When the Men of Tennis Were Gentlemen

Wall Street Journal ^ | August 26, 2004 | JEFFREY HART

[OESY]

To put it bluntly, everything you read today by sportswriters about tournament tennis prior to 1968 and the advent of the big-money professional game is completely wrong. For one thing, between 1930 and 1968 very few champions or top players were rich young men. Far from it....Perhaps from a distance they looked rich when they were tennis stars. They behaved like gentlemen. It was insisted upon....

But beginning in 1968, a strange reversal occurred. The teenagers could not act like adults because the adults -- even on Ivy League campuses -- had joined the kids, adopting their distinctive music, hair styles and garish costumery.

The result? Behavior began to change. The epitome of this was John McEnroe, a very great player, also a barbaric brat. Even the beauty of Wimbledon could not evoke respect. Unacceptable too was Jimmy Connors, a great player only a little better behaved than Mr. McEnroe. In his early career, Andre Agassi played excellent tennis but dressed like he was trying out for King of the Kids....

Pete Sampras... seemed to have a sense of his place in tennis history, his demeanor good except for a slouching pout when things went badly. Mr. Agassi has morphed into a virtual statesman of tennis as he moves dignified toward Olympus. My present favorite is the Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne....

But did the ideal largely disappear here with the collapse of the Eastern Establishment? A wit once quipped, "Today, the working class is Democratic, the middle class is Republican, and the upper class is Communist." Many Establishment patriarchs tolerated sons and daughters who went radical in 1968. Any responsible head of family would have disinherited them with a flick of the pen, for a betrayal of family honor. Power may have died with courage and a conviction of responsibility....

[OESY]

Mr. Hart is professor of English emeritus at Dartmouth College. A longer version of this essay appeared in the summer 2004 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.

Don Budge and Bobby Riggs knew how to behave on the court.

[Voltage]

The epitome of this was John McEnroe, a very great player, also a barbaric brat.

Has his joke of a cable show hit a zero viewership rating yet?

[CatoRenasci]

Tennis players were gentlemen before the big money game in the 1960s. My father was a top level amateur player in California from the 1920s through the mid-1950s, having played at UC Berkeley in the late 1920's. He played, at one time or another, most of the top players of that era: almost all of the amatuers who came to the West Coast and most of the professionals, including Tilden, Riggs, Vines, Lacoste (who used to send him his shirts without the alligator logo because my dad wouldn't wear logos), Budge, etc. as well as many of the great women players of those days. I met some of these guys in the late '50s and early '60s when they were in the area and my dad would warm them up (the pros) or play with them. While a very few were from wealthy backgrounds, most weren't. It was truly an aristocracy of talent.

[Malesherbes]

1968. Not a good year. Just ask John Kerry about his adventures in Cambodia on Christmas 1968.

[HitmanLV]

One of my prized possessions is an autographed cover of Sports Illusutrated from the early '70s - 'Bobby Riggs - Don't Bet Against This Man.'

Great conversation starter!

[MHT]

Stan Smith--the ultimate class act of tennis--what a gentleman (and a scholar!).

[nickcarraway]

Maybe too polite, to strangers

[RightWingNut]

Don't you miss Ilie Nastase ??

Always fun to watch. Also a very good tennis player.

People started watching tennis when Nastase, Connors,and McEnroe were in their prime. (There were also some great tennis players who were better behaved also. Lendl, Borg, etc, but for pure enjoyment, nothing beats Ilie !!)

[john_virtue]

It's no secret why these guys aren't gentlemen anymore...they're all card-carrying spoiled liberals. Just check the public record!

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/hof.php?#SPORTS-TENNIS
(click names, right-hand column)

[socal_parrot]

What about big Bill Tilden? There was a man's man.


Literally.

[raybbr]

Pete Sampras... seemed to have a sense of his place in tennis history, his demeanor good except for a slouching pout when things went badly.

This guy clearly knows nothing about Sampras. Sampras is a spoiled brat, egotistical and cares nothing about the sport of tennis other than what it provides him.

[raybbr]

Six out of the thousands of tennis players is hardly license to condemn them all. The reason they are not gentlemen any longer is because they are no longer expected to be. Take a look at Tim Henman or Patrick Rafter. Gentlemen through and through.

[john_virtue]

Take a look at Tim Henman or Patrick Rafter. Gentlemen through and through.

Notice the two you cite are not Americans?

[itsahoot]

One of my prized possessions is an autographed cover of Sports Illusutrated from the early '70s - 'Bobby Riggs - Don't Bet Against This Man.'

Bobby let us all down when he threw that phony match with the dike.

[dsc]

People can say McEnroe is a brat if they like, but I met Nasase once in Hawaii in 1976, and he said that McEnroe was right--the judging was bad.

There are two schools of thought about appropriate behavior in the face of bad judging. One holds that becoming angry at it is always wrong, the other holds that it is understandable.

[2rightsleftcoast]

Thanks for the link. Very interesting.

[raybbr]

Of course.