Bobby After the War: Part 1

How would Bobby Riggs make up for lost time? Amid the rubble and devastation of World War II, history was left to ponder what might have been on many fronts, including tennis. Although minor compared with the epochal issues in the world, the tennis questions still remained. Would Bobby Riggs have won back-to-back Wimbledons? Or 4 or 5 Wimbledons? And how many U.S. Nationals? In the United States during the war, tennis limped along from 1942 to 1946, encouraged by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a morale booster for the home front and the troops overseas. But the top players were all in uniform. (Click Here.) Some tournaments were cancelled for the duration. Others were played with reduced draws and shortened schedules, or were limited to women. Newport, the nation’s oldest tournament, was suspended until war’s end. At Forest Hills, the men’s matches were cut from best-of-five sets to best-of three until the semifinals. The end of hostilities left the tennis world to...