South African tennis player

Drysdale at the 1966 Davis Cup in the Netherlands

Eric Clifford Drysdale (born 26 May 1941) is a South African former tennis player. The former highly-ranked professional player of the 1960s and early 1970s became a well-known tennis announcer.

Drysdale reached the singles final of the U. S. Championships in 1965 (beating Dennis Ralston and Rafael Osuna before losing to Manuel Santana). He was one of the Handsome Eight, a group of players signed by Lamar Hunt in 1968 for the newly formed professional World Championship Tennis (WCT) group. He became president of the *ociation of Tennis Professionals (ATP) when it was formed by Jack Kramer, Donald Dell, and himself in 1972. Drysdale was ranked world No. 4 in 1965 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph.

He won the singles *le at the Dutch Open in Hilversum in 1963 and 1964. In 1965, he won the singles *le at the German Championships by defeating Boro Jovanović in the final. During his Open era career, Drysdale captured five singles *les and six doubles *les including winning the 1972 US Open doubles crown with Roger Taylor. He defeated Rod Laver in the fourth round of the first US Open in 1968. He was a pioneer of the two-handed backhand which he used to great effect in the 1960s . He became a naturalized United States citizen after retiring as a player. He is the founder of Cliff Drysdale Tennis (along with partner Don Henderson) which specializes in resort, hotel, and club tennis management.

Drysdale has served as a tennis commentator on ESPN since the network's founding in 1979.

In 1998, Drysdale won the William M. Johnston award for contribution to men's tennis, given by the USTA. In 2013, Drysdale was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Contents

• 1 Grand Slam finals
  • 1.1 Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
  • 1.2 Doubles: 1 (1 *le)
• 2 Grand Prix Championship Series finals
  • 2.1 Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
• 3 Open Era *les
• 4 Grand Slam singles performance timeline
• 5 References
• 6 External links
• 7 See also

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (1 *le)

Grand Prix Championship Series finals

Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Open Era *les

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.

References

External links

• Cliff Drysdale at the *ociation of Tennis Professionals
• Cliff Drysdale at the International Tennis Federation
• Cliff Drysdale at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Cliff Drysdale at IMDb
• Biography and images of Cliff on the Cliff Drysdale site
• Legends of Tennis:Cliff Drysdale
• Red Ledges Cliff Drysdale Tennis Academy in Utah
• ESPN's Cliff Drysdale to emcee "Legends Ball"
• Cliff Drysdale ESPN Bio

See also

• *ociation of Tennis Professionals

WomenContributors

• Russ Adams
• George Adee
• Lawrence Baker
• John Barrett
• Nick Bollettieri
• Vic Braden
• Jane Brown Grimes
• Butch Buchholz
• Philippe Chatrier
• Gianni Clerici
• Bud Collins
• Joseph Cullman
• Allison Danzig
• Mike Davies
• Herman David
• Donald Dell
• Cliff Drysdale
• Steve Flink
• David Gray
• Clarence Griffin
• Gustaf V
• Derek Hardwick
• Gladys Heldman
• William Hester
• Lamar Hunt
• Nancy Jeffett
• Robert Walter Johnson
• Perry T. Jones
• Robert J. Kelleher
• Peachy Kellmeyer
• Al Laney
• Alastair Martin
• Dan Maskell
• William McChesney Martin
• Mark McCormack
• Julian Myrick
• Arthur Nielsen
• Mary Ewing Outerbridge
• Brad Parks
• Charlie Pasarell
• Gene Scott
• Lance Tingay
• Ted Tinling
• Ion Țiriac
• Brian Tobin
• Jimmy Van Alen
• Walter Clopton Wingfield

Global amb*adors

• Martina Hingis
• Gustavo Kuerten