What was the pepsi grandslam?

[sandy mayer]

A tournament played with very few players in the 70s. Was it only grand slam winners who played? I've noticed sometimes it's matches aren't considered in head to head records (though it depends on where you look). Was it not part of the ATP tour, explaining why sometimes it doesn't appear on players' records?

[Moose Malloy]

Tennis in the 70s was ****ed up. So many different tours/events/schedules.

Pepsi Grandslam was an important event, even though it was only 8 player draw. I think it was invitation only. It got national(cbs) coverage, with big prize money. I think the ATP has now added it to the results archives.
Another important event was the Dallas WCT event, it was also only 8 player draw.

You could have asked all these questions in your Connors thread, since they are all related.

[urban]

This Pepsi Grand Slam was a four-men or eight-men affair in the 70s with big money on the line. As Moose pointed out, these events, which would today be called exhibitions, were quite important in the 70s. For instance, there was a series of head-to-head matches, winner takes all for 10000$ each, in 1970 and 71, which was called 'Champions classic', which was maybe the biggest event in these years. The Pepsi event was played on clay, and the 1977 final was an very important match, because there Borg beat Connors for the first time after a long series of losses. I think, this psychologically set up his Wimbledon win later the year over Connors.