz, and the first US Open of the open era, becoming the first black male to capture the title and the only player to have won both the amateur and open national championships in the same year. In order to maintain Davis Cup eligibility and have time away from army duty for important tournaments, Ashe was required to maintain his amateur status. Because of this, he could not accept the $14,000 first-prize money, which was instead given to runner-up Tom Okker, while Ashe received just $20 daily expenses for his historic triumph. His ability to compete in the championship (and avoid the Vietnam war) arose from his brother Johnnie's decision to serve an additional tour in Vietnam in Arthur's place. In December 1968, Ashe helped the U.S team become Davis Cup champions after victory in the final in Adelaide against defending champions, Australia. His only loss in the 12 Davis Cup tournament singles matches he played that year, was in the last dead rubber game after the U.S team had already clinched victory. The season closed with Ashe the winner of 10 of 22 tournaments with a 72-10 win-loss match record.

In September 1969, the U.S Davis Cup team retained the cup, beating Romania in the final challenge round, with Ashe winning both his singles matches. The same year, Ashe applied for a visa to play in the South African Open but was denied the visa by the South African government who enforced a strict apartheid policy of racial segregation. He continued to apply for visas in the following years and the country continued to deny him one. In protest, he used this example of discrimination to campaign for U.S. sanctions against South Africa and the expulsion of the nation from the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) but, in defense of the individual South African players, refused the call from activists to forfeit matches against them.

In January 1970, Ashe won his second Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open. With the competition somewhat depleted by the absence of some world-class National Tennis League (NTL) professional players barred by their league from entering because the financial guarantees were deemed too low, Ashe defeated Dick Crealy in straight sets in the final to become the first non-Australian to win the title since 1959. In September 1970, shortly after helping the U.S Davis cup team defeat West Germany in the challenge round to win their third consecutive Davis Cup, Ashe signed a five-year contract with Lamar Hunt's World Championship Tennis.

In March 1971, Ashe reached the final of the Australian Open again but lost in straight sets to Ken Rosewall. In June that year, Ashe won the French Open men's doubles with partner Marty Riessen.

In 1972, due to a dispute between the ILTF and the WCT, Ashe, as one of the 32 contracted WCT players, was barred from taking part in any ILTF Grand Prix tennis circuit tournaments from January to July. This ban meant Ashe was unable to play at the French Open and Wimbledon Grand Slam tournaments. In September, Ashe reached the final of the US Open for the second time. After leading his opponent, Ilie Năstase by 2 sets to 1 and with a break point to take a 4-1 lead in the fourth set, he eventually lost in five sets. The loss from such a winning position was the biggest disappointment of Ashe's professional tennis career. At the post-match award ceremony, irritated by some of Năstase's on-court antics during the game, Ashe praised Năstase as a tough opponent and 'colourful' player, then suggested, "...and when he brushes up on some of his court manners, he is going to be even better". At this tournament, concerned that men's tennis professionals were not receiving winnings commensurate with the sport's growing popularity and to protect players from promoters and associations, Ashe supported the founding of the Association of Tennis Professionals. He went on to become its elected president in 1974.

In June 1973, as a result of an ATP boycott, Ashe was one of 13 seeded players and 81 players in total who withdrew from the Wimbledon tournament to much public criticism. The catalyst for the boycott was that Yugoslavian ATP member Niki Pilić had been suspended for nine months by his tennis federation after allegedly refusing to represent them in a Davis Cup tie against New Zealand in May, something Pilić denied. The ban was upheld by the ILTF though they reduced it to just one month. The ATP contested the ban but lost a lawsuit to force Pilić's participation at Wimbledon during the ban period. As a member of the ATP board, Ashe voted to boycott the tournament, a vote that was only narrowly passed when ATP chairman, Cliff Drysdale abstained. The reason for the boycott was to support Pilić as an ATP member, but the importance was that it proved the solidarity of the fledgling ATP, and showed the tennis associations that professional players could no longer be dictated to.

In November 1973, with the South African government seeking to end their Olympic ban and re-join the Olympic movement, Ashe was finally granted a visa to enter the country for the first time to play in the South African Open. He lost in the final to Jimmy Connors, but won the doubles with partner Tom Okker. Despite boycotts against South African sport, Ashe believed that his presence could help break down stereotypes and that by competing and winning the tournament, it would stand as an example of the result of integration, and help bring about change in apartheid South Africa. He reached the singles final again in 1974, losing in straight sets to Connors for the second consecutive year. Later, in 1977, Ashe addressed a small crowd of boycott supporters at the U.S Open and admitted that he had been wrong to participate in South Africa and once again supported the boycott of South African players after he had tried to purchase tickets for some young Africans for a tennis match in South Africa, and was told to use an "Africans only" counter. In the media, Ashe called for South Africa to be expelled from the professional tennis circuit and Davis Cup competition.

In May 1975, Ashe beat Bjorn Borg to win the season-ending championship WCT Finals in Dallas, Texas.

On July 5, 1975 in the first all-American Wimbledon final since 1947, Ashe, seeded sixth and just a few days short of his 32nd birthday, won Wimbledon at his ninth attempt, defeating the strong favourite and defending champion, Jimmy Connors. Ashe had never beaten Connors in any of their previous encounters and Connors had not dropped a set in any of the six earlier rounds, but Ashe played an almost perfect game of tactical tennis to win in four sets. In the lead-up to the final, the two players' relationship was already strained. Connors was suing the ATP, with Ashe as its president, for alleged restraint of trade after opposition from the ATP and French officials meant he was refused entry to the 1974 French Open as a contracted member of World Team Tennis (WTT). Just two days before the start of the Wimbledon tournament, it had been announced that Connors was now suing Ashe for $5 million for comments in a letter Ashe had written to ATP members in his role as president, criticizing Connors' insistence that Davis Cup captain Dennis Ralston should be fired and Connors' "unpatriotic" boycott of the competition which had started after Ralston left him out of the team against the West Indies in Jamaica in March 1972. On final day, Ashe pointedly and symbolically wore red, white and blue wristbands throughout the match and wore his U.S.A. emblazoned Davis Cup warm-up jacket when walking out onto Centre Court and during the award ceremony while receiving the trophy and winner's cheque for GBP £10,000 (1975 equivalent USD $23,000). Soon after the final, Connors dropped the libel suit.

Ashe played for a few more years and won the Australian Open doubles with Tony Roche in January 1977, but a left foot heel injury requiring surgery a month later and subsequent long-term rehabilitation saw his world ranking drop to a lowly 257th before a remarkable comeback saw him rise back to 14th in the world again at the age of 35. However, after undergoing heart surgery in December 1979, Ashe officially retired in April 1980, at age 36. His career record was 818 wins, 260 losses and 51 titles.

Ashe remains the only black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is one of only two men of black African ancestry to win any Grand Slam singles title, the other being France's Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983. He also led the United States to victory for three consecutive years (1968–70) in the Davis Cup.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and a world no. 1 player himself in the 1940s, ranked Ashe as one of the 21 best players of all time.

Retirement

After his retirement, Ashe took on many roles, including writing for Time magazine and The Washington Post, commentating for ABC Sports, founding the National Junior Tennis League, and serving as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1981 to 1985. He was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

In 1988, Ashe published a three-volume book titled A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete, after working with a team of researchers for nearly six years. Ashe stated that the book was more important than any tennis titles.

Ashe was also an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration. He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the Embassy of South Africa, Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally. He was arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.

Personal life

On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer he met in October 1976 at a United Negro College Fund benefit. Andrew Young, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, performed the wedding ceremony in the United Nations chapel, New York City. During the ceremony Ashe wore a cast on his left foot having had an operation on an injured heel ten days earlier.

In December 1986, Ashe and Moutoussamy adopted a daughter. She was named Camera after her mother's profession.

In March 1989 Ashe's father died of a stroke at age 68.

Health issues

In July 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack while holding a tennis clinic in New York. In view of his high level of fitness as an athlete, his condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease; Ashe's mother already had cardiovascular disease at the time of her death, aged 27, and his father had suffered a first heart attack, aged 55, and a second, aged 59, just a week before Ashe's own attack. Cardiac catheterization revealed one of Ashe's arteries was completely closed, another was 95 percent closed, and a third was closed 50 percent in two places. Ashe underwent a quadruple bypass operation, performed by Dr. John Hutchinson on December 13, 1979. A few months after the operation, Ashe was on the verge of making his return to professional tennis. However, during a family trip in Cairo, Egypt, he developed chest pains while running. Ashe stopped running and returned to see a physician and was accompanied by his close friend Douglas Stein. Stein urged Ashe to return to New York City so he could be close to his cardiologist, his surgeon and top-class medical facilities. In 1983, Ashe underwent a second round of heart surgery to correct the previous bypass surgery. After the surgery, Ashe became national campaign chairman for the American Heart Association.

In September 1988, Ashe was hospitalized after experiencing paralysis in his right arm. After undergoing exploratory brain surgery and a number of tests, doctors discovered that Ashe had toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that is commonly found in people infected with HIV. A subsequent test later revealed that Ashe was HIV positive. Ashe and his doctors believed he contracted the virus from blood transfusions he received during his second heart surgery. He and his wife decided to keep his illness private for the sake of their daughter, who was then two years old.

In 1992, a friend of Ashe who worked for USA Today heard that he was ill and called Ashe to confirm the story. Ashe decided to preempt USA Today's plans to publish the story about his illness and, on April 8, 1992, publicly announced he had contracted HIV. Ashe blamed USA Today for forcing him to go public with the news but also stated that he was relieved that he no longer had to lie about his illness. After the announcement, hundreds of readers called or wrote letters to USA Today criticizing their choice to run the story about Ashe's illness which subsequently forced Ashe to publicize his illness.

After Ashe went public with his illness, he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, working to raise awareness about the virus and advocated teaching sex education and safe sex. He also fielded questions about his own diagnosis and attempted to clear up the misconception that only homosexuals or IV drug users were at risk for contracting AIDS. In September 1992, Ashe suffered a mild heart attack. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on World AIDS Day, December 1, 1992, he addressed the growing need for AIDS awareness and increased research funding saying "We want to be able to look back and say to all concerned that we did what we had to do, when we had to do it, and with all the resources required."

Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year. He also spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death.

Death

On February 6, 1993, Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia at New York Hospital. His funeral was held at the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center in Richmond, Virginia, on February 10. Then-governor Douglas Wilder, who was a friend of Ashe, allowed his body to lie in state at the Governor's Mansion in Richmond. More than 5,000 people lined up to walk past the casket. Andrew Young, who had performed the service for Ashe's wedding in 1977, officiated at his funeral. Over 6,000 mourners attended. Ashe requested that he be buried alongside his mother, Mattie, who died in 1950, in Woodland Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

On February 12, 1993, a memorial service for Ashe was held at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan.

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spotifypremiumapks · 3 years ago

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Who is Ashleigh Barty? Wiki, Bio, Age, Family, Tennis Player, Instagram

Ashleigh Barty Wiki - Ashleigh Barty Biography

Ashleigh Barty is an Australian professional tennis player and former cricketer. She is ranked No. 1 in the world in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the second Australian No. 1 in singles in the WTA after indigenous Australian player Evonne Goolagong Cawley. She has also been one of the top 10 doubles players, having reached number 5 in the world rankings. Barty has won twelve singles titles and eleven doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including two Grand Slam singles titles, the 2019 French Open and the 2021 Wimbledon Championship, and a Grand Slam doubles title at the French Open. of the United States of 2018 with its partner CoCo. Vandeweghe. She is also the current singles champion in the WTA Finals. Born in Ipswich, Queensland, Barty began playing tennis at the age of four in nearby Brisbane. She had a promising junior career, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world after winning the women's singles title at Wimbledon in 2011. As a teenager, Barty had early success in doubles on the WTA Tour in 2013, finishing as runner-up. in three doubles Grand Slam events with veteran Casey Dellacqua, including at the Australian Open when he was just 16 years old. At the end of the 2014 season, Barty decided to take an indefinite break from tennis. She ended up playing cricket during this hiatus, signing with the Brisbane Heat for the inaugural season of the Women's Big Bash League despite having no formal training in the sport. Barty returned to tennis in early 2016. She had a great singles year in 2017, winning her first WTA title at the Malaysian Open and rising to No. 17 in the world despite never having been in the top 100 before. . of your free time. She also had another prolific year in doubles with Dellacqua, culminating in her first appearance at the WTA Finals in doubles. Barty then won his first Premier Mandatory and Grand Slam tournament title in doubles in 2018 before accomplishing the same feat in singles in 2019. He also led Australia to second place in the 2019 Federation Cup. Barty is an all-court player who uses a wide variety of shots in her style of play. Despite her short stature for a professional tennis player, she is an excellent server, regularly ranking among the WTA Tour leaders in aces and percentage of service points earned. Barty serves as the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia.

Ashleigh Barty Age

Ashleigh Barty is 25 years old.

Background - Career

Barty was born on April 24, 1996 to Josie and Robert Barty. His father had grown up in rural North Queensland and later worked for the State Library of Queensland. Through his father, he is a member of the Ngaragu people, indigenous to southern New South Wales and northeastern Victoria. Barty's mother works as a radiographer and is the daughter of English immigrants. Barty grew up in Springfield, a suburb of Ipswich, Queensland, and attended Woodcrest State College while raising her. He has two older sisters named Sara and Ali. Besides tennis, Barty also played netball as a child, but decided to focus on tennis because she “thought it was a girl's game ”and because her sisters were better at sports than she was. She did not play cricket as a child. Barty began working with his former coach Jim Joyce at the West Brisbane Tennis Center at the age of four. Joyce commented that she did not normally train children as young as Barty, but made an exception for her due to her excellent hand-eye coordination and high level of concentration. He remembered a moment from his first lesson, saying, “The first ball I threw at him, bang! She returned it immediately. "As a child, Barty also practiced at home, recalling," I used to hit the ball against every day after school, for hours on end. "When he was nine years old, he was practicing against boys six years older. At the age of 12 he was playing against grown men and met his mentor Alicia Molik at the national sub-championships. 12 in Melbourne. Former tennis pro-Scott Draper later joined Barty's coaching staff and worked with her at the National Academy. When he was 15 years old, former top 20 Jason Stoltenberg took over as head coach. Barty's shorter hours took her to Europe and alienated her from her family in Australia for much of the year. The season she turned 17, she was only home 27 days for the entire calendar year. Read Also: Who is Bryson DeChambeau? Wiki, Bio, Age, Family, Covid test Positive, Instagram

Barty at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships

Barty peaked at No.2 in the ITF World Junior Rankings, the highest of his career, having excelled in both singles and doubles. He started playing low-level events on the ITF Youth Circuit in 2009 at the age of 13 and won his first Australian international grade 4 title before the age of 14. Barty continued to play only in tournaments below the highest levels until late 2010., but compiled a 24-2 record in his five events that season while capturing a Grade 2 title in Thailand. She played her first junior Grand Slam event in 2011 at the Australian Open, where she lost her first match to third-seeded Lauren Davis. However, he bounced back from this defeat in the coming months by winning the singles and doubles events in two high-level Grade 1 event, the Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup in Malaysia in March and the International Junior Championships in Belgium. In May. After a loss in the second round of the 2011 French Open, Barty won his only junior Grand Slam title at Wimbledon at the age of 15. She became the second Australian to win the women's singles event after Debbie Freeman in 1980 and the first Australian. The girl who has won any junior Grand Slam singles title since Jelena Dokic at the 1998 US Open. Her compatriot Luke Saville also won the men's title to help Australia sweep in both singles events. The only set she dropped in the tournament was against Madison Keys in the third round, and her victory in the final game against third-seeded Irina Khromacheva. In the last major of the year, Barty produced the result of another strong single, losing to seed Caroline Garcia in the US Open semifinals. Barty also won two more Grade 1 doubles titles that season, one at Roehampton the week before Wimbledon and the other at the Canadian Open the week before the US Open. she concluded the season by winning the Australian Youth Federation Cup with her teammate Belinda Woolcock. Barty only played in a youth tournament the following year, where she finished runner-up in both singles and doubles at the International Tournament in Italy. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK Read the full article

#AshleighBarty #AshleighBartyage #AshleighBartybio #AshleighBartybiography #AshleighBartyfacts #AshleighBartyfamily #AshleighBartyimage #AshleighBartymanymorefactsyouneedtoknow #AshleighBartyparents #AshleighBartyspouse #AshleighBartytennisplayer #AshleighBartywiki #AshleighBartywikipedia #whoisAshleighBarty

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covid19worldnews · 4 years ago

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French Open

“French Championships” redirects here. For other uses, see French Championship (disambiguation).

This article is about the tennis tournament. For the golf tournament, see Open de France. For the badminton tournament, see French Open (badminton).

French Open Tennis Championships

The French Open (French: Internationaux de France de Tennis), also called Roland-Garros (French: [ʁɔlɑ̃ ɡaʁos]), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year.[b] The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis championship tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments,[3] the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The French Open is currently the only Grand Slam tournament held on clay, and it is the conclusion of the spring clay court season. Before 1975, the French Open was the lone non-grass major tournament.[4] Between the seven rounds needed for a championship, the slow-playing surface and the best-of-five-set men’s singles matches, the event is widely considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.[5][6]

History

Officially named in French Internationaux de France de Tennis and Roland-Garros (the “French International of Tennis” and “Roland Garros” in English),[7] the tournament is referred to in English as the “French Open” and alternatively as “Roland Garros”, which is the designation used by the tournament itself in all languages.[8] (The stadium and tournament are both hyphenated as Roland-Garros because French spelling rules dictate that in the name of a place or event named after a person, the elements of the name are joined together with a hyphen.[9])

In 1891 the Championnat de France, which is commonly referred to in English as the French Championships, began. They were only open to tennis players who were members of French clubs. The first winner was a Briton—H. Briggs—who was a Paris resident. The first women’s singles tournament, with four entries, was held in 1897. The mixed doubles event was added in 1902 and the women’s doubles in 1907. This “French club members only” tournament was played until 1924, using four different venues during that period:

The Croix-Catelan of the Racing Club de France (in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris), played on clay. 1891, 1892, 1894 (men’s doubles), 1895 (men’s doubles), 1898, 1900, 1901 (men’s doubles), 1902, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1910-1914, 1920-1924 editions.

Tennis Club de Paris (club opened in 1895), at Auteuil, Paris, played on clay. 1893, 1896 and 1897 (men’s singles) edition.

Cercle des Sports de Île Puteaux, in Puteaux, Île-de-France (nex to the Seine river); played on the club’s ten sand grounds laid out on a bed of rubble. 1894 (men’s singles), 1895 (men’s singles), 1897 (women’s singles), 1899, 1901 (men’s and women’s singles), 1903, 1905 and 1907 editions.

For one year, 1909, it was played at the Société Athlétique de la Villa Primrose in Bordeaux, on clay.

In 1925, the French Championships became open to all amateurs internationally and was designated a major championship by the ILTF. It was held at the Stade Français in Saint-Cloud (site of the previous World Hard Court Championships) in 1925 and 1927, on clay courts. In 1926 the Croix-Catelan of the Racing Club de France hosted the event in Paris, site of the previous French club members only tournament, also on clay.

Another clay court tournament, called the World Hard Court Championships, is sometimes considered the true precursor to the modern French Open as it admitted international competitors. This was held at Stade Français in Saint-Cloud, from 1912 to 1914, 1920, 1921 and 1923, with the 1922 event held in Brussels, Belgium. Winners of this tournament included world No. 1s such as Tony Wilding from New Zealand (1913, 1914) and Bill Tilden from the US (1921). In 1924 there was no World Hard Court Championships due to tennis being played at the Paris Olympic Games.

After the Mousquetaires or Philadelphia Four (René Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet, and Jacques Brugnon) won the Davis Cup on American soil in 1927, the French decided to defend the cup in 1928 at a new tennis stadium at Porte d’Auteuil. The Stade de France had offered the tennis authorities three hectares of land with the condition that the new stadium must be named after the World War I hero pilot Roland Garros.[10] The new Stade de Roland Garros (later renamed Court Philippe Chatrier in 1988) hosted that Davis Cup challenge. In 1928, the French Internationals were moved there, and the event has been held there ever since.[11]

During World War II, the tournament was held from 1941 through 1945 on the same grounds, but those events are not recognized by the French governing body, the Fédération Française de Tennis.[12] In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon, making it the third Grand Slam event of the year. In 1968, the French Championships became the first Grand Slam tournament to go open, allowing both amateurs and professionals to compete.[11]

Court number 2 at the French Open.

Since 1981, new prizes have been presented: the Prix Orange (for the player demonstrating the best sportsmanship and cooperative attitude with the press), the Prix Citron (for the player with the strongest character and personality) and the Prix Bourgeon (for the tennis player revelation of the year). In another novelty, since 2006 the tournament has begun on a Sunday, featuring 12 singles matches played on the three main courts. Additionally, on the eve of the tournament’s opening, the traditional Benny Berthet exhibition day takes place, where the profits go to different charity associations. In March 2007, it was announced that the event would provide equal prize money for both men and women in all rounds for the first time.[13] In 2010, it was announced that the French Open was considering a move away from Roland Garros as part of a continuing rejuvenation of the tournament.[14] Plans to renovate and expand Roland Garros have put aside any such consideration, and the tournament remains in its long time home.

Expansion in the early 21st century

From 2004 to 2008, plans were developed to build a covered stadium with a roof, as complaints continued over delayed matches.[15][16][17] Various proposals were put forward to expand the facility or to move the French Open to a completely new, 55-court venue outside of Paris city limits. In 2011 the decision was taken to maintain the tournament within its existing venue.[18][19] The expansion project called for a new stadium to be built alongside the historical Auteuil’s greenhouses and expansion of old stadiums and the tournament village.[20] A wide-ranging project to overhaul the venue was presented in 2011, including building a roof over Court Philippe-Chatrier, demolishing and replacing Court No. 1 with a grassy hill for outdoors viewing, and geographical extension of the venue eastward into the Jardin des Serres d’Auteuil.[21]

Legal opposition from environmental defence associations and other stakeholders delayed the works for several years as litigation ensued.[22] In particular, the city council voted in May 2015 against the expansion project, but on 9 June 2015 Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced the signing of the construction permits, with work scheduled to begin in September of that year and conclude in 2019.[23][24] In December 2015, the Administrative Court of Paris once again halted renovation work, but the French Tennis Federation won the right to proceed with the renovation on appeal.[25]

Renovation work finally commenced at the close of the 2018 edition of the tournament. Redeveloped seating and a retractable roof was constructed for Court Philippe-Chatrier and the new 5,000-seat Court Simonne-Mathieu was opened, having been named after France’s second-highest achieving female tennis player, and noted for its innovative use of greenhouse encasing architecture.[26] The renewal of the venue has been generally well-received by the players and the public.[27] The 2020 edition of the tournament, which was the first to be assisted by the roof over Philippe-Chatrier, was postponed to September and was played before limited spectators, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] Floodlights were also installed over each of the courts in the precinct, allowing the tournament to facilitate night matches for the first time.[29]

Surface characteristics

Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared with grass courts or hard courts. For this reason, clay courts take away some of the advantages of big servers and serve-and-volleyers, which makes it hard for these types of players to dominate on the surface. For example, Pete Sampras, known for his huge serve and who won 14 Grand Slam titles, never won the French Open – his best result was reaching the semi-finals in 1996. Many other notable players have won multiple Grand Slam events but have never won the French Open, including John McEnroe, Frank Sedgman, John Newcombe, Venus Williams, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt, Jimmy Connors, Louise Brough, Virginia Wade or Martina Hingis; McEnroe and Edberg lost their sole French Open finals appearances in five sets.

On the other hand, players whose games are more suited to slower surfaces, such as Rafael Nadal, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Justine Henin and Chris Evert, have found great success at this tournament. In the Open Era, the only male players who have won both the French Open and Wimbledon, played on faster grass courts, are Rod Laver, Jan Kodeš, Björn Borg, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Borg’s French Open—Wimbledon double was achieved three times consecutively (1978, 1979, 1980) and regarded by Wimbledon officials as “the most difficult double in tennis”.[30] The feat took 28 years to be repeated and was done 3 times consecutively, twice by Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010) and once by Roger Federer (2009).[31]

Ball boys and ball girls

At the 2010 French Open there were 250 “ramasseurs de balles” which in English translates literally as “gatherers of balls”. They are aged between 12 and 16 years old, and dress in matching shirts and shorts. The 250 ball boys and ball girls are chosen to take part in the French Open by an application and selection process, which in 2010 had approximately 2,500 applicants from across France.[32] Upon selection the ball boys and ball girls participate in preparatory training in the weeks leading up to the French Open to ensure that they are prepared for the day they set foot on the tennis court in front of a global audience.

Prize money and ranking points

Court Philippe Chatrier during the 2013 French Open.

For 2018, the prize money purse was increased to €39,197,000. If a player makes it to the indicated round, they will receive the points and money listed (provided they don’t make it to a further round). Men and women often receive different point values based on the rules of their respective tours. Players receive prize money and points as follows:[33]

Prize Money (2018) Event W F SF QF 4R 3R 2R 1R Singles Points (M/F) 2000 1200 / 1300 720 / 780 360 / 430 180 / 240 90 / 130 45 / 70 10/10 Prize money €2,200,000 €1,120,000 €560,000 €380,000 €222,000 €130,000 €79,000 €40,000 Doubles Points (M/F) 2000 1200 / 1300 720 / 780 360 / 430 180 / 240 90 / 130 0 / 10 – Prize money* €560,000 €280,000 €139,000 €76,000 €41,000 €22,000 €11,000 �� Mixed Doubles Points NA NA NA NA NA NA – – Prize money* €120,000 €60,000 €30,000 €17,000 €9,500 €4,750 – –

*per team

Champions

Past champions

Men’s Singles, winner of the Coupe des Mousquetaires[c]

Women’s Singles, winner of the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen[d]

Men’s Doubles, winners of the Coupe Jacques Brugnon

Women’s Doubles, winners of the Coupe Simone Mathieu

Mixed Doubles, winners of the Coupe Marcel Bernard

All champions (Open Era)

The trophies, designed and made by Maison Mellerio dits Meller, are all made of pure silver with finely etched decorations on their side. Each new singles winner gets his or her name written on the base of the trophy. Winners receive custom-made pure silver replicas of the trophies they have won.[34]

Current champions

Rafael Nadal was the winner of the Men’s Singles in 2020.

Iga Świątek was the winner of the Women’s Singles in 2020.

Kevin Krawietz was part of the winning Men’s Doubles team in 2020.

Andreas Mies was part of the winning Men’s Doubles team in 2020.

Tímea Babos was part of the winning Women’s Doubles team in 2020.

Kristina Mladenovic was part of the winning Women’s Doubles team in 2020.

Latisha Chan was part of the winning Mixed Doubles team in 2019. It was her second Grand Slam mixed doubles title.

Ivan Dodig was part of the winning Mixed Doubles team in 2019. It was his second Grand Slam mixed doubles title.

Event Champion Runner-up Score Men’s Singles Rafael Nadal Novak Djokovic 6–0, 6–2, 7–5 Women’s Singles Iga Świątek Sofia Kenin 6–4, 6–1 Men’s Doubles Kevin Krawietz Andreas Mies Mate Pavić Bruno Soares 6–3, 7–5 Women’s Doubles Tímea Babos Kristina Mladenovic Alexa Guarachi Desirae Krawczyk 6–4, 7–5 Mixed Doubles Latisha Chan Ivan Dodig Gabriela Dabrowski Mate Pavić 6–1, 7–6(7–5)

Records

Record Era Player(s) Num. Years Men since 1891 Winner of most men’s singles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 8 1903–1904, 1907–1909, 1912–1914 1925–1967: Henri Cochet 4 1926, 1928, 1930, 1932 Note: Also won World Hard Court Championship in 1922 After 1967: Rafael Nadal 13 2005–2008, 2010–2014, 2017–2020 Winner of most consecutive men’s singles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Paul Aymé 4 1897–1900 1925–1967: Frank Parker Jaroslav Drobný Tony Trabert Nicola Pietrangeli 2 1948–1949 1951–1952 1954–1955 1959–1960 After 1967: Rafael Nadal 5 2010–2014 Winner of most men’s doubles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 13 1902–1909, 1911–1914, 1920[35] 1925–1967: Roy Emerson 6 1960, 1962 with Neale Fraser, 1961 with Rod Laver, 1963 with Manuel Santana, 1964 with Ken Fletcher, 1965 with Fred Stolle After 1967: Daniel Nestor Max Mirnyi 4 2007 with Mark Knowles, 2010 with Nenad Zimonjić, 2011, 2012 with Max Mirnyi 2005, 2006 with Jonas Björkman, 2011, 2012 with Daniel Nestor Winner of most consecutive men’s doubles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Maurice Germot 10 1906–1914, 1920[35] 1925–1967: Roy Emerson 6 1960–1965 After 1967: Daniel Nestor 3 2010–2012 Winner of most mixed doubles titles – Men Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 7 1904–1906, 1908–1909, 1914 and 1920 with Suzanne Lenglen 1925-today: Ken Fletcher Jean-Claude Barclay 3 1963–1965 with Margaret Court 1968, 1971, 1973 with Françoise Dürr Winner of most titles (total: singles, doubles, mixed) – men Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 28 1902–1920 (8 singles, 13 doubles, 7 mixed) 1925-today: Rafael Nadal 13 2005–2008, 2010–2014, 2017–2020 (13 singles) Women since 1897 Winner of most women’s singles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Suzanne Lenglen 6 1920–1923, 1925–1926 Note: Also won World Hard Court Championship in 1914, 1921–1923 After 1967: Chris Evert 7 1974–1975, 1979–1980, 1983, 1985–1986 Winner of most consecutive women’s singles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Jeanne Matthey Suzanne Lenglen 4 1909–1912 1920–1923 After 1967: / Monica Seles Justine Henin 3 1990–1992 2005–2007 Winner of most women’s doubles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Simonne Mathieu 6 1933, 1934 with Elizabeth Ryan, 1936–1937, 1938 with Billie Yorke, 1939 with Jadwiga Jędrzejowska After 1967: / Martina Navratilova 7 1975 with Chris Evert, 1982 with Anne Smith, 1984–1985, 1987, 1988 with Pam Shriver, 1986 with Andrea Temesvári Winner of most consecutive women’s doubles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Françoise Dürr 5 1967–1971 After 1967: / Martina Navratilova

Gigi Fernández

5 1984–1987, 1988 with Pam Shriver, 1986 with Andrea Temesvári

1991 with Jana Novotná, 1992–95 with Natasha Zvereva

Winner of most mixed doubles titles – women Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Suzanne Lenglen 7 1914, 1920 with Max Decugis, 1921–1923, 1925, 1926 with Jacques Brugnon After 1967: Françoise Dürr 3 1968, 1971, 1973 with Jean-Claude Barclay Winner of most titles (total: singles, doubles, mixed) – women Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Suzanne Lenglen 15 1919–1926 (6 singles, 2 doubles, 7 mixed) After 1967: / Martina Navratilova 11 1974–1988 (2 singles, 7 doubles, 2 mixed) Miscellaneous Youngest winner Men: Michael Chang 17 years and 3 months Women: / Monica Seles 16 years and 6 months Oldest winner Men: André Vacherot 40 years and 9 months Women: Zsuzsa Körmöczy 33 years and 10 months Unseeded Winners Men: Marcel Bernard Mats Wilander Gustavo Kuerten Gastón Gaudio 1946 1982 1997 2004 Women: Margaret Scriven Jeļena Ostapenko Iga Świątek 1933 2017 2020 Match wins (singles) Men: Rafa Nadal 100 2005–2020 (open era) Women: Steffi Graf 84 1983–1999 (open era)

Television coverage

2010 French Open – Court Philippe Chatrier

Broadcast rights to the French Open (as of 2018) are as follows:[36]

France

France Télévisions and Eurosport hold the broadcast rights to the French Open until 2021.

United Kingdom

ITV Sport and Eurosport holds broadcasting rights to show the French Open tennis tournaments until 2021.[37] The bulk of the daily coverage is broadcast on ITV4 although both singles finals plus other weekend matches are shown on ITV. John Inverdale hosts the coverage. Commentators include Nick Mullins, Jonathan Overend, Mark Petchey, Sam Smith, Jim Courier, Fabrice Santoro and Anne Keothavong.

Studio presentation for the French Open on Eurosport is hosted by Barbara Schett sometimes joined by Mats Wilander. Commentators include Simon Reed, Chris Bradnam, Nick Lester, Jason Goodall, Jo Durie, Frew McMillan, Arvind Parmar and Chris Wilkinson.

United States

NBC‘s coverage of the French Open began in 1975.[38] Tennis Channel owns pay television rights to the tournament. Coverage of morning window (U.S. time) matches were sub-licensed to ESPN for broadcast by ESPN2 from 2007 through 2015.[39] In August 2015, ESPN announced that it would discontinue its sub-licensing and drop coverage of the French Open beginning in 2016, with network staff citing that because of the structure of the arrangement, its coverage “did not fit our successful model at the other three Majors”—where ESPN is the exclusive rightsholder.[39] Tennis Channel chose to retain these rights under its new owner Sinclair Broadcast Group, nearly doubling the amount of coverage Tennis Channel will air from Roland Garros.[40][41]

Other than a three-year stint on CBS, NBC has remained the American television network home of the French Open since 1983. Since acquiring rights to the Indianapolis 500 in 2019, NBC’s coverage begins on Memorial Day, the second day of the tournament; the network provides coverage windows on the holiday and the second weekend in the afternoon U.S. time. These windows consist of exclusive tape-delayed matches from earlier in the day, but any ongoing matches at the window’s start are shown live to their conclusion. The later men’s and women’s semifinals are broadcast live on NBC in the Eastern Time Zone and tape-delayed in others, but since 2017 these matches are also simulcast on NBCSN to allow nationwide live coverage. Finals are live nationwide.[42]

Other countries and areas

Europe – Eurosport and the Eurosport Player[43] (co-broadcaster in various countries)

Albania – RTSH[43]

Austria – ORF[43]

Belgium – RTBF[43]

Bulgaria – BNT[43]

Croatia – HRT[43]

Cyprus – CyBC[43]

Czech Republic – Česká Televize[43]

Estonia – Postimees TV[43]

Finland – Yle[43]

Georgia – Silknet[43]

Greece – ERT[43]

Ireland – Eir Sport 1[43]

Montenegro – RTCG[43]

Russia – RTRS[43]

Slovakia – Markíza[43]

Slovenia – RTV Slovenija[43]

Switzerland – SRG SSR[43]

Americas – ESPN[43] (except Brazil & Canada)

Argentina – Televisión Pública Argentina[43]

Brazil – BandSports[43]

Canada – RDS (French) & TSN (English)[43]

Caribbean – ESPN Caribbean[43]

United States – NBCSN and The Tennis Channel

Africa

North Africa and Middle East – beIN Sports[43]

Southern Africa – SuperSport[43]

Asia

China – CCTV[43]

South Korea – JTBC Golf&Sports[43]

Japan – WOWOW & TV Tokyo[43]

Indian Subcontinent – Star Sports Select[43]

Southeast Asia – Fox Sports[43]

Oceania

Australia – Fox Sports and SBS Sport[44]

New Zealand – Sky Sport[43]

Fiji & Pacific Islands – Fox Sports[43]

See also

Lists of champions

List of French Open champions (Open Era, all events)

List of French Open men’s singles champions

List of French Open women’s singles champions

List of French Open men’s doubles champions

List of French Open women’s doubles champions

List of French Open mixed doubles champions

List of French Open singles finalists during the open era, records and statistics

Other Grand Slam tournaments

Australian Open

Wimbledon

US Open

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to French Open.

Official website

(in French) Roland Garros on France2

(in French) Roland Garros on ina.fr : more than 600 hours of audio/visual archives

Photos of Roland Garros

French Open – All winners and runners-up. Reference book

Preceded by Australian Open Grand Slam Tournament May–June Succeeded by Wimbledon

Coordinates: 48°50′49.8″N 2°14′57.3″E / 48.847167°N 2.249250°E / 48.847167; 2.249250

https://www.covid19snews.com/2020/11/12/french-open/

#covid19

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thefilmstage · 7 years ago

Photo

Juan Martin del Potro just ruined the match-up everyone wanted to see at the 2017 US Open—a semi-final pitting Rafa Nadal against Roger Federer. Despite both being in their thirties, their rivalry has never stopped. What’s intriguing, however, is how amiable it has always been (or seemed to be). With the quieter Pete Sampras and emotional Andre Agassi a generation earlier, the same was true despite their differing personalities and server versus returner billing. You could call the former a product of the latter and the latter a product of the explosive combat before them between “ice cold” Björn Borg and New York “superbrat” John McEnroe. The glaring difference of course is that their iconic war was augmented off-court by the media. It may have only really lasted two years, but the effect it had on the sport of tennis was permanent.

Danish director (of documentary Armadillo fame) Janus Metz and screenwriter Ronnie Sandahl look to shine a light on this fact with their biographic art film Borg/McEnroe. I say art film because the result is not your usual sports movie, focusing on one figure through montage until the big match arrives with thrilling victory or devastating but empowering defeat. The whole does focus on a single event—the 1980 Wimbledon tournament—but the tennis itself takes a backseat to the men playing it. We hear a lot of dialogue from broadcasters and journalists playing up the drama of Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) seeking a fifth consecutive championship and McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) as the brashly talented newcomer hoping to unseat him, but the struggles we watch them face individually come from within rather than the other.

Continue reading our TIFF review of Borg/McEnroe.

#Borg/McEnroe #Sverrir Gudnason #Shia LaBeouf #Janus Metz #TIFF #TIFF 2017

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angelichin-pr · 6 years ago

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Tickets Going Fast - Achieva Freedom Pro Tennis Exhibition

The second Achieva Freedom Pro Tennis Exhibition will be held on Friday, February 22, 2019. The day will start at 2 pm with a Pro-Am exhibition, followed by a pro tennis exhibition match starting at 4:30 pm. Get your tickets and see Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Ann Grossman-Wunderlich, Emilio Sanchez, and Pavel Slozil show their skills on the court! In it’s second year, the Achieva Freedom Pro Tennis Exhibition will benefit the mission and programs of the Freedom and Virtue Institute (FVI).

There is nothing better than spending a a beautiful southwest Florida Friday afternoon in February than enjoying some high-quality Professional Tennis with your family and friends, while supporting a great cause. Founder and executive director, Ismael Hernandez, is pleased to announce four top pro tennis players will be the feature exhibition for the Achieva Freedom Pro Tennis Exhibition to be held on Friday, February 22, 2019. The day will start at 2 pm with a Pro-Am exhibition, followed by a pro tennis exhibition match starting at 4:30 pm. Get your tickets and see Arancha Sánchez-Vicario and Emelio Sanchez plus two other surprise tennis pros show their skills on the court! In it’s second year, the Achieva Freedom Pro Tennis Exhibition will benefit the mission and programs of the Freedom and Virtue Institute (FVI). In addition, there will be a VIP dinner reception and auction with the pros immediately following the event. Limited tickets are available for purchase. Wonderful prizes will be available for auction and all proceeds go to support the mission and projects of the Freedom and Virtue Institute. Tickets on sale now! SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 2 pm to 4 pm Pro-Am Tournament* 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm Tennis Exhibition 7 pm to 9:30 pm Dinner with the Pros

FEATURING

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario was named by TENNIS Magazine the 27th best woman tennis player in its list of 40 Greatest players of the tennis era. She won FOUR Grand Slam Singles titles (beating both Steffi Graf and Monica Seles twice each), and was runner-up in EIGHT others! Arantxa also won SIX Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, and was runner-up in FIVE others; and she won FOUR Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, being runner-up in FOUR others! In addition, Arantxa won TWO olympic silver medals and TWO olympic bronze medals; one of each color in singles and doubles. In 1995 Arantxa became the No. 1 women’s tennis player in the world.

Ann Grossman-Wunderlich played on the WTA Tour for over a decade from 1987 to 1998. In womens singles, Ann’s most notorious results were twice reaching the 4th round of the French Open and once at the US Open, and she won the silver medal at the Pan American Games. Ann was runner-up in SEVEN other WTA Tour events. In womens doubles, Ann made the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, she won ONE other WTA womens doubles title, and was runner-up in TWO others. Ann gained career-high rankings of 29 in womens singles with notable wins overMartina Navratilova, MaryJo Fernandez and Zina Garrison, and she reached a career high of 31 in womens doubles. Today, Ann is heavily involved in coaching and she has served on the USTA Olympic and Federation Cup committees.

Emilio Sanchez, older brother of Arantxa, also has an impressive professional tennis career. He has been a men’s doubles finalist in SEVENTY-NINE ATP Tour events, winning FIFTY titles, and being runner-up in TWENTY-NINE others. THREE of those were Grand Slam wins; the French Open in 1988 and 1990, and the U.S. Open in 1988. Emilio was also Grand Slam mens runner-up at Wimbledon in 1987, and silver medalist at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Emilio also has won FIFTEEN ATP mens singles titles, and was runner-up in TWELVE ATP mens singles finals. Emilio and Arantxa teamed up to win the 1990 Hopman Cup together. After retiring, Spain called Emilio to captain its Davis Cup Team,. Under his captaincy, Spain won the 2008 Davis Cup.

Pavel Slozil won THIRTY-TWO ATP mens doubles titles and was runner-up in TWENTY-NINE others, including the French Open in 1984. In 1985, Pavel achieved a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 4. Pavel won the 1978 French Open mixed doubles title. Pavel played in ELEVEN Davis Cup ties for Czechoslovakia, posting a 7-2 record in doubles and a 4-2 record in singles. He was a member of the winning Czech Davis Cup team in 1980, along with teammate Ivan Lendl. After playing, Pavel coached Steffi Graf, who won TEN women’s singles Grand Slam titles, including a calendar Grand Slam, a womens doubles title at Wimbledon, and an Olympic gold medal under his coaching. Pavel also coached Jennifer Capriati, Anna Kournikova and MagdalenaMeleeva. In addition, there will be a VIP dinner reception and auction with the pros immediately following the event. Limited tickets are available for purchase. Wonderful prizes will be available for auction and all proceeds go to support the mission and projects of the Freedom and Virtue Institute. Tickets on sale now! CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

*Pro-Am Event:

There will be 16 Pros to play with, the four celebrity Pros, and 12 others from Lee and Collier Counties. Amateurs playing with the four celebrity Pros will be selected from our premier sponsors. The other 12 amateurs will pay the ticket price listed, which will also grant entry to ‘Dinner With the Pros’. CHARITY TO BENEFIT THE FREEDOM & VIRTUE INSTITUTE DATE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2019 LOCATION: ACADEMIA SÁNCHEZ-CASAL 4995 AIRPORT PULLING ROAD N NAPLES, FL 34105 PLEASE BRING BLANKETS AND LAWN CHAIRS FOR SEATING. Read the full article

#charity #fl #freedom #Grossman-Wunderlich #Naples #pavilion #sanchez #sanchez-vicario #selfreliance #tennis

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mrmichaelchadler · 7 years ago

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Borg vs McEnroe

A title card at the beginning of “Borg vs. McEnroe” explains how the rivalry between the two legendary tennis players—and, specifically, their grueling showdown at the 1980 Wimbledon championship—changed the sport, and each other, forever.

It’s an early example of the film’s frustrating tendency to tell rather than show. This is the kind of conclusion we should, in theory, be able to reach for ourselves through some artful persuasion and finesse. But Danish documentarian Janus Metz—making his first feature, and working from a script by Ronnie Sandahl—feels the need to hold our hands and oversimplify these two titans of tennis.

Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe may have seemed like polar opposites when they met each other at Centre Court on that summer day for the men’s final. Borg, the cool and disciplined Swede, was all laser-like groundstrokes, patrolling the baseline with prowess and precision. McEnroe, the profane American hothead, was all about the serve-and-volley game, charging the net to intimidate his opponents as fast as he could. Borg was the reigning, four-time Wimbledon champion in pursuit of his record fifth victory. McEnroe was the wildly talented up-and-comer, and the only player who could possibly topple him.

But! And this is going to blow your mind … but perhaps these two seemingly antithetical athletes weren’t so different after all. That is the facile, pop-psychology synopsis “Borg vs. McEnroe” reduces its central figures to through repetitive childhood flashbacks, where we’re once again forced to sit through spelled-out explanations of their inner natures.

What’s frustrating is that the performances are worthy of stronger material, despite the fact that the story gives far more time to Sverrir Gudnason’s Borg than Shia LaBeouf’s McEnroe. Gudnason is essentially the lead here—even though both players’ names comprise the title—with LaBeouf unfortunately being relegated to more of a supporting role. Gudnason eerily looks the part of the heartthrob tennis superstar, and he’s got a quiet intensity about him that’s compelling. As we learn from glimpses at the teenage tantrums he threw against the coach who dared to take a chance on him (the always solid Stellan Skarsgard), his stoicism is the result of being instructed never to show any emotion. It’s as much of a strategy and practice as his methodical training sessions. (Tuva Novotny, who was so great earlier this year as one of the intrepid explorers in “Annihilation,” doesn’t get to do much here beyond smoke and serve as Borg’s dutiful fiancée.)

McEnroe, meanwhile, is all impulse. He can’t hide a single thing he’s thinking or feeling. And LaBeouf is thrilling as he continues his streak of playing difficult, dangerous men, following roles in Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” films and “American Honey.” But part of the undeniable allure of seeing him portray this notoriously volatile figure is making the inevitable comparisons to the actor’s own notorious volatility. He seems to be welcoming the similarities, wallowing in them. Perhaps it’s freeing, playing within this blurry middle ground between performance and reality. (He clearly has a proclivity for this type of self-referential exploration, if you look back at his performance art activities in recent years.) However he felt in his approach to becoming McEnroe, the result is fascinating, and by far the film’s strongest element.

But an even greater sin than giving short shrift to LaBeouf’s McEnroe is the way in which Metz stages the climactic tennis battle. It was epic, lasting five sets including a punishing, 30-minute tiebreaker toward the end to decide the fourth. The normally polite crowd was very much on Borg’s side, hoping to witness history and raining down uncharacteristic boos on the brash McEnroe. But Metz shoots and cuts it (with editors Per K. Kirkegaard and Per Sandholt) in spurts and glimmers—a hand here, a foot there, the flash of a racket, the toss of a serve—when the thrill of this kind of monumental showdown is lingering in the athleticism and stamina of its competitors. And once again, the announcers calling the match keep explaining over and over again how different Borg and McEnroe are from each other—this time, in a variety of languages.

Then, after the whole draining ordeal is over, Borg and McEnroe unexpectedly run into each other at the airport while they’re waiting for their flights home. They make eye contact and approach each other hesitantly at first, then get to talking for a little while—perhaps for the first time ever, really. The expectation of this off-court meeting is almost as tense as the build-up to the one they just had—but then Metz makes the mistake of pulling away, lingering from afar, letting us see them without hearing what they’re saying.

No one could possibly understand these guys more than they understand each other, which might have made this conversation the most riveting part of the whole film. Instead, it’s a rare and misplaced moment of mystery.

from All Content https://ift.tt/2JJih0w

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emergingkarachi · 11 years ago

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Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Urdu: اعصام الحق قریشی‎) (born 17 March 1980, in Lahore, Pakistan) is a professional tennis player from Pakistan. He is currently Pakistan's top player. A top-10 doubles player, his highest singles ranking was no. 103. He is the only Pakistani tennis player to reach the final of a Grand Slam, which he did in 2010, competing in both mixed doubles (partnering with Květa Peschke) and men's doubles (partnering with Rohan Bopanna) at the US Open.

Qureshi teamed with Israeli player Amir Hadad during Wimbledon and the US Open tournaments in 2002. The duo won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award for playing together despite pressure from their communities.

As Pakistani no. 1, Qureshi has traditionally led Pakistan's Davis Cup campaigns. After shocking New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I second round play-off in 2004 to survive relegation, he took them to the World Group Play-Offs for the first time in 2005, before they were beaten by Chile. He has won the most Davis Cup matches for Pakistan, being the most successful singles and doubles player from his country ever. He is also half of the most successful doubles pairing for Pakistan (with Aqeel Khan) in the country's sporting history.

Qureshi is now a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of 54 athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organisation.[1]

Aisam and his partner Rohan Bopanna created a campaign, Stop War Start Tennis, with their goal to play a match on the border joining India and Pakistan.

Early life

His maternal grandfather, Adil Mansoor Tipu, was the All-British India champion, before Pakistan split from British India in 1947. His mother, Nosheen Ihtsham, was also a former women's tennis champion.[2][3][4] At age 16, the ITF sponsored him for two years. He won the Pakistan International Junior Championships and went on to win the Casablanca Cup in Mexico and the LTA International Junior Championships in Roehampton, where he beat Olivier Rochus, Andy Ram, and Taylor Dent. In the World Super Junior Championships, he beat Andy Roddick.[5] By 18, he was a top-20 junior player and decided to turn pro.

Aisam was educated at the University of Punjab.[6]

Coaches

As a junior, he was coached by LTA. Aisam has been coached by American Robert Davis since 1998. Robert Davis has served as national coach for Peru, Panama, Thailand, and Indonesia. As a writer, he contributes to the ATP's Deuce Magazine, Tennis Magazine USA, tennis.com, Tennis Magazine Australia, and ITF publications, as well as non-sporting publications and newspapers.

Playing style

Qureshi prefers the quicker grass courts and has had seen his greatest success on grass and hard courts. His playing style is serve-and-volley, relying on his serve to win him points by putting pressure in his opponents.

Sponsorship

Qureshi's clothing and shoes sponsor is Lotto. On 29 March 2008, Aisam signed an agreement with Pepsi for sponsorship of coach for one year. He became the first sportsman who wasn't a cricketer to star in a Pepsi advert and become one of their brand ambassadors.

Awards and accolades

In November 2010 Aisam was appointed The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) goodwill ambassador.[7]

Aisam was awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year, for 2010 along with his doubles tennis partner Rohan Bopanna of India.[8][9]

Along with Rohan Bopanna, Aisam received the 2010 "Peace and Sport Image of the Year" award,[10] in recognition of their dedicated efforts to spread the message of peace through sport.

He was also given the Pakistan President's Award for Performance in 2002, the Salam Pakistan Youth Award by the President of Pakistan in 2007 and was runner-up for the 2003 Anne Frank Award For Moral Courage by the Anne Frank Trust, UK.

In 2011, he was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person.[11][12]

#Tennis #Rohan Bopanna #Qureshi #Pakistan #Lahore #Davis Cup #Amir Hadad #Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi

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political-affairs · 12 years ago

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John McEnroe

John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. He won sevenGrand Slam singles titles (three at Wimbledon and four at the US Open), nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. McEnroe also won a record eight season ending championships, comprising five WCT Finals titles and three Masters Grand Prix titles from twelve final appearances at those two events, a record he shares with Ivan Lendl. Additionally, McEnroe is a former junior Grand Slam champion. During his career, McEnroe is listed to have won 77 singles titles by the ATP.

In 1984, McEnroe recorded the best single season win-loss record in the Open Era at 96.47% (82/3). In 1981, 1983 and 1984 McEnroe was the ITF World Champion for Men's singles. He was also named as the ATP player of the year in 1981, 1983 and 1984. McEnroe is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, especially for his touch on the volley.[2]

He is best remembered for his shot-making artistry and superb volleying; for his famous rivalries with Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl; and for his confrontational on-court behavior which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities. McEnroe's most famous confrontations include his tirade at an umpire during a match at Wimbledon in 1981 and for being disqualified from the 1990 Australian Open.

McEnroe is a former Captain of the United States Davis Cup team. As a player McEnroe represented the States and was part of the winning team on four occasions in the Davis Cup. After retiring from professional tennis McEnroe participated in the ATP Champions Tour. McEnroe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999 and received the Philippe Chatrier Award in 2007. Later in life McEnroe admitted to unwittingly using steroids whilst playing tennis. He however denied claims that he used anabolic steroids during his comeback to the tour. After his tennis career McEnroe became a television commentator, a game show host and a chat show host. Additionally, McEnroe has appeared in several films and television shows as himself and has played music live.

World No. 1 ranking

According to the Association of Tennis Professionals, McEnroe became the top-ranked singles player in the world on March 3, 1980.[10] He was the top ranked player on 14 separate occasions between 1980 and 1985 and finished the year ranked World No. 1 four straight years from 1981 through 1984. He spent a total of 170 weeks at the top of the rankings.

Success in doubles

McEnroe has been called "the greatest doubles player of all time" and "possibly the greatest team player never to have played a team sport."[4] He was ranked the World No. 1 in doubles for 270 weeks. He formed a powerful partnership with Peter Fleming, with whom he won 57 men's doubles titles, including four at Wimbledon and three at the US Open. (Fleming was always very modest about his own contribution to the partnership – he once said "the best doubles partnership in the world is McEnroe and anybody.")[4] McEnroe won a fourth US Open men's doubles title in 1989 with Mark Woodforde, and a fifth Wimbledon men's doubles title in 1992 with Michael Stich. He also won the 1977 French Open mixed doubles title with childhood friend Mary Carillo.

Davis Cup

More than any other player in his era, McEnroe was responsible for reviving U.S. interest in the Davis Cup,[4] which had been shunned by Jimmy Connors and other leading U.S. players, and had not seen a top U.S. player regularly compete since Arthur Ashe (Connors' refusal to play Davis Cup in lieu of lucrative exhibitions became a source of enmity between him and Ashe). In 1978, McEnroe won two singles rubbers in the final as the U.S. captured the cup for the first time since 1972, beating the United Kingdom in the final. McEnroe continued to be a mainstay of U.S. Davis Cup teams for the next 14 years and was part of U.S. winning teams in 1979, 1981, 1982, and 1992. He set numerous U.S. Davis Cup records, including years played (12), ties (30), singles wins (41), and total wins in singles and doubles (59). He played both singles and doubles in 13 series, and he and Peter Fleming won 14 of 15 Davis Cup doubles matches together.

An epic performance was McEnroe's 6-hour, 22-minute victory over Mats Wilander in the deciding rubber of the 3–2 quarterfinal win over Sweden in 1982, played in St. Louis, Missouri. McEnroe won the match, at the time the longest in Davis Cup history, 9–7, 6–2, 15–17, 3–6, 8–6.

McEnroe nearly broke that record in a 6-hour, 20-minute loss to Boris Becker five years later. Becker won their match, the second rubber in a 3–2 loss to West Germany in World Group Relegation play, 4–6, 15–13, 8–10, 6–2, 6–2.

McEnroe also helped the U.S. win the World Team Cup in 1984 and 1985.

Final years on the tour

McEnroe struggled to regain his form after his 1986 sabbatical. He lost three times in Grand Slam tournaments to Ivan Lendl, losing straight-set quarterfinals at both the 1987 US Open and the 1989 Australian Open and a long four-set match, played over two days, in the fourth round of the 1988 French Open. Rumors of drug abuse had begun during his second sabbatical. McEnroe denied them at the time, but acknowledged that he had used cocaine during his career in a 2000 interview that implied that the use occurred during this period, although he denied that the drug affected his play.[4]

Nevertheless McEnroe had multiple notable victories in the final years of his career. In the 1988 French Open, McEnroe crushed 16-year old Michael Chang 6–0, 6–3, 6–1 in the third round; Chang would go on to win the title the next year. In 1989, McEnroe won a record fifth title at the World Championship Tennis Finals (the championship tournament of the WCT tour, which was being staged for the last time), defeating top-ranked Lendl in the semifinals. At Wimbledon, he defeated Mats Wilander in a four-set quarterfinal before losing to Stefan Edberg in a semifinal. He won the RCA Championships in Indianapolis and reached the final of the Canadian Open, where he lost to Lendl. He also won both of his singles rubbers in the quarterfinal Davis Cup tie with Sweden.

Controversy was never far from McEnroe, however; in his fourth round match against Mikael Pernfors at the 1990 Australian Open, McEnroe was ejected from the tournament[4] for swearing at the umpire, supervisor, and referee. He was warned by the umpire for intimidating a lineswoman, and then docked a point for smashing a racket. McEnroe was apparently unaware that a new Code of Conduct, which had been introduced just before the tournament, meant that a third code violation would not lead to the deduction of a game but instead would result in immediate disqualification; therefore, when McEnroe unleashed a volley of abuse at umpire Gerry Armstrong, he was defaulted. He was fined $65,000 for the incidents.

Later that year, McEnroe reached the semifinals of the US Open, losing to the eventual champion, Pete Sampras in four sets. He also won the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel, defeating Goran Ivanišević in a five-set final. The last time McEnroe was ranked in the world top ten was on October 22, 1990, when he was ranked 9th. His end-of-year singles ranking was 13th.

In 1991, McEnroe won the last edition of the Volvo Tennis-Chicago tournament by defeating his brother Patrick in the final. He won both of his singles rubbers in the quarterfinal Davis Cup tie with Spain. And he reached the fourth round at Wimbledon (losing to Edberg) and the third round at the US Open (losing to Chang in a five-set night match). His end-of-year singles ranking was 28th in the world.

In 1992, McEnroe defeated third-ranked and defending champion Boris Becker in the third round of the Australian Open 6–4, 6–3, 7–5 before a sell-out crowd. In the fourth round, McEnroe needed 4 hours 42 minutes to defeat ninth ranked Emilio Sánchez 8–6 in the fifth set. He lost to Wayne Ferreira in the quarterfinals. At Wimbledon, McEnroe reached the semifinals where he lost in straight sets to the eventual champion Andre Agassi. McEnroe teamed with Michael Stich to win his fifth Wimbledon men's doubles title in a record-length 5 hour 1 minute final, which the pair won 5–7, 7–6, 3–6, 7–6, 19–17. At the end of the year, he teamed with Sampras to win the doubles rubber in the Davis Cup final, where the U.S. defeated Switzerland 3–1.

McEnroe retired from the professional tour at the end of 1992. He ended his singles career ranked 20th in the world.

#United States #McEnroe #John McEnroe #Ivan Lendl #ITF World Champion #International Tennis Hall of Fame #Grand Slam #ATP Champions Tour

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sportsclassic · 11 years ago

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Aisam-ul-Haq

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (born 17 March 1980, in Lahore, Pakistan) is a professional tennis player from Pakistan. He is currently Pakistan's top player. A top-10 doubles player, his highest singles ranking was no. 103. He is the only Pakistani tennis player to reach the final of a Grand Slam, which he did in 2010, competing in both mixed doubles (partnering with Květa Peschke) and men's doubles (partnering with Rohan Bopanna) at the US Open. Qureshi teamed with Israeli player Amir Hadad during Wimbledon and the US Open tournaments in 2002. The duo won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award for playing together despite pressure from their communities. As Pakistani no. 1, Qureshi has traditionally led Pakistan's Davis Cup campaigns.

After shocking New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I second round play-off in 2004 to survive relegation, he took them to the World Group Play-Offs for the first time in 2005, before they were beaten by Chile. He has won the most Davis Cup matches for Pakistan, being the most successful singles and doubles player from his country ever. He is also half of the most successful doubles pairing for Pakistan (with Aqeel Khan) in the country's sporting history. Qureshi is now a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of 54 athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organisation.[1]Aisam and his partner Rohan Bopanna created a campaign, Stop War Start Tennis, with their goal to play a match on the border joining India and Pakistan.

Early life

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi was born in a Muslim family and grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, swimming and playing cricket and football. He started playing tennis late at age of 14, when his maternal grandfather and first coach, Adil Mansoor Tipu, a former 10-time national champion, took him to a tennis club Model Town, Lahore. His maternal grandfather, Adil Mansoor Tipu, was the All-British India champion, before Pakistan split from British India in 1947. His mother, Nosheen Ihtsham, was also a former women's tennis champion.[2][3][4] At age 16, the ITF sponsored him for two years. He won the Pakistan International Junior Championships and went on to win the Casablanca Cup in Mexico and the LTA International Junior Championships in Roehampton, where he beat Olivier Rochus, Andy Ram, and Taylor Dent. In the World Super Junior Championships, he beat Andy Roddick.[5] By 18, he was a top-20 junior player and decided to turn pro. Aisam was educated at the University of Punjab.[6]

Coaches

Playing style

Sponsorship

Awards and accolades

In November 2010 Aisam was appointed The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) goodwill ambassador.[7]Aisam was awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year, for 2010 along with his doubles tennis partner Rohan Bopanna of India.[8][9]Along with Rohan Bopanna, Aisam received the 2010 "Peace and Sport Image of the Year" award,[10] in recognition of their dedicated efforts to spread the message of peace through sport. He was also given the Pakistan President's Award for Performance in 2002, the Salam Pakistan Youth Award by the President of Pakistan in 2007 and was runner-up for the 2003 Anne Frank Award For Moral Courage by the Anne Frank Trust, UK. In 2011, he was awarded Lux Style Award for Most Stylish Sports Person.[11][12

#Tennis #Rohan Bopanna #Qureshi #Pakistan #Lahore #Davis Cup #Amir Hadad #Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi

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blackkudos · 8 years ago

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Arthur Ashe

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American World No. 1 professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles.

On June 20, 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the United States President Bill Clinton.

Early life

Career

In 1966 and 1967, Ashe reached the final of the Australian Championship but lost on both occasions to Roy Emerson.

In March 1971, Ashe reached the final of the Australian Open again but lost in straight sets to Ken Rosewall. In June that year, Ashe won the French Open men's doubles with partner Marty Riessen.

In May 1975, Ashe beat Bjorn Borg to win the season-ending championship WCT Finals in Dallas, Texas.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and a world no. 1 player himself in the 1940s, ranked Ashe as one of the 21 best players of all time.

Retirement

Personal life

In December 1986, Ashe and Moutoussamy adopted a daughter. She was named Camera after her mother's profession.

In March 1989 Ashe's father died of a stroke at age 68.

Health issues

Death

On February 12, 1993, a memorial service for Ashe was held at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan.

Wikipedia

#Arthur Ashe

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