Ken Rosewall

Ken Rosewall
Nation:	Australia
Birthday:	November 2, 1934
Size:	175 cm
Weight:	68 kg
Resignation:	1979
Playing hand:	Right
Prize money:	$ 1,602,700
singles
Career record:	445: 153
Career title:	27
Highest ranking:	2 (April 30 1975)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	206: 112
Career title:	14th
Highest ranking:	34 (August 23 1977)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Ken Robert Rosewall (born November 2, 1934 in Sydney ) is a retired Australian tennis player .

He was born into a family of tennis players who owned tennis courts. As a natural left-hander, his father taught him to play with his right hand. Perhaps because of this unorthodox training, he developed a strong and very effective backhand; on the other hand, he had a relatively weak serve. He was fast and persistent and had a strong volley. His backhand slice was his strongest hit and his backhand was one of the strongest backhands of that time , along with Don Budge's .

Rosewall was just 18 years old when he won the Australian and French championships . In 1953 he had the chance to win the Grand Slam in doubles with Lew Hoad , but they failed in the quarter-finals at the US Open. The two players were called "The Gold-dust Twins" for a while. Rosewall switched to professional tennis in 1956 after his surprising victory over Lew Hoad in Forest Hills , after he had won the Grand Slam in doubles with Hoad. In a series of games against the best player in professional tennis, Pancho Gonzales , he was crushed at 26:51.

In 1963, when Gonzales wanted to retire from tennis and Rod Laver was not at his peak, Rosewall was clearly the best tennis player in the world. During his career he remained injury free, which enabled him to win tournaments at the age of 43 and rank in the top 15 in the world. At Wimbledon he was denied the great triumph; he was at least four times in the final. He was able to win all other Grand Slam tournaments at least once.

By winning the French Open in 1968, he also became the first winner of a Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era .

In 1980 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Tennis .

Grand Slam victories

• Australian Championship :
  • Singles - 1953, 1955, 1971, 1972
  • Doubles - 1953, 1956, 1972

• French championship :
  • Singles - 1953, 1968
  • Doubles - 1953, 1968

• Wimbledon
  • Doubles - 1953, 1956

• US Open
  • Singles - 1956, 1970
  • Doubles - 1956, 1969
  • Mixed - 1956

See also

• List of winners of the Grand Slam tournaments (men's singles)

Web links

Commons : Ken Rosewall  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• ATP profile of Ken Rosewall (English)
• ITF Profile of Ken Rosewall (English)
• Davis Cup stats by Ken Rosewall (English)
• Ken Rosewall in the "International Tennis Hall of Fame" (English; with picture)
• Interview with Ken Rosewall in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library