Kenneth Robert Rosewall “Muscles”
Born: November 02, 1934
Hometown: Sydney, N.S.W., Australia
Citizenship: Australia
Handed: Left
Inducted: 1980
Grand Slam Record
Australian Singles 1953, 55, 71-72
Singles finalist 1956
Doubles 1953, 56, 72
Doubles finalist 1955, 69
French Singles 1953, 68
Singles finalist 1969
Doubles 1953, 68
Doubles finalist 1954
Wimbledon Singles finalist 1954,56, 70, 74
Doubles 1953, 56
Doubles finalist 1955, 68, 70
Mixed finalist 1954
U.S. Singles 1956, 70
Singles finalist 1955, 74
Doubles 1956, 69
Doubles finalist 1954, 73
Mixed 1956
Mixed finalist 1954
Tournament Record
Italian Doubles 1953
Davis Cup Team Member 1953-56, 73, 75
As the Doomsday Stroking Machine, the remarkable Kenneth Robert “Muscles” Rosewall was a factor in three decades of tennis, winning his first major titles, the Australian and French singles in 1953, and continuing as a tournament winner past his 43rd birthday.
He was yet a tough foe into 1978. At the close of the 1977 season, he was still ranked as one of the top 15 players in the game on the ATP computer, having won two of 24 tournaments on a 44-23 match record.
“It’s something I enjoy and find I still do well,” was his simple explanation of his prowess in 1977, “but I never imagined myself playing so long when I turned pro in 1957.”
The son of a Sydney, Australia, grocer, Rosewall was born in that city November 2, 1934, and grew up there. A natural left-hander, he was taught to play right-handed by his father, Robert Rosewall, and developed a peerless backhand. Some felt his size (5-foot-7, 135 pounds) would impede him, but it was never a problem. He moved quickly, with magnificent anticipation and perfect balance, and never suffered a serious injury. Though his serve wasn’t formidable, he placed it well, and backed it up with superb volleying. Rosewall was at home on any surface, and at the baseline or the net. He had an even temperament, was shy and reticent, but good-natured.
Although Rosewall, the little guy, always seemed overshadowed by a rival, first Lew Hoad, then Pancho Gonzalez and Rod Laver, he outlasted them all, and had the last competitive word. Even when Laver was acknowledged as the best in the world, Rosewall could bother him, and twice shocked Rod in the rich World Championship Tennis finals in Dallas (1971 and 1972), snatching the $50,000 first prize from the favorite’s grasp. The latter match, thought by many to be the greatest ever played–a 3 1/2 hour struggle watched by millions on TV–went to Rosewall, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 7-6, (7-5). He stroked two magnificent backhand returns to escape a seemingly untenable position in the decisive tiebreaker and win by two points, the closest finish of an important championship until Boris Becker beat Ivan Lendl, also 7-5, in a fifth set tiebreaker, for the 1988 Masters title.
Rosewall and Hoad, born only 21 days apart, Ken the elder, were linked as teammates and rivals almost from their first days on court. In 1952 as 17-year-olds they made an immediate impact on their first overseas tour, both reaching quarterfinals of the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills, Ken beating the No. 1 American, Seixas, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. Late the following year (having won the Wimbledon doubles together), shortly after their 19th birthdays, became the youngest Davis Cup defenders, for Australia to repel the U.S. challenge the finale. Rosewall beat Seixas in the decisive last match, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, to ensure a 3-2 victory.
Though Hoad was considerably stronger than Rosewall, who had been given the sardonic nickname “Muscles” by his countrymen, Ken always managed to keep up with (and surpass) him in the early days. Hoad beat Rosewall in the 1956 Wimbledon final, but his bid for a Grand Slam was spoiled when Rosewall knocked him off in the U.S. final at Forest Hills, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
Linked in doubles as well as the public mind, Ken and Lew might well have made a Grand Slam together in 1953, but came up three wins short. After taking the Australian, French and Wimbledon, they had a bad day in Boston, dropping a close U.S. quarter-final decision to unseeded Americans Hal Burrows and Straight Clark 5-7, 14-12, 18-16, 9-7. But they (Kenny unerring of return from the right court) grabbed that title in 1956, standing as one of four teams to win all four, apparently an Aussie specialty. Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor preceded them, followed by Roy Emerson and Neale Fraser, and John Newcombe and Tony Roche.
After helping Australia win the Davis Cup over the U.S. in 1956, Rosewall turned pro to take on the professional king, Pancho Gonzalez. Gonzalez stayed on top, winning their head-to-head tour, 50-26, but it was apparent that Rosewall belonged at the uppermost level. Thus began one of the longest professional careers, certainly the most distinguished in regard to significant victories over so long a span. Rosewall won the first of his three U.S. Pro singles titles over Laver in 1963, the second by beating Gonzalez and Laver in succession in 1965 and the third over Cliff Drysdale in 1971.
He holds several longevity records. Fourteen years after his 1956 Forest Hills triumph over Hoad he beat the favored Tony Roche, 10 years his junior, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5-2), 6-3, to win the U.S. Championship again. Eighteen years after, he was the finalist (having beaten favored John Newcombe, 6-7 (3-5), 7-6 (5-1), 6-3) but was crushed in 1974 by Jimmy Connors. Twenty years after appearing in the first of four Wimbledon finals, he lost the 1974 final to Connors. The only big one Rosewall missed out on was Wimbledon singles, but he won the doubles twice. Nineteen years after his first major title, the Australian, he won it again, in 1972. Twenty years after his first Davis Cup appearance he returned to help Australia win once again in 1973, and played his last cup match in 1975. He played on four Australian Davis Cup winners and three World Cup winners in the since disbanded team match against the U.S.
Altogether, Rosewall won 18 major titles in singles, doubles and mixed the sixth-highest male total. In 1974 he tried World Team Tennis for a season, serving as player-coach of the Pittsburgh Triangles. He was the second tennis player to cross one million dollars in prize money, following Laver, and had a career total of $1,600,300.
Like Laver, Gonzalez and Hoad, and a few others, he had one of those rare careers spanning the amateur era, pro one-night stand years and the open era. His victories were innumerable, but in the last section, begun at age 33, he won 50 titles, 32 in singles, 18 in doubles. The first of those was the baptismal “Open,” the British Hard Court singles at Bournemouth in April 1968; the second, the initial major open, the French, a month later–both over Laver. His last pro triumph, Hong Kong in 1977 over Tom Gorman, was recorded two weeks after his 43rd birthday, making him the second oldest (just shy of Gonzalez) to win an open-era title.
Still going, like some super battery, gray but the same in frame and slick of backhand, Ken is just warming up for the super senior wars ahead in the 85-and-over league.
Rosewall was named to the Hall of Fame in 1980, along with Hoad.
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