Lew Hoad

Lewis Alan ("Lew") Hoad (born November 23, 1934 in Glebe, New South Wales, Australia, died July 3, 1994 in Fuengirola, Spain) was a champion tennis player. In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranks Hoad as one of the 21 best players of all time. For five straight years, beginning in 1952, he was ranked in the World Top Ten for amateurs, reaching the No. 1 spot in 1956.

Tennis career

Strength played an important part of Hoad's game, as he often drove for winners rather than rallying and waiting for the right opportunity. Although he assaulted his opponents, he also had the skill to win the French Championships on the slower clay court. According to Kramer, "Hoad had the loosest game of any good kid I ever saw. There was absolutely no pattern to his game....He was the only player I ever saw who could stand six or seven feet behind the baseline and snap the ball back hard, crosscourt. He'd try for winners off everything, off great serves, off tricky short balls, off low volleys. He hit hard overspin drives, and there was no way you could ever get him to temporize on important points."

Australian players and fans reminisce most about his feats for the Davis Cup, and especially of his victory in the 1953 finals versus the American Tony Trabert. His triumph took place on a rainy afternoon In his home country on a Melbourne Court. The U.S., leading 2-1 and on the brink of Cup victory, looked to come out on top, but Hoad won the first two sets. However, the veteran Trabert responded by capturing the next two, before Hoad hung on for a five set victory, 13-11, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5. Australia won the following day when Rosewall beat Vic Seixas.

Australia lost the Davis Cup to the United States in 1954, but reclaimed the title in 1955, and successfully defended it in 1956. Hoad and teammate Rosewall were especially impressive in the 1955 final, as the Australians beat the Americans without the loss of a match, winning 5-0.

From the time they were young upcoming teenangers and throughout their careers compatriots Hoad and Rosewall were linked as Australia’s tennis twins. In 1953, the same year of his spectacular match against Trabert, Hoad partnered with Rosewall to win three of the four majors in doubles. A quest for a sweep of all four Slams was halted at the U.S. Championships, as they lost to unseeded Americans Straight Clark and Hal Burrows, 5-7, 14-12, 18-16, 9-7, in an upset. Despite missing out on a Grand Slam, Hoad and Rosewall stand alongside the teams of Frank Sedgman-Ken McGregor (1951-52) and John Newcombe-Tony Roche (1967) as the only teams to win three of the four men’s doubles Slam titles.

As a singles player, Hoad reached a period of dominance in 1956, when he seemed poised to capture the calendar year singles Grand Slam. The likelihood of this achievement grew after Hoad posted a victory in the Wimbledon finals against Rosewall. He was heavily favored to win the fourth leg of the Slam at the U.S. Championships and then turn professional for a lucrative contract offered by Jack Kramer. But in the championship match at Forest Hills, Rosewall denied him the victory and ruined his Grand Slam chance, winning in four sets, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. Fresh from his victory, Rosewall—not Hoad—signed the professional contract and went on to spend the new year as the regular victim of Pancho Gonzales on the pro tour.

Even though he had lost, Hoad turned in a banner year in 1956 with 32 titles overall, including 15 singles titles out of 26 tournaments played and an incredible 95-11 win-loss record in singles. He also posted 17 doubles titles out of 23 tournaments and a 79-5 record. Because he had fallen short of the Grand Slam, he delayed his transition from amateur to professional tennis and pursued the Slam in 1957. The attempt proved short-lived as he lost in the semifinals of the first one, the Australian Championships, to his countryman Neale Fraser, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Another countryman, Neil Gibson, upended him at the French, in the third round, by a score of 2-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Hoad salvaged his season by successfully defending his Wimbledon title, blasting his way through his matches with a combined loss of just one set. In the final he beat Ashley Cooper, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. The victory prompted him to retire from amateur tennis. At a time when only amateur players were allowed to compete in the four national championships, Hoad finally accepted Kramer’s offer to play on the professional tour.

The professional tour was dominated by Pancho Gonzales when Hoad joined as a rookie. Hoad won 18 of the first 27 matches, but Gonzales surged back to finally defeat Hoad by 51 matches to 36. Gonzales, whom some consider to be the greatest tennis player of all time, always maintained that Hoad was the toughest, most skillful adversary that he had ever faced. "He was the only guy who, if I was playing my best tennis, could still beat me," said Gonzales in a 1995 New York Times interview. "I think his game was the best game ever. Better than mine. He was capable of making more shots than anybody. His two volleys were great. His overhead was enormous. He had the most natural tennis mind with the most natural tennis physique." Despite the enormous respect that Gonzales had for Hoad’s abilities, it was Gonzales who continued to lead the tour, besting Hoad in the U.S. Pro singles finals in successive years, 1958 and 1959. Ongoing back problems prevented Hoad from taking the top spot from Gonzales. Tour promoter Kramer also noted that injury, among other things, prevented Hoad from realizing his full potential as a player; in comparing Hoad to the great Ellsworth Vines, Kramer wrote, "Both were very strong guys. Both succeeded at a very young age...Also, both were very lazy guys. Vines lost interest in tennis (for golf) before he was thirty, and Hoad never appeared to be very interested. Despite their great natural ability, neither put up the outstanding records that they were capable of. Unfortunately, the latter was largely true because both had physical problems."

In 1973, Hoad posted his last notable showing as a player, partnering with Rob Maude in a loss to Arthur Ashe and Tom Okker, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the doubles finals of a South African tournament.

Personal life

Hoad married another Australian tennis player, Jenny Staley, who was a finalist in the 1954 Australian Championships in singles. In retirement, Hoad moved to Fuengirola, Spain, near Málaga, where he and his Staley operated a tennis resort for more than thirty years. There they entertained personal friends such as actors Sean Connery, Kirk Douglas, and Charlton Heston.

In his late life, Lew Hoad battled leukemia and subsequently developed a severely weakened condition. While waiting for a bone marrow donor, he died of a heart attack on July 3, 1994. He was 59 years old.

Hoad had co-written a book with Jack Pollard, titled The Lew Hoad Story. The book was published in 1958. In 2003, Pollard teamed up with his Hoad’s widow, Jenny, to write My Life With Lew.

Legacy

With his movie-star good looks, powerful physique, and outgoing personality, Hoad became a tennis icon in the 1950s. As Kramer says, "Everybody loved Hoad, even Pancho Gonzales. They should put that on Lew's tombstone as the ultimate praise for the man.... Even when Hoad was clobbering Gonzales, Gorgo wanted his respect and friendship."

Hoad was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1980.

Grand Slam Tournament wins

• Australian Open:
  • singles champion - 1956
  • doubles champion - 1953, 1956
• French Open:
  • singles champion - 1956
• Wimbledon Championships:
  • singles champion - 1956, 1957
  • doubles champion - 1953, 1956, 1957
• US Open:
  • doubles champion - 1956

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)

Adapted from the article Lew Hoad, from Wikinfo, licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.

External links

• Lewis Alan Hoad. International Tennis Hall of Fame. Retrieved October 14, 2007.

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