Forgotton Players from the Past

[Hard Court]

In sports we tend to forget the good but not great players as time goes on.
Thought it would be fun to compile a list of players the 1960s and earlier (before my time) who while may not have been great (though a few were) were still very good. Only included players who never won a Grand Slam and are not in the HOF as a player. This is only for singles play. I listed by decade; some of course had careers that spanned over other decades. Obviously there are more that could be listed. Thought it would be fun for people to come up with names to add to this.

1960s
Butch Bucholz
Dennis Ralson
Barry McKay
Marty mulligan
Clark Graebner
Pierre Damon
Mike Davies

1950s
Rex Hartwig
Luis Ayala
Herbert Flam
Tut Bartzen

1940s
Tom Brown
Seymour Greenberg
Lennart Bergelin
Eric Sturgess
Frank Kovacs

1930s
Lester Stoefen
Gregory Mangin
Roderich Menzel

1920s
Frank Hunter
Manuel Alnso
Howard Kinsey
Wallace Johnson

1910-1919
Gustave Touchard
Howard Vorshell
Otto Frotzheim

1900-1909
Melville long
Raymond Little
Theodore Pell
Josiah Ritchie

 

[ChrisRF]

Very interesting topic. I think it's necessary to specify "forgotten by whom" though. Because even the huge majority of the Slam champions before the Open Era and literally everyone before WW1 are only known by hardcore tennis nerds these days. Even during tennis TV coverage they aren't mentioned by commentators or moderators anymore.

When re-watching some matches from the 80s I realize that back then it was still a bit different, and stories about the 20s and 30s still came up frequently between matches or points.

 

[Hard Court]

As for forgotten by whom, I guess my most people who follow tennis in general, but mainly this Forum in particular. You hardly ever hear about these guys. I'm sure there are many others that we could name as well. Thought this would be fun, instead of rehashing Federer and Djokovic for the umpteenth time.