Robert Lutz (born August 29, 1947) is an American former amateur and professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player of the 1960s and 1970s. He and his longtime partner
Stan Smith were one of the best
doubles teams of all time.
Bud Collins
Arthur Worth "Bud" Collins Jr. (June 17, 1929 – March 4, 2016) was an American journalist and television sportscaster, best known for his tennis commentary. Collins was married to photographer Anita Ruthling Klaussen.
Education
Collins was b ...
ranked Lutz as world No. 7 in singles in 1972.
Between 1967 and 1977, he was ranked among the top-10 American players eight times, with his highest ranking being No. 5 in both 1968 and 1970.
Career
Lutz won the 1967
NCAA singles title and, partnering with
Stan Smith, won the
NCAA doubles crown in 1967 and 1968. He won the men's singles in the
Ojai Tennis Tournament
The Ojai Tennis Tournament, often shortened to The Ojai, is an annual tennis tournament in Ventura County, California, headquartered at Libbey Park in downtown Ojai, about north of Los Angeles. The event, first held in 1896, is the oldest and l ...
in 1966.
During his career he won 11 singles titles, the most important being the
U.S. Pro Tennis Championships in 1972 and the
Paris Masters
The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy.
The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association ...
in 1978, and reached 15 other singles finals, including
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
in 1974. He also won 43 doubles titles, 37 of which were won partnering Stan Smith, and reached 30 other doubles finals. With Smith he formed the only team to win the doubles title at U.S. Championships on four different surfaces (clay, grass, hard and indoor).
His doubles titles include the
US Open in 1980, 1978, 1974, and 1968, the
Australian Open in 1970 and Cincinnati in 1969. In addition, he played on five winning
Davis Cup teams between 1968 and 1981 and had a 14–2 record playing doubles. Lutz was nominated for the ITF Tennis Hall of Fame thanks to these achievements.
Honors and personal life
He was inducted into the Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984. Lutz, a 1971
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
graduate, was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2009.
He has been living in
San Clemente
San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway between ...
since 1973 with his wife, Sharon, and their two daughters, Samantha and Allison.
Career finals
Singles
Doubles
Grand Slam finals
Doubles
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutz, Bob
1947 births
Living people
American people of German descent
American male tennis players
Australian Open (tennis) champions
US Open (tennis) champions
USC Trojans men's tennis players
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles
University of Southern California alumni
Tennis people from California