Roy Emerson Defies Australia, 3/1/64

When tennis star Roy Emerson arrived in Tampa 45 years ago this week to compete in the Dixie International Tennis Tournament, officials in his native country of Australia were not pleased. The world’s top-ranked man, Emerson came to Tampa in defiance of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia.

The LTAA, upset about Australia’s loss to the United States in Davis Cup competition, ordered players such as Emerson, Fred Stolle, Ken Fletcher, and Bob Hewitt cease their international travels and return home. Officially, the LTAA claimed these players must return to Australia and compete in local tournaments only until March 31, 1964.

The players had to cease playing in any overseas tournaments by Feb. 28. Furthermore, the players were forbidden to accept expense money for playing international tournaments until that after that date. By appearing at the Dixie International in Tampa, Emerson risked a one-year ban from representing Australia in international competitions like the Davis Cup.

While Stolle and Hewitt ultimately decided to skip the tournament, Emerson and Fletcher defied the order by the LTAA. Emerson appealed to the organization by claiming he was traveling at his own expense and thus not violating any rules. Tournament officials rewarded him with a top seed, ahead of two-time defending Dixie International champion Manuel Santana, who beat Stolle in the finals of the 1963 Dixie tournament.

While Fletcher made an early exit in the second round of the Dixie, falling to unseeded Ecuadorian Eduardo Zuleta in three sets, Emerson rolled over the competition on his way to the semifinals. Prior to his match against Jose Arilla of Spain, Emerson found out the LTAA had denied his request to continue playing in America. Fortunately for Emerson, an amateur, he received a $50,000 offer a few days earlier from the International Professional Tennis Players Association to turn pro.

“If (Fletcher and I) are suspended, this makes the offer more tempting,” Emerson said. “I would certainly hate to sit out a year.”

Emerson took down Arilla in four hard-fought sets to earn a berth in the finals against the defending champion Santana. Officials in Australia were not impressed.

The LTAA announced Emerson and Fletcher would be banned from Davis Cup competitions for a year. The announcement mentioned nothing, however, of suspensions from other tournaments. Fletcher, predictably, reacted to the news with disbelief.

“Most players play tennis so you can represent your country in the Davis Cup,” he said. “When you don’t have that, well, it just becomes a way of living, doesn’t it? You sort of lose interest.”

Fletcher’s ban became official when he paired with Emerson in a Dixie doubles semifinal match, a victory over Yugoslavians Nicola Pilic and Boro Jovanovic. Emerson earned his ban by playing against Arilla in the Dixie singles semifinal.

As if to prove the LTAA made a mistake in barring him from representing Australia, Emerson made the most of his showdown in the Dixie finals against Santana on March 1. In front of a capacity crowd of 1,000 at the Davis Islands Tennis Center, Emerson put on an impressive display of power and precision.

Using a punishing serve-and-volley attack, Emerson kept the defending champion off-balance. The two played a thrilling first set, as each took turns matching each other volley for volley, return for return and winner for winner. Emerson ultimately prevailed, 9-7, to capture the 50-minute set and the momentum for the rest of the match.

Emerson raced to a 5-1 lead in the second set by dictating play from the net. Santana went out meekly without a point in the final game of the set, which ended 6-2 in favor of Emerson. The Aussie then cruised to a 5-0 advantage in the third, but had to withstand a furious comeback by the proud Spaniard, who won four straight games to make things interesting. On serve with a chance to even up the set, Santana could produce just one more hold and thus relinquished his title to Emerson.

It would by no means be Emerson’s final title of the year. He went on to have one of the finest years of his career, winning three Grand Slams – including his first Wimbledon title – and at one point won 55 consecutive matches while losing only six times in 115 tries.

And in spite of all the hubbub, the LTAA relented and Emerson competed for Australia in the Davis Cup. It paid off for the Aussies, as Emerson won the deciding match of the Cup finals over Chuck McKinley of the United States.

Dixie International Tournament, 1963

Australian tennis star Roy Emerson had already cemented his status as one of the top players in the world when in February 1963 he arrived in Tampa with many of the world’s best players for the 36th Dixie International Tennis Championships. Ranked No. 2 in the world behind only the legendary Rod Laver, Emerson highlighted a field that tournament chairman E.C. Smith called “by far the greatest in the history of the tournament. None has been able to compare any others with this one.”

Defending tournament champion Manuel Santana of Spain, one of the top clay court players in the world and the 1961 French Open champion, figured to once again have a decided advantage on the Davis Islands clay. Bob Hewitt and Fred Stolle, both Australian and both future Hall of Famers, added even more depth to the field.

Darlene Hard, America’s best female player, and Brazilian Maria Bueno highlighted the women’s field, along with Leslie Turner of England and Helga Schultze of Germany. Adding some local flavor were Judy Alvarez, a former tournament finalist, and Sandy Warshaw, a former Dixie tournament winner, who under the name Sandra W. Freedman, would become Tampa’s first female mayor in 1987.

Rain and brisk gusts of wind on the first day of the tournament proved symbolic for what turned out to be a tumultuous and unpredictable week of tennis. Thomas Koch, a 17-year-old Brazilian, netted the tournament’s first upset by disposing of fourth-seeded Hewitt, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2, in the opening round. Just a few hours later, Koch defeated University of Miami star Rod Mandelstamm 6-3, 8-6 to reach the quarterfinals.

Armi Neely, Florida’s third-ranked junior player but only a sophomore at Plant High School, had the misfortune of drawing Santana in the first round and took a 6-2, 6-2 defeat.

The quarterfinals produced by far the most surprising upset of the entire tournament, when Fred Stolle earned his first career victory over fellow Aussie Roy Emerson, in a 7-9, 6-1, 7-5 decision. Using a devastating backhand passing shot, Stolle kept Emerson, a natural serve-and-volley player, off balance and unable to make himself comfortable at the net. In a back-and-forth third set, it looked as if Emerson might pull away when he took a 3-2 lead. Stolle quickly regained the upper hand, however, and never looked back on his way to the surprise victory.

Gracious in defeat, Emerson refused to blame the loss on a bout of the flu that plagued him coming into the tournament. “It was just a matter of one point here and there that made the difference,” he said. “Fred just played very well.”

Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Sandy Warshaw lost a professional match for the first time in more than two and a half years. Warshaw, who first won the Dixie Tournament as a 17-year-old, dropped her match in straight sets to Elizabeth Starkie of England, 6-2, 6-2.

Physical ailments had derailed Warshaw’s promising junior career in 1961. Following the Dixie match, she seemed resigned to the fact that she might never return to championship form. Warshaw laughed at the thought and said, "I'm a has-been and only going on 20."

Hardly a has-been, Darlene Hard obliterated Judy Alvarez 6-0, 6-0, to earn a berth in the finals. Alvarez, the 10th-ranked woman in the U.S., managed to win only 23 points throughout the short two-set match. In the meantime, a dream finals matchup between Hard and Maria Bueno never had a chance to materialize because of Australia's Lesley Turner. The fifth seed in the women's draw upset top-seeded Bueno, 6-2, 5-7, 8-6. Bueno failed to convert a match point at 6-5 in the third set, opening the door for Turner to pull off the upset. After the match, a visibly upset Bueno lamented, "I thought I played well, but (Turner) played better."

On the men's side, nobody was playing better than Spaniard Manuel Santana as he entered his semifinal against Thomas Koch of Brazil. Manuel captured the first set in just 15 minutes, 6-1, and seemed on his way to an easy victory. But the rest of the match turned into a nearly three-hour slugfest that delighted those in attendance. Koch rallied to win the second set 6-4, evening the match at one set apiece. The third set went back and forth, with Koch breaking Santana's serve to even it up at 3-3. Santana then took control and captured the set 6-4. The fourth and final set featured Santana rallying from a 3-0 deficit en route to a 10-8 victory. Santana admitted the easy first set gave him a false sense of security. "I thought it would be easy. I lost concentration, then he started playing very well. He's very much improved since I played him last year," he said.

Inclement weather forced the men's and women's finals indoors to the comforts of the University of Tampa gymnasium. This placed Santana, a clay court specialist, in a precarious position. To win the championship, he had to play the final match on a hardcourt surface. His opponent, Fred Stolle, clearly favored the indoor surface. Already full of momentum from knocking off Emerson and then the third-seeded Marty Mulligan, Stolle still had his hands full with Santana. On the strength of his serve, Santana won the first set, 6-3. The second set, however, turned into the longest in the history of the Dixie tournament. The two-hour-plus set concluded with Santana on top, 21-19, to win the title.

Darlene Hard used her power game to topple upstart Lesley Turner, 9-7, 1-6, 7-5, in the women's final. Turner's lack of hardcourt experience, coupled with Hard's service game, spelled doom for the Aussie.

Local tennis enthusiasts agreed at the tournament's conclusion that the quality of players made the 36th Dixie tournament one of the finest ever. Tournament chairman E.C. Smith said he "didn't know how it could have been any better. My only regret is that the rain forced us inside."

Even with that blemish, 45 years later the 1963 edition of the Dixie tournament -- which featured Grand Slam winners, Olympic medalists, Hall of Famers, and even a future mayor -- remains one of the most talent-laden and upset-filled tennis events ever held in the city of Tampa.