It was 40 years ago at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. that Cliff Richey made a significant mark on his brilliant 1970 season when he defeated Arthur Ashe 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 in the best of five set final on clay at the event then known as the “Washington International Tennis Tournament.”
“Make no mistake” wrote Neil Amdur in the New York Times after the final, “Cliff Richey is America’s king on clay.”
Richey, who is the author of a new biography about his life with depression called “ACING DEPRESSION: A Tennis Champion’s Toughest Match” won $7,000 for the title – his best pay-day as a pro to that date.
“He went through the tournament without losing a set,” write Amdur, “and it makes him a legitimate rival to Ashe, Stan Smith and Clark Graebner for one of the two singles berths on the United States team that will defend the Davis Cup August 29-31 in Cleveland.”
Richey went on to clinch a singles berth on the U.S. Davis Cup team that defeated West Germany to win the Davis Cup, earning MVP honors with his singles victories over Christian Kuhnke and Wilhelm Bungert.
Richey, who earlier in the year had reached the semifinals at the French Open at Roland Garros, also reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open at Forest Hills and earned the No. 1 U.S. ranking over Smith. The 1970 years also marked the first year of the Grand Prix points race (a pre-cursor to the ATP World Tour rankings), which Richey won, holding off the likes of Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.
In “ACING DEPRESSION: A Tennis Champions Toughest Match,” Richey calls depression among adult males as “the silent tragedy in our culture today” and details his life-long battle with the disease that afflicts approximately 121 million people around the world. Co-written with his oldest daughter Hilaire Richey Kallendorf, ACING DEPRESSION ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.NewChapterMedia.com), is a first-hand account of the life and tennis career of Richey, providing readers with his real-life drama – on and off the tennis court. Richey’s depression is a constant theme, from his genetics and family history, to the tensions of his professional tennis career and family life, to his eventual diagnosis and steps to recover from his condition.
Jimmy Connors, the five-time U.S. Open champion and a friend of Richey’s penned the Foreword for ACING DEPRESSION. Writes Connors, “What made Cliff Richey what he was on the tennis court has certainly carried over into this book. His story has taken a subject, depression—which has affected him personally—and put it out there for everyone to see. Depression has been a subject that no one really talks about. Few people even admit to having such a condition. But Cliff is not afraid to be bold and reveal what he has gone through and what it takes to get a handle on this disease…Just as Cliff played tennis, he is studying how depression works; what its weaknesses are; and what strategies you can use against it. His hope is that people who read his story can learn—learn about the disease and learn that people who suffer can have a better quality of life. Things can get better. There is hope.”
Richey was known as the original “Bad Boy” of tennis, before there was John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase. His 26-year career was highlighted by a 1970 season where he led the United States to the Davis Cup title, finished as the first-ever Grand Prix world points champion and won one of the most exciting matches in American tennis history that clinched the year-end No. 1 American ranking. He won both of his singles matches in the 5-0 U.S. victory over West Germany in the 1970 Davis Cup final, while he beat out rivals Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith to win the first-ever Grand Prix world points title the precursor to the modern day ATP rankings. At the 1970 Pacific Coast Championships at the Berkeley Tennis Club in Berkeley, Calif., he earned the No. 1 U.S. ranking when he beat Smith in a fifth-set tie-breaker, where both players had simultaneous match point in a sudden-death nine-point tie-breaker at 4-4. He also reached the semifinals of both the 1970 French and U.S. Opens, losing a famous match to Zeljko Franulovic of Yugoslavia in the French semifinals, despite holding match points and leading by two-sets-to-one and 5-1 in the fourth set.
During his career, Richey was know for tantrums and boorish behavior simply, however, it served as a mask for his internal struggle with clinical depression. During his darkest days, Richey would place black trash bags over the windows of his house, stay in bed all day and cry. With the same determination that earned him the nick-name “The Bull,” Richey fought against his depression that was not diagnosed until just before his 50th birthday during a routine visit to the skin doctor. Since his happenstance diagnosis, Richey has steadily been taking anti-depressant drugs that have greatly improved his quality of life and moved him to become an advocate for mental health, speaking at numerous events and gatherings across the country.
“I have been given so many second chances in my life,” Richey says in the book. “The beautiful thing is that in recovery, almost everything in your life becomes a second chance. Hope is the foundation of our great country of America. Hope is such a driver of the normal human condition. The sum total of my awful disease was “loss of hope.” That’s the truly awesome thing about recovery: once you come back, your whole life after that feels like a second chance.”