1968 British Hard Court Championships | |
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Date | 22–27 April |
Edition | 39th |
Category | ILTF |
Draw | 32S / 16D |
Surface | Clay / outdoor |
Location | Bournemouth, England |
Venue | The West Hants Club |
Attendance | ~30,000 |
Champions | |
Men's singles | |
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Women's singles | |
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Men's doubles | |
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Women's doubles | |
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Mixed doubles | |
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The 1968 British Hard Court Championships was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts at The West Hants Club in Bournemouth in England. It was the first tournament in the Open Era of tennis. The tournament was held from 22 April to 27 April 1968. Ken Rosewall and Virginia Wade won the first open singles titles while the men's team of Roy Emerson and Rod Laver and the women's team of Christine Truman Janes and Nell Truman won the first open doubles titles. [3]
The 1968 British Hard Court Championships (BHCC) hold the distinction of being the first open era tennis tournament. [4] Prior to this tournament professional players were banned by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) from competing in tournaments, including the Grand Slams, which were organized by the ILTF and its national organizations. Although all players, amateurs and professionals, were allowed to compete at the 1968 BHCC the players who were part of the World Championship Tennis (WCT) circuit did not participate. Players from the rival National Tennis League (NTL) did enter and in the men's singles event made up the first six seeds. [5] The tournament started on 22 April at 1:43 p.m. when John Clifton served and won the first point of the open era. [6] [7] Clifton lost his first-round match to Owen Davidson who thus became the first winner of an open era tennis match. [8] Ken Rosewall won the men's singles title, taking home $2,400, while runner-up Rod Laver received $1,200. [9] Their final was suspended in the second set due to rain and was finished the following day. [5] Virginia Wade won the women's singles title, defeating Winnie Shaw in the final, but did not take home the winner's prize of $720 as she was still an amateur at the time of the tournament. She subsequently became the first amateur to win a title in the Open Era. [10] [11] Christine Janes and her sister Nell Truman became the first winners of an open tennis event by winning the women's doubles title. [12] The tournament was considered a success and attracted almost 30,000 visitors. [7] [13] The young British player Mark Cox went down in tennis history by becoming the first amateur player to beat a professional, when he defeated 39-year-old American Pancho Gonzales in five sets in a second-round match that lasted two and a quarter hours. [6] [11] [14]
Ken Rosewall defeated
Rod Laver 3–6, 6–2, 6–0, 6–3
Virginia Wade defeated
Winnie Shaw 6–4, 6–1
Roy Emerson /
Rod Laver defeated
Andrés Gimeno /
Pancho Gonzales 8–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–2
Christine Truman Janes /
Nell Truman defeated
Fay Toyne-Moore /
Anette du Plooy 6–4, 6–3
Virginia Wade /
Bob Howe defeated
Fay Toyne-Moore /
Jimmy Moore 6–4, 6–3
Rodney George Laver is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was the World No. 1 ranked professional in some sources in 1964, in all sources from 1965 to 1969 and in some sources in 1970, spanning four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968. He also was ranked the world No. 1 amateur in 1961 by Lance Tingay and 1962 by Tingay and Ned Potter.
Kenneth Robert Rosewall is an Australian former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player. He won a record 23 tennis Majors in singles, including 8 Grand Slam singles titles and, before the Open Era, a record 15 Pro Slam titles; overall, he reached a record 35 Major finals. He won the Pro Grand Slam in 1963. Rosewall won a record 24 major men's doubles titles. He won 9 grand slam titles in men's doubles with a career men's doubles grand slam and also won 15 Pro Slam men's doubles titles.
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The 1973 US Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, in New York City, United States. The tournament ran from 27 August until 9 September. It was the 93rd staging of the US Open, and the fourth Grand Slam tennis event of 1973. It was the first year the boy's championship was held. The 1973 US Open was the first Grand Slam offering equal prize money to both men and women.
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This is a list of the main career statistics of Australian former tennis player Rod Laver whose playing career ran from 1956 until 1977. He played as an amateur from 1956 until the end of 1962 when he joined Jack Kramer's professional circuit. As a professional he was banned from playing the Grand Slam tournaments as well as other tournaments organized by the national associations of the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). In 1968, with the advent of the Open Era, the distinction between amateurs and professionals disappeared and Laver was again able to compete in most Grand Slam events until the end of his career in 1977. During his career he won eleven Grand Slam tournaments, nine Pro Slam tournaments and five Davis Cup titles.
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