Arthur Ashe Discovered To Have Been Part of More U.S. Open History

Arthur Ashe Discovered To Been Part Of More U.S. Open History

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Arthur Ashe not only made history in the finals of the 1968 U.S. Open but he was also a part of history in the first round.

Ashe opened up his historic 1968 U.S. Open championship run by beating 1944 and 1945 U.S. singles champion Frank Parker in the first round

The match, in retrospect, was historic because Parker, at age 52, would be known to be the oldest player to compete in the men’s singles competition at the U.S. Open. It was, of course, the first staging of the tournament as an “open” tournament (open to professional players and not just amateurs as it was prior to 1968).

With the U.S. Open “open” to pros starting in 1968, Parker, who turned pro in October of 1949, was able to play the event, entering the tournament “for fun” as described by Bud Collins in his book “The Bud Collins History of Tennis.” Other players who had been banned from playing Forest Hills after turning pro, returned to the hallowed grounds after being allowed to play in the national championship of the United States, including some other long-outcast players such as Pancho Segura (age 47), Pancho Gonzalez (ae 40) and Vic Seixas (age 44).

Ashe defeated Parker 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and, of course, went on to win the first-ever staging of the U.S. “Open” defeating Tom Okker of The Netherlands in a five-set final to become the first black man to win a major singles title. Ashe also was still an amateur player, ironically.

In all subsequent staging of the tournament, there was no other competitor as old as Parker. The second-oldest was Segura in 1970 at age 49 and Segura again when he played in 1968 at age 47. Since 1990, the oldest competitor in men’s singles was 42-year-old Ivo Karlovic, who lost in the first round to Andrey Rublev in 2021.

Parker’s full bio, as seen in “The Bud Collins History of Tennis” book can be found here:

Frank Parker

United States (1916–1997)

Hall of Fame—1966

Frank Andrew Parker, a marvelous groundstroker, particularly on the backhand side, was a paragon of durability, ranking in the U.S. Top 10 for 17 straight years (1933-49), a male record until Jimmy Connors surpassed it in 1988. One of the youngest to rank with the elite, 17 in 1933, he was No. 1 in 1944 and 1945, and the oldest ever to play in the U.S. Championships at age 52 in 1968.

He entered in 1968 for fun, this handsome, gracious man who had teamed with Don Budge and Gene Mako to win the Davis Cup for the U.S. in 1937, saying he wanted to be part of yet another era, the “Open.” He lost his first match to eventual champion, Arthur Ashe, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, thus completing a championship career thatbegan with a third-round defeat by No. 4-seeded George Lott, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, at Forest Hills in 1932. In between, as Sgt. Parker, Frankie won the U.S. title on his thirteenth try in 1944, again in 1945, both while on leave from the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. Based on Guam in 1945, he was ordered to report to New York, 9,000 miles away, to do his duty by defending his title. He beat civilian

Bill Talbert both times, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and 14-12, 6-1, 6-2. A 6-3, 6-4, 6-8 3-6, 6-1 quarterfinal defeat in 1946 by Tom Brown busted his dream of winning three straight. However, he nearly jolted Jack Kramer by winning the first two sets of their 1947 final, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. After the 1949 U.S. Championships, his 19th that ended with a semifinal 3-6, 9-7, 6-3, 6-2 loss to champ Pancho Gonzalez, Frankie turned pro to tour with Kramer, Gonzalez and Pancho Segura.

Grass or clay? Didn’t matter to 5-foot-81/2, 145-pound Frank, at home anywhere, the third of only four American men able to win on the greensward of Forest Hills and the heavy salmon-toned soil of Roland Garros. He won in France in 1948 and 1949—over Jaroslav Drobny, 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 8-6, then Budge Patty, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4— following Don Budge and Don McNeill, and preceding Tony Trabert. But his sure-fire groundies looked especially good in the U.S. Clay Court championship that he won five times between 1933, at age 17, and 1947. His 24-match streak was ended in the 1949 final by Gonzalez, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6, 6-3. Parker built the streak on titles in 1941 (over Bobby Riggs, 6-3, 7-5, 6-8, 4-6, 6-3), 1946 (over Bill Talbert, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2), and 1947 (over Ted Schroeder, 8-6, 6-2, 6-4). Although he and Gonzalez were known primarily for singles,

they played a brief but forceful duet on both sides of the English Channel in 1949, winning the French and Wimbledon

doubles titles.

Frank won 12 of 14 Davis Cup matches. In 1948, he won both singles in the successful defense, 5-0, against Australia, leading off, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, over Billy Sidwell. Coupled with his clinching singles win over Charlie Hare 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 while the U.S. heisted the Cup from Britain in 1937, Parker was the only man to help win the Cup with singles victories at either end of World War II. He was a poor boy who made good. Youngest of five children of a struggling widow, he was born into an unlikely tennis situation, Jan. 31, 1916, in Milwaukee, growing up there. Christened Franciszek Andrzej Paikowski, as a young kid he earned a pittance to help the family as a ballboy at the Town & Tennis Club. Showing a talent for the game, he was encouraged by members, began winning youth tournaments at 11, and was called the “Boy Wonder of Tennis.”

He was mentored by a well-known coach, the club’s pro, Mercer Beasley, who felt Frankie could become a champion. His

mother allowed Frank to live and travel with the Beasleys as his game progressed. Audrey and Mercer regarded him as their own son, overseeing his development as a nationally-ranked junior. However, in 1937, something of a scandal developed—Audrey, 42, and Frank, 21, falling in love. She divorced Beasley, married Frank, and despite their tabloid notices, it worked. They lived, traveling happily together, until her death in 1971.

He was ranked in the world’s Top 10 six times between 1937 and 1949, No. 1 in 1948. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1966, and died July 24, 1997 at San Diego.

MAJOR TITLES (6)—French singles 1948, 1949; U.S singles, 1944, 1945; Wimbledon doubles, 1949; French doubles. 1949. OTHER U.S. TITLES (7)—Clay Court singles, 1933, 1939, 1941, 1946, 1947; Clay Court doubles, 1939, with Gene Mako; Indoor doubles, 1937, with Greg Mangin. DAVIS CUP—1937, 1939, 1946, 1948, 12-2 singles.SINGLES RECORD IN THE MAJORS—French (12-1), Wimbledon (12-3), U.S. (60-18).