We have now reached the eighth best in the count down to the greatest player of all time.
 |
| image found here |
Roy Emerson
Grand Slams won - 12
Grand Slam Finals lost - 3
Overall amount of singles titles won - ?
Overall Match Winning percentage - ?
Top rank - ?
Today we have none other than Roy Emerson, a winner of 12 Grand Slams in 15 Finals. He was one of the 7 men in the history of tennis to win the career Grand Slam but he is the only to do a double career Grand Slam. He took 6 Australian Opens, 2 US Opens, 2 Wimbledon titles and 2 French Opens. He finished his first career Grand Slam at the 1964 Wimbledon and his second at the 1967 French Open. In 1964 he had his best year, wining 3 Grand Slams, missing out on the French Open, he also had a record of 109-6, which included a run of 55 consecutive matches. All three of his losses in Finals of Grand Slams were in 1962, against Rod Laver. His last Grand Slam was in the 1967 French Open at the age of 31. He was in 7 consecutive Finals at the Australian Open between 1961 and 1967, which included 6 wins and a run of 5 wins. This is the most Australian Opens won as well as won consecutively in the history of tennis. He didn't just complete the double career Grand Slam in singles but he also did it in doubles, the only person to do this. He held the record for the most Grand Slam titles until 2000, when Pete Sampras surpassed him. He won a record 8 Davis Cups with Australia between 1959 and 1967. He was never ranked in the top 2 in the unofficial rankings, probably because when he played most of the great players had moved to the pro-slam tour. In 1983, at the age of 47, he retired, though before he retired he was only playing a few tournaments a year. He won his last tournament in 1973, 10 years before retiring! He was well known for his hard training and determination and he used an effective serve and volley tactic, which was helped by an incredible ability to run down balls and hit good forehands.
No comments:
Post a Comment