Today, December 14, marks the 65th birthday of one of the all-time great American tennis players Stan Smith. He won the singles title at the US Open in 1971 and Wimbledon in 1972, but perhaps is best known as a stalwart on the U.S. Davis Cup team, being part of a record seven Cup-winning U.S. teams and winning many courageous matches, most notably against Ion Tiriac to clinch the Cup for the USA in Romania in 1972. Smith has recently been named the new President of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Below is the bio of Smith as written by Bud Collins in his famed tennis encyclopedia THE BUD COLLINS HISTORY OF TENNIS ($35.95, New Chapter Press, available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/
Stan Smith
United States (1946—)
Hall of Fame—1987
One of the great Davis Cup competitors, Stan Smith added the U.S. (1971) and Wimbledon (1972) titles to his laurels, and, with Bob Lutz, was part of one of the preeminent doubles teams. Smith, who overcame teenage awkwardness to become a feared 6-foot-3 foe with crashing serves and volleys, may have hit his zenith on alien clay. That was in Bucharest in 1972 as the U.S. won a fifth consecutive Cup, and he supplied the clinching victory—the insuperable third point—for a fifth time. That’s a Davis Cup record to which he added in 1979, with Lutz, in the 5-0 victory over Italy at San Francisco.
Stan was in on seven Cup-settling victories (1968-69-70-71-72, 78-79), tying him with Bill Tilden (1920-26) for a U.S. high. He also had a smaller share of an eighth Cup in 1981, when he and Lutz took a quarterfinal doubles at Flushing Meadows over Czechs Ivan Lendl and Tom Smid, 9-7, 6-3, 6-2. That was the Cup adieu for Stan and Bob.
A notable sportsman, he had to “concentrate so hard I got a headache,” he said after the three-day ordeal at the hands of a loud partisan crowd and overly patriotic line judges in Bucharest. It was an extended, rocky campaign during which Smith won seven of eight singles and, with Erik van Dillen, all five doubles. Stan scored the clinching point in each of five series and nailed down two of the most dramatic singles victories ever by an American in the finale. Romania, loser to the U.S. in the 1969 and 1971 showdowns, appeared the favorite on home earth, but Smith shocked U.S. Open champ Ilie Nastase on the slow court to lead off, 11-9, 6-2, 6-3, and then out-battled the sly, combative Ion Tiriac in a tense five-set struggle, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0. Aware that he had to hit outright winners well away from the lines to make sure of the points, Smith did just that to storm through a last-set bagel and send the U.S. safely ahead, 3-1, in the 3-2 victory.
Born Dec. 14, 1946, in Pasadena, Calif., he grew up there and was an All-American at the University of Southern California, where he won the U.S. Intercollegiate singles (1968) and, with Lutz, doubles in 1967 and 1968.
During an 11-year Davis Cup career that began in 1968, embracing 24 engagements, he was on the winning side 22 times, and 16 times provided the clinching point: three times in singles, 13 times in doubles (nine with Lutz, four with van Dillen). He and Lutz won 13 of 14 Cup matches together. As the U.S. ran up a record Cup streak of 17 victories from 1968 to the finale of 1973, Smith was involved in 14, the clincher in 12.
His 1972 Wimbledon triumph over Nastase, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, was one of the outstanding finals, and his 1971 defeat of Jan Kodes at Forest Hills, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (5-3), was the first U.S. final to conclude in a tie-breaker. Smith and Lutz won the U.S. doubles four times and the Australian once (1970) and the U.S. doubles four times (1968, 1974, 1978, 1980). In a career spanning the amateur and Open eras, he was one of five centurions, winning at least 100 pro titles overall in singles and doubles. Stan hit the century with 39 singles, 61 doubles, and won $1,774,881 career prize money. Eleven times between 1967 and 1980, he was in the U.S. Top 10, No. 1 four years (1969, 71-72-73). Six straight times from 1970 he was in the world’s Top 10, No. 1 in 1972.
MAJOR TITLES (7)—Wimbledon singles, 1972; U.S. singles, 1971; Australian doubles, 1970; U.S. doubles, 1968, 74, 78, 80. OTHER U.S. TITLES (15)—Indoor singles, 1972; Indoor doubles, 1966, 69, with Lutz; 1970, with Arthur Ashe; Clay Court doubles, 1968, with Lutz; Hard Court singles, 1966-67-68; Hard Court doubles, 1966, with Lutz; Pro doubles, 1973, with Erik van Dillen; 1974, 1977, with Lutz; Intercollegiate singles, 1968; Intercollegiate doubles, 1967-68, with Lutz. DAVIS CUP—1968-69- 70-71-72-73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 15-5 singles, 20-3 doubles. SINGLES RECORD IN THE MAJORS—Australian (5-3), French (23-9), Wimbledon (45-17). U.S. (39-19).