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River Oaks International Tennis Tournament
The River Oaks International Tennis Tournament, also known as the River Oaks Invitational Tennis Tournament, was a men's tennis tournament held in early spring from 1931 until 2007 at the River Oaks Country Club, Houston, Texas, USA. The tournament was the oldest in the country to still be played at its original site, in the original stadium. The tournament was founded by cotton broker Jack Norton. From the very beginning, the River Oaks International was an invitational amateur tournament, and was not associated with the professional tennis associations. From the start, the field was filled with a few stars and then local candidates filled out the rest of the field. The inaugural edition in April 1931, which made a loss of $1,500, was won by 19-year-old Ellsworth Vines. The tournament was not held during the World War II years 1942–1945. In 1971 the tournament was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit while from 1973 until 1977 it formed part of the World Championship Tennis Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Prix Tennis Circuit
The Grand Prix tennis circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players that existed from 1970 to 1989. The Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis (WCT) were the two predecessors to the current tour for male players, the ATP Tour, with the Grand Prix being more prominent. Background Before the Open Era, popular professional tennis players, such as Suzanne Lenglen and Vincent Richards, were contracted to professional promoters. Amateur players were under the jurisdiction of their national (and international) federations. Later professional promoters, such as Bill Tilden and Jack Kramer, often convinced leading amateurs like Pancho Gonzales and Rod Laver to join their tours with promises of good prize money. But these successes led to financial difficulties when players were paid too much and falling attendances resulted in reduced takings. In the early 1960s, the professional tour began to fall apart. It survived only because the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, having bee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wayne Sabin
Wayne Sabin (April 1, 1915 – September 14, 1989) was an American male tennis player. He reached the final of the men's doubles competition at the U.S. National Championships (now US Open). He partnered with Gardnar Mulloy and lost the final in straight sets against Jack Kramer and Ted Schroeder. His best singles performance came in 1939 and 1941 when he reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. National Championships where he was defeated by Welby Van Horn and Don McNeill respectively. Sabin was ranked No. 6 among the U.S. amateurs in 1937 and 1941. In 1939 Sabin won the singles title at the National Indoors Tennis Championships, played at the Seventh Regiment Armory The Seventh Regiment Armory, also known as Park Avenue Armory, is a historic National Guard armory building located at 643 Park Avenue in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building is a brick and stone structure b ... in New York. In 2009 Sabin was inducted into the USTA Pacif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vic Seixas
Elias Victor Seixas Jr. (; pronounced SAY-shus; born August 30, 1923)">"A Bartender at 76, Seixas Has Trophies, but Little Money," ''Los Angeles Times''. is an American former . Seixas was ranked in the top ten in the US on 13 occasions between 1942 and 1956. In 1951 Seixas was ranked No. 4 amateur in the world, two spots below Dick Savitt, while he was No. 1 in the U.S. ranking, one spot ahead of Savitt. In 1953, Seixas was ranked No. 3 in the world by [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbert Flam
Herbert Flam (November 7, 1928 – November 25, 1980) was an American tennis player who in 1957 was ranked by Lance Tingay as the World No. 4 amateur (and World No. 5 by Adrian Quist)."Times Have Changed, Says Adrian Quist" ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 27 October 1957. Biography He was inducted into the International Tennis Association Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987, inducted into the in 1990, inducted into the |
Arthur Larsen
Arthur David "Art" or "Tappy" Larsen (April 17, 1925 – December 7, 2012) was an American No. 1 male tennis player best remembered for his victory at the U.S. Championships in 1950 and for his eccentricities. He won the "Times" national sports award for the outstanding tennis player of 1950. Larsen was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1969. Biography Jack Kramer, tennis player and long-time promoter, stated in his 1979 autobiography that "Larsen was fascinating to watch. He had concentrated on tennis as mental therapy after serving long stretches in the front lines during (World War II). He was called Tappy because he went around touching everything for good luck, and sometimes he would chat with an imaginary bird that sat on his shoulder. This was good theatre, but it could never have made Larsen a candidate for a professional tour." John Olliff of ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked Larsen as World No. 3 in 1950. A member of the Olympic Club in San Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Falkenburg
Robert Falkenburg (January 29, 1926 – January 6, 2022) was an American amateur tennis player and entrepreneur. He is best known for winning the Men's Singles at the 1948 Wimbledon Championships and for introducing soft ice cream and American fast food to Brazil in 1952. He founded the Brazilian fast food chain Bob's. Early life Falkenburg was born in New York City on January 29, 1926, and grew up in Los Angeles, California, in a tennis-playing family. His parents, Eugene "Genie" Lincoln Falkenburg (an engineer involved in the construction of Hoover Dam) and Marguerite "Mickey" Crooks Falkenburg were amateur tennis players. While employed by Westinghouse, Eugene was transferred to South America, where he moved with his wife and three children to São Paulo, Brazil. There Mickey won the state tennis championship in 1927. Mickey was always involved in tennis. In ''The Game: My 40 Years in Tennis'', tennis champion Jack Kramer wrote that Mickey Falkenburg was "the first pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Schroeder
Frederick Rudolph "Ted" Schroeder (July 20, 1921 – May 26, 2006) was an American tennis player who won the two most prestigious amateur tennis titles, Wimbledon and the U.S. National. He was the No. 1-ranked American amateur player in 1942; the No. 2 for 4 consecutive years, 1946 through 1949, and the latter year saw Schroeder ranked World No. 1 amateur by Pierre Gillou (president of the Fédération Française de Tennis). He was born in Newark, New Jersey, but developed as a tennis player in Southern California under the guidance of Perry T. Jones. Early life and career Schroeder was born in Newark, NJ but moved to Glendale in his childhood where he learned to play tennis. He was discovered by Perry T. Jones who was based at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and mentored several world-class players including Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs and Jack Kramer. Schroeder was an almost exact contemporary of Kramer, having been born only 10 days earlier in 1921, and they began to play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Kramer
John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. He won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U.S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team to victory in the 1946 and 1947 Davis Cup finals. Kramer won the U.S. Pro Championship at Forest Hills in 1948 and the Wembley Pro Championships in 1949. He won world professional championship 2-man tours in 1948 (against Riggs), 1949/50 (against Gonzales), 1950/51 (against Segura), and 1953 (against Sedgman). He was ranked world No. 1 amateur player for 1946 by Pierre Gillou, Harry Hopman and Ned Potter. He was ranked World No. 1 amateur player for 1947 by John Olliff, Pierre Gillou and Ned Potter. In 1948 he was ranked the U.S. No. 1 professional in the USPLTA contemporary rankings for U.S. pro tennis play. Some recent tennis writers have considered Kramer to be the World No. 1 player from 1946 to 1953, spanning his last amateur ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Talbert
William Franklin Talbert (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 1999) was an American tennis player and administrator. Tennis career He was ranked in the U.S. top 10 13 times between 1941 and 1954, and was ranked World No. 3 in 1949 by John Olliff of ''The Daily Telegraph''. He won nine Grand Slam doubles titles, and also reached the men's doubles finals of the U.S. National Championship nine times, mainly with Gardnar Mulloy, his favorite partner. He also was a Davis Cup player and one of the more successful Davis Cup captains in U.S. history. Talbert was a Type 1 diabetic, one of the few known to be in sports at a highly competitive level, and for many years was held up as an example of how this disease could be surmounted. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Talbert still holds records at the Cincinnati Masters in his hometown. His records are for most doubles titles (six), most total finals appearances (14), and most singles finals appearances (seven). He won three singles titles (in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gardnar Mulloy
Gardnar Putnam "Gar" Mulloy (November 22, 1913 – November 14, 2016) was a U.S. No. 1 tennis player primarily known for playing in doubles matches with partner Billy Talbert. He was born in Washington, D.C. and turned 100 in November 2013. During his career he won five Grand Slam doubles tournaments and was a member of the winning Davis Cup team on three occasions. Mulloy played collegiate tennis for the Miami Hurricanes at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Tennis career While he was the tennis coach at the University of Miami, Mulloy recruited Pancho Segura for the tennis team. Segura won three straight NCAA singles titles in 1943, 1944, and 1945. Segura went on to enjoy a successful professional tennis career, competing against the top touring professional players from 1947 until his retirement in 1962. Mulloy was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 1967 as part of its inaugural class of inductees. Mulloy reached the U.S. Champ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December 26, 1941. As a 21-year-old amateur in 1939, Riggs won the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. National Championships (now U.S. Open), and was runner-up at the French Championships. He was U.S. champion again in 1941, after a runner-up finish the year before. At the 1939 Wimbledon Championships he also won the Men's Doubles and the Mixed Doubles. After retirement from his pro career, Riggs became well known as a hustler and gambler. He organized numerous exhibition challenges, inviting active and retired tennis pros to participate. In 1973, at age 55, he held two such events, first against the #1-ranked woman player Margaret Smith Court, which he won easily, and then against the then current women's champion Billie Jean King, which h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
