Come on guys, there has to be some interesting stuff on people like Riggs, Marble, Wills and Lenglen.
I'll give you something, Alice Marble apparently was a spy during WWII. It was a real life version of the old TV show I Spy starting Robert Culp in which he played a tennis player who was really a spy.
I know you wanted to get back on topic, and I promised something on Riggs. Here goes nothing on Riggs up to World War II. I'd love to see more on these decades. And PC1, don't forget I am hoping for some compelling arguments regarding Vines. Now to Riggs, which I will divided into parts:
Saga of a Scoundrel
Robert Larimore “Bobby” Riggs (California).
© 2017 Carthach Productions, LLC
You’re only kidding yourself,” Los Angeles Tennis Club President Perry Jones told Bobby Riggs in early 1936.
“You haven’t got a chance of making the first ten. If you go, you’ll be strictly on your own. You won’t be considered a representative of this association in any way.”[1]
Bobby figuratively thumbed his nose at Jones, the most powerful tennis politician in the western United States, and took off on-tour, on his own. With the help of an eccentric backer and Bobby’s older brother, the 18-year old Riggs not only toured, but won at least nine world-class events, on a record of just-about 64-8.
[2]
In the process, he bet on his own matches, pushed (but did not defy) court etiquette, and was occasionally referred to in the press as
“the bad boy of tennis.” Jones wrote ahead to all the tournaments to make clear that Riggs did not represent the Los Angeles Tennis Club. Morevoer, Riggs was a
“fresh, unmanageable player,” Perry advised
.
He was a renegade.
The renegade, out there on his own, won tournaments, beat most of the U.S. top-10 players at least once and finished the year ranked fourth in the country, according to the USLTA official rankings.
He used touch, tactics and smarts — even at this young age — to outduel his opponents. But toward the end of the season, his skeptics noticed his game evolving. They noticed him sometimes switching from pure defense to strong, deep drives and occasional winning approaches to the net.
Anyway you look at it, it was a remarkable, and admirably bold, rookie campaign by the 18-year old upstart.
When he finally returned to Los Angeles, after a scholarship offer at the University of Miami was withdrawn because Bobby refused to attended classes, Jones was grudgingly conciliatory.
“Maybe we underestimated you, Bobby.”[3] It would not be the last time.
(This retelling of Bobby’s go-it-alone early career and relationship with Perry Jones relies in large part on the account of this period in, LeCompete, Tom, The Last Sure Thing, Easthamption, MA, Skunkworks Publishing, 2003, pp. 53-74, as well as Riggs, Bobby, Tennis is My Racket, Simon and Schuster 1949).
Many of the readers who know of Bobby Riggs, may think of him as a gambler, conniver, monumental self-promoter, perhaps buffoon. A few might suspect, or think, he was a criminal.
We will get into all those things. But first and foremost, Bobby Riggs was a tennis champion.
Prior to research, I had no time for Bobby Riggs, his seemingly “patty cake” tennis, and pathetic self-promotion, bets, ruses and hustles, highlighted by near humiliation against Billie Jean King in the so-called “Battle of the Sexes.” But I knew there was more to it than that – there had to be. Turns out, there is much more to it.
Jack Kramer exaggerated in the late 1970s when he ranked Riggs as one of the 10 best players in history (Kramer actually appears to rank Riggs sixth). Still, for more than a dozen years, Riggs was never lower than the seventh best player in the world, amateur or pro.
[4] He won as many as 99 world-class titles, and certainly no fewer than 90.
[5] In three different seasons, Riggs won 14 or more titles. For the first three years after the War, he was very probably the second best player in the world.
This is a story of a scrawny, always underrated kid, who, despite breaking the rules – and deliberately being denied hard-earned opportunities to travel and improve his game – nevertheless rises steadily to the top of tennis:
• a story of the son of a fundamentalist preacher, who grows up to be the first player ever called
“The Bad Boy of Tennis,” an addicted-but-accomplished gambler, pretty fair adulterer, and possibly a fraudster;
• a story of a player so good, he won close to 100 world-class titles, amateur and pro, including seven majors, about 14 tournaments comparable to today’s Masters’ 1000 and another dozen or so prestige tournaments;
• so good he won 10 of 25 matches in a tour against Don Budge when Budge was still at his peak;
• so good, he was “good enough” at the right time to be the official Amateur No. 1 in 1939 and the professional No. 1 for 1946-47;
• a story of an incredible, and incredibly weird, “tennis comeback” more than 20 years after retiring;
• and a story of a hustle that turned into a serious match with serious cultural implications, and of the mystery and suspicion about that match.
[1] Riggs, Bobby,
Tennis Is My Racket, Simon and Schuster 1949, p. 54
[2] Tennisarchives.com for the tournaments won. The
thetennisbase.com for the 64-8 record. Riggs’ biographer said he lost seven matches in 1936. Tennisarchives.com shows a 54-6 record with nine tournaments. Riggs’ biographer says he lost seven matches that season. And, in fact, the
tennisbase.com only shows seven tournament losses.
[3] Riggs’ memory. But under the circumstances, prior and subsequent, such a guarded admission by Jones rings true.
[4] 1937-49. He was also surely top-10 in 1936.
[5] thetennisbase.com reports 99 tournament victories.
