Tennis Players who also were excellent in other sports or what other sports could that have excelled

[pc1]

I figured I'd start a thread that would discuss tennis players who were excellent in other sports or competitions whether it would be golf, boxing, football, American football, chess, ping pong, baseball, hockey, basketball etc. A lot of this is speculation but hopefully enjoyable speculation.

My first thought was Ellsworth Vines who was great in tennis and World Class in golf. He also was good in baseball and basketball.

Drobny was also a great hockey player who played in the Olympics.

Tiriac also was a terrific hockey player.

Pancho Gonzalez just months after he took up golf was reputed to be able to shoot in the 70s!

Fred Perry was apparently a World Champion in Tennis Table and then a World Champion in tennis.

John McEnroe apparently was a decent soccer aka football player when he was younger.

Tony Trabert played basketball at the University of Cincinnati.

John Lucas was an NBA guard but also was a pro tennis player.

Lendl apparently was an excellent chess player.

This is not only to discuss the various OTHER SPORTS these players excelled at but also to discuss what other sports they could have excelled. Some used to think Noah would have been great at basketball because of his vertical leap and perhaps his son Joakim Noah sort of proves it.

For example I think Graf would have been a great splinter in track and field.

 

[Phoenix1983]

Borg presumably could have been a sprinter - didn't he have a near-world class 100m time or something?

 

[pc1]

Borg presumably could have been a sprinter - didn't he have a near-world class 100m time or something?

Lot of weird stories about that and many conflicting. He certainly seemed to have the physique for a sprinter.

Since he did say he never felt tired in a match perhaps he could have also do well at longer distances.

 

[pc1]

Considering the legendary stories of Lew Hoad's strength, maybe a weight lifter or a boxer.

 

[thegame_cerebral]

Its tough to be good in another sport considerin level of tennis since 1990s sampras era....kafelnikov was world class poker player

Id rather respect players who good in 2 different fields-like sports and education

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[pc1]

Its tough to be good in another sport considerin level of tennis since 1990s sampras era....kafelnikov was world class poker player

Id rather respect players who good in 2 different fields-like sports and education

Sent from my SM-G550FY using Tapatalk

How about World Class Tennis Player and lawyer?
https://www.si.com/sport/tennis/2014/08/15/mario-ancic-columbia-law-student

 

[pc1]

Its tough to be good in another sport considerin level of tennis since 1990s sampras era....kafelnikov was world class poker player

Id rather respect players who good in 2 different fields-like sports and education

Sent from my SM-G550FY using Tapatalk

My personal favorite. LOL.

 

[pc1]

Kim Clijsters could have been a gymnast considering how she used to do the splits while playing and her mother was a champion gymnast.

 

[Dan Lobb]

Considering the legendary stories of Lew Hoad's strength, maybe a weight lifter or a boxer.

Hoad trained seriously as a boxer during his teens, and was a good brawler on the school yard.

 

[Dan Lobb]

Bob Bedard, three-time Canadian tennis champion, was offered a professional contract by the New York Rangers to play hockey, which he rejected, as it would terminate his career as a high school principal.

 

[Waspsting]

Nadal apparently chose tennis over a potential football (soccer) career.

Lendl's does well on the golf course - one would have surmised he had the mind for it

Not sure how much potential Borg had for hockey, his youthful experience with which we're told inspired the highly successful and unorthodox technique of his tennis backhand (I'd bet better than average at least)

I wonder how much overlap there is in the physical talents necessary for high level performances within the racket sports - squash, badminton, tennis?

 

[hklbkup]

Left-footed Djokovic

 

[pc1]

Nadal apparently chose tennis over a potential football (soccer) career.

Lendl's does well on the golf course - one would have surmised he had the mind for it

Not sure how much potential Borg had for hockey, his youthful experience with which we're told inspired the highly successful and unorthodox technique of his tennis backhand (I'd bet better than average at least)

I wonder how much overlap there is in the physical talents necessary for high level performances within the racket sports - squash, badminton, tennis?

I would tend to think the hand/eye coordination has to be there for all these racket sports.

Lendl's daughters are apparently superb in golf.
http://www.myusualgame.com/tag/samantha-lendl/
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/01/ivan_lendl_on_playing_tennis_a.html

 

[PDJ]

Ann Jones would have made a great table tennis player.... Oh wait....

Jones was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England.[4] Her parents were prominent table tennis players, her father, Adrian Haydon, having been English number 1 and a competitor at world championships between 1928 and 1953. Ann, as a young girl, also took up the game, participating in five world championships in the 1950s, the best result being losing finalist in singles, doubles and mixed doubles all in Stockholm 1957.

 

[PDJ]

The reverse, I recall James Hunt played Junior Wimbledon.
There was also a great Rugby player:
John Peter Rhys Williams[1] MBE FRCS (born 2 March 1949) is a former rugby union footballer who represented Wales in international rugby during their Golden Era in the 1970s. He became known universally as J. P. R. Williams (or sometimes just as JPR) after 1973 when J. J. Williams (also John) joined the Welsh team.

Playing in the position of fullback, he was noted for his aggressive attacking style. With his long sideburns and socks around his ankles, "JPR" was an iconic figure on the legendary 1970s Wales team.

Early life
Williams was born just outside Bridgend, Wales, and was educated at Bridgend Boys Grammar School (now Brynteg Comprehensive School) and then Millfield School in Somerset, as was his Wales team mate Gareth Edwards. As well as being a rugby player, Williams was in his youth a talented tennis player; in 1968 he played one of the first matches in the Open Era, at the Hard Court Championships of Great Britain.[3]There is a popular urban myth that he won Junior Wimbledon in 1966 (in fact it was won by a Soviet, Vladimir Korotkov).[4][5] However, he did win a British Junior competition that was held that same year at the Wimbledon venue, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, beating David Lloyd.

 

[Limpinhitter]

Borg presumably could have been a sprinter - didn't he have a near-world class 100m time or something?

No. See at about 20 minutes where Borg gets smoked by Wayne Gretzky in what looks like about 60 meters. At about 21:30 Gerulaitis gets smoked by Ingemar Stenmark:

 

[PDJ]

Not sure any one tops this:

Charlotte "Lottie" Dod (24 September 1871 – 27 June 1960) was an English sportswoman best known as a tennis player. She won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Championship five times, the first one when she was only fifteen in the summer of 1887. She remains the youngest ladies' singles champion, though Martina Hingis was three days younger when she won the women's doubles title in 1996.

In addition to tennis, Dod competed in many other sports, including golf, field hockey, and archery. She also won the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship, played twice for the England women's national field hockey team (which she helped to found[1]), and won a silver medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in archery. The Guinness Book of Records has named her as the most versatile female athlete of all time, together with track and field athlete and fellow golf player Babe Zaharias.

Althea Gibson also took up professional golf, with limited success.

 

[PDJ]

No. See at about 20 minutes where Borg gets smoked by Wayne Gretzky in what looks like about 60 meters. At about 21:30 Gerulaitis gets smoked by Ingemar Stenmark:

So seventies!

 

[Limpinhitter]

Its tough to be good in another sport considerin level of tennis since 1990s sampras era....kafelnikov was world class poker player

Id rather respect players who good in 2 different fields-like sports and education

Sent from my SM-G550FY using Tapatalk

It's been tough long before 1990.

 

[Limpinhitter]

So seventies!

The video is dated 82'.

 

[Antónis]

You have two other obvious choices: Michael Stich played both tennis and football until his late teens, and Andrés Gomez, who was an excellent surfer, and considered a pro career in surf before tennis

 

[pc1]

You have two other obvious choices: Michael Stich played both tennis and football until his late teens, and Andrés Gomez, who was an excellent surfer, and considered a pro career in surf before tennis

I had no idea Gomez was that good in surfing!

 

[pc1]

So seventies!

Yet at the same time I read that Borg beat a world-class high hurdler. I'm not sure what to think.

 

[pc1]

Mark Taimanov was a world-class chess player and will class pianist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Taimanov

 

[PDJ]

Mark Taimanov was a world-class chess player and will class pianist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Taimanov

Daniela Hantuchovà isn't too shabby..

 

[boredone3456]

Lottie Dodd played several other sports including field hockey, curling, golf, figure skating and archery winning several events in several of these sports

Althea Gibson played on the LPGA after leaving tennis, in fact becoming its first African American member I believe.

 

[PDJ]

Lottie Dodd played several other sports including field hockey, curling, golf, figure skating and archery winning several events in several of these sports

Althea Gibson played on the LPGA after leaving tennis, in fact becoming its first African American member I believe.

See post 17.

 

[Sadyv]

Yet at the same time I read that Borg beat a world-class high hurdler. I'm not sure what to think.

Well stories are nice, but here we see direct evidence that Borg wasn't exceptionally fast. Gretzky toasts him easily, and one of the other two gentlemen edge him out as well.

 

[Mazz Retic]

Does anyone know of sportsmen outside of tennis that could have been good tennis players?

 

[Sadyv]

Does anyone know of sportsmen outside of tennis that could have been good tennis players?

Just to see a great tall athlete in tennis (not the lumbering Karlovic or Isner) I think Wilt Chamberlain would have a fine player in tennis or near any sport for that matter. Just a superb athlete in every aspect from strength, speed, stamina, coordibatuon, agility.

However perhaps even better suited from the big man ranks would have been Hakeem Olajuwon. Though not as tall, strong, fast or possessed of the same endurance as Chamberlain Hakeem had exceptionally quick and agile feet for a man who stood around 6'10, likely honed by Olajuwon actually being a soccer player up until he was 15-16 years old, when his height grew him out of the spirt, essentially.

 

[pc1]

Well stories are nice, but here we see direct evidence that Borg wasn't exceptionally fast. Gretzky toasts him easily, and one of the other two gentlemen edge him out as well.

The thing about it is that while it's clear Gretzky won, this was in 1982 I think when Borg wasn't training. Gretzky was still training in the NHL.

The other run was earlier so I don't know what to think.

I just saw the race. Gretzky had a heck of start and was way ahead of Borg in the beginning.

Ah, I found out the confusion. Borg beat at 110 meter hurdler in the 1976 Superstars in the 600 meter steeplechase. Borg had a time of 12.3 in the 100 meters in 1976. Not bad but not World Class either.

http://www.thesuperstars.org/comp/76eur5fra.html

 

[Sadyv]

It also needs to be said that Gretzky wasn't an exceptional athlete by NHL standards. He wasn't bad, but often middle of the pack in team fitness drills.

The runner in that race who beat or tied Borg is a 42(!) year old Pele. The other runner was an at the time retired pro boxer, Ray Leonard. Leonard started from a standing position and as a boxer most likely rarely did sprint work, yet he was not greatly outdistanced by Borg.

Borg may not have been training, but neither was Leonard and Pele was 15 years outside his physical prime.

 

[boredone3456]

Someone like Roddick could have made a decent baseball player. While I'm not sure how good a fielder he could have been with his power he could have been a good swing for the fences designated hitter.

Both Clijsters and Jankovic could have been gymnasts with some training. Both are insanely flexible capable of doing splits and popping right back up. Clijsters seemed to have more natural balance however.

I have a feeling someone like Hingis might have been good at chess if taught and motivated to train (if you consider chess a sport). She had the ability to analyze a whole court and thing multiple shots ahead to wrong-foot people. She could have easily applied that to an over the board chess analysis. I'm not sure though how well she would handle something like tournament time pressure or opponents taking longer to make their moves.

 

[pc1]

Someone like Roddick could have made a decent baseball player. While I'm not sure how good a fielder he could have been with his power he could have been a good swing for the fences designated hitter.

Both Clijsters and Jankovic could have been gymnasts with some training. Both are insanely flexible capable of doing splits and popping right back up. Clijsters seemed to have more natural balance however.

I have a feeling someone like Hingis might have been good at chess if taught and motivated to train (if you consider chess a sport). She had the ability to analyze a whole court and thing multiple shots ahead to wrong-foot people. She could have easily applied that to an over the board chess analysis. I'm not sure though how well she would handle something like tournament time pressure or opponents taking longer to make their moves.

Yes I think Martina Hingis which seem to have all it takes to play chess at a high-level.

I forgot about Jankovic and how she could possibly be a great gymnast like Kim. Thanks for reminding me.

Roddick seems to have the type of coordination and the compact swing considering a serve to make an excellent baseball player, at least at bat. I'm not sure how good he would be in the field. Maybe Novak, with his flexibility would be great as a shortstop.

 

[boredone3456]

As for Athlete's from other sports who might have made good tennis players...thats hard. Tennis has some skills that are transferable to other sports, but others sports transferring into tennis is harder. Someone who comes to mind is baseball player Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox. He has amazing reflexes and fast hands, is a good hitter and has fast feet ( losts of stolen bases, quick moves to turn a double play). All those skills could easily make him a gifted tennis player with the right training. However his only being 5'9 I'd worry would be a slight disadvantage in some areas, but it could work for him.