Tennis never had an official offseason. The global nature of the sport ensured there was always some place to play: Australia in December and January, the French Riviera or the Caribbean (or indoors!) in February and March, then Europe and North America straight through to September or October. Individual athletes could take time off, and many did. But there was never a true break.
The schedule became even more crowded in the early 1970s as promoters seized the opportunities of the Open era and the ensuing tennis boom. Circuits in the United States hit the gas in January and didn’t ease up until May. New destinations such as Japan to Iran plugged gaps in the fall. If a marquee name somehow ended up with a free date, an exhibition could be arranged anywhere from Hawaii to Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.
On November 25th, 1973, Arthur Ashe had a day off in Johannesburg ahead of his final against Jimmy Connors. He gave a clinic in the township of Soweto, earning legions of new fans and expanding his horizons still further on his historic trip.
Ashe and Connors, it seemed, were the only stars not in action on this day, eleven months after they kicked off their 1973 campaigns. Elsewhere on the 25th:
- Rosie Casals beat Billie Jean King for the title at the Lady Baltimore tournament, a charity benefit for, among other beneficiaries, the Medical Eye Bank of Maryland. Both women showed signs of rust, but Rosie’s intensity was hardly dimmed. Angered by a pair of bad calls in the third set, she loudly asked if the linesman had recently donated to the eye bank.
- In Buenos Aires, home favorite Guillermo Vilas outlasted Björn Borg for the title at the Argentine Open. The duel had the makings of a classic as it headed to a fourth-set tiebreak with Vilas leading two sets to one. But Borg injured his hand and called it a day. It was the first meeting between the pair, who would face off more than 20 times before the end of the decade, including twice for the French Open title.
- Remarkably, that wasn’t the only victory Vilas tallied that day without winning a match point. He and countryman Ricardo Cano had split sets with Ion Țiriac and Jean-Baptiste Chanfreau, the score standing 4-6, 7-5, 3-2 in favor of the latter, when the umpire changed a call that had initially gone against the Argentinians. Țiriac stormed off, handing the semi-final to Vilas and Cano by default.
- Jiří Hřebec proved that his Davis Cup heroics were no fluke by winning the South Australian Championships in Adelaide. It was his second title in a month–and his second ever. The 23-year-old Czechoslovakian continued to get help from his teammates: His opponent in the final, Bob Giltinan, was exhausted after a five-setter the previous day against Jan Kodeš. Hřebec won in four.
- Even with the 1973 Davis Cup still in play, the 1974 competition was gaining steam. On the 25th, Mexico wrapped up a preliminary-round defeat of Canada, while Colombia edged out Venezuela. Canada was already contesting its second tie for the ’74 Cup; they had beaten the Caribbean/West Indies team in October. Mexico and Colombia would play in December, with the winner advancing to challenge the United States in January.
- At the Port Washington Tennis Academy in New York–the training facility run by legendary Australian coach Harry Hopman–several national indoor champions were minted in the 14-and-under and 12-and-under categories. The match of the day decided the 12s title, which Californian Kelly Henry lost in three sets to an astonishing ten-year-old backboard named Tracy Austin.
The stars who weren’t in Johannesburg (or Adelaide, or Baltimore, or Buenos Aires, or Mexico City) were practicing hard. The Davis Cup final was only a few days away, with the Grand Prix Masters to follow. After that, maybe a week or two at home, and the whole cycle would begin again.
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This post is part of my series about the 1973 season, Battles, Boycotts, and Breakouts. Keep up with the project by checking the TennisAbstract.com front page, which shows an up-to-date Table of Contents after I post each installment.
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