Gardnar Putnam Mulloy “Gar”
Born: November 22, 1913
Hometown: Wasington D.C., United States
Citizenship: United States
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1972
Grand Slam Record
U.S. Singles finalist 1952
Doubles 1942, 45, 46, 48
Doubles finalist 1940, 41, 50, 53, 57
French Doubles finalist 1951, 52
Wimbledon Doubles 1957
Doubles finalist 1948, 49
Mixed finalist 1956
Tournament Record
Davis Cup Team Member 1946, 48-50, 52, 53, 57
An eternal beacon in the game, Gardnar Putnam Mulloy held his first U.S. national ranking (No. 11 in men’s doubles) and his most recent merely 60 years later, in 1996: No. 1 in 80s singles and doubles as a slim 6-footer with all his hair and wiles, bereft of maybe a step or two seemingly fit as ever, he continues to play effortlessly. He is a man with a complete game, whose volleys and smashes lit up the left court as he and Bill Talbert became one of the finest teams.
They won the U.S. title four times (1942, 1945, 1946, 1948), and were finalists in 1950 and 1953. Probably the one they remember best almost got away seven times. That was the overblown 1946 final of 74 games as the tourney returned to Longwood after a wartime stay at Forest Hills, where Bill and Gar won their first two. In the record fifth set for any major, they just said no to seven match points while beating Don McNeill and Frank Guernsey, 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 20-18. Their six final-round appearances are one short of Fred Alexander and Harold Hackett’s team record. He and Talbert won the clinching point in the 1948 Davis Cup victory over Australia at Forest Hills, beating Billy Sidwell and Colin Long. Gar was on the team six other years, helping also to win the Cups of 1946 and 1949, and was a winning player-captain in two zone matches, 1952 and 1953. Playing on the 1957 team at 43, he was the oldest U.S. Cupper.
Ranking in the U.S. Top Ten 14 times between 1939 and 1954, he was No. 1 in 1952, when he was U.S. finalist at Forest Hills, losing to 24-year-old Frank Sedgman. At 38, Mulloy was the oldest to attain that eminence, five weeks older than 38-year-old Bill Larned in 1911. He ranked in the World Top Ten thrice: 1946, 1949 and 1952, No. 7 the last year. His most startling triumph may have been the Wimbledon doubles in 1957, at 43, joined with Budge Patty, 33. Unseeded, they became the oldest championship team of the post-World War I era by stunning the top-seeded Lew Hoad, 22, and Neale Fraser, 23, 8-10, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
A right-hander, he was born November 22, 1913, in Washington, D.C., but has been a lifelong Miamian, a graduate of the University of Miami and its law school, organizer-coach-leading player of its first tennis team. His first U.S. Championships were the Father and Son doubles with his father, Robin Mulloy, in 1939, 1941, and 1942, but they have continued to flow from his rackets unceasingly for more than a half-century. Campaigning among the seniors since he won the singles at the Grass Court 45s in 1960, he has racked up 52 U.S. titles in singles through the age groups and 47 in doubles including the Grass 45s of 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967 with his old sidekick, Talbert. In 1995 and 1996, he won four 80s singles, two grass, one indoor and one hard court.
Serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, he commanded a landing craft in North African and European invasions. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1972.
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