By Randy Walker
Forty-one years ago today, Sept. 3, 1968, Cliff Drysdale, now the popular – and legendary – ESPN television commentator, registered one of the signature wins of his career, defeating Rod Laver in the round of 16 at the U.S. Open – handing the Aussie legend a pair of bread sticks in the final two sets of the five-setter. The entertaining excerpt on this match from my book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com) is found below.
1968 – Cliff Drysdale of South Africa, the U.S. singles finalist in 1965 described by the New York Times as “more a stylist than a tiger except when he is lashing his vicious two-fisted backhand from any spot on the court,” defeats Wimbledon champion Rod Laver 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Says Laver after the disappointing loss, “Confidence plays a big part of this game. I lost confidence in my serve and he had the confidence to stay back and rely on his ground strokes.”
Following this loss, as documented in Laver’s newly re-issued book The Education of a Tennis Player, the Aussie legend retreated to the famed New York City bar P.J. Clarke’s on the upper east side, where he and Jay Lafave of the International Management Group, hammered out the first professional management contract for a tennis player. The following year at the U.S. Open, Laver capped off his unprecedented second Grand Slam, beating Tony Roche in the men’s singles final.
Originally published in 1971, The Education of a Tennis Player was updated by Laver and co-author Bud Collins in 2009 with new content including his recovery from a near-fatal stroke in 1998. The memoir features descriptions of Laver’s most suspenseful matches and memorable portraits of his biggest rivals Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Tony Roche and Pancho Gonzalez. The book is available immediately via tennis retailer TennisWarehouse (www.TennisWarehouse.com or Info@Tennis-Warehouse.com or directly from New Chapter Press (www.NewChapterMedia.com or NewChapterPress@gmail.com). The book is also available at the U.S. Tennis Association Bookstore during the 2009 U.S. Open August 31 to September 13 and via traditional book retailers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia by early 2010. Special limited edition hard-cover editions of the book are available for $29.95, while paperback copies are for sale for $19.95.