The Life of Tony Trabert
Part 3

Mark Winters

After his marriage at the end of 1953 (Click Here), the next year didn't get off to a great start. Trabert was seeded No. 2 at the 1954 Australian Championships but he lost to the tricky No. 13 seed, John Bromwich in the second round.

After Trabert won the first two sets easliy, 6-1, 6-1, the Australian, buoyed by the home crowd's loud support, used his creative shot making and his two-hand backhand to dice through his opponent taking the next three sets, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. Years later, Trabert admitted the crowd's bias bothered him.

The French

But Roland Garros was an altogether different matter. Seeded No. 2 he was too strong for Art Larsen, defeating the No. 12 seed, 6-4, 7-5, 6-l in the singles final to earn the La Coupe des Mousquetaires. He added the Jacques Brugnon Cup to his Paris trophy collection when he and Seixas swept past Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall in the doubles, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

Wimby and the US

In London, No. 3 seed Rosewall toughed out a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Wimbledon top seed Trabert in the semifinals. In the doubles final, the number 1 seed Australia versus the number 2 seed US, Rex Hartwig and Mervyn Rose downed Trabert and Seixas, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

The defending singles champion and number 1 seed, Trabert was surprised in the US National quarterfinals by Hartwig, the number 8 seed, 6-2, 8-6, 2-6, 6-2. In a duplicate of the Paris outcome (with a different score), he and Seixas again defeated Hoad and Rosewall, 3-6, 6-4, 8-6, 6-3 in the doubles final.

The highlight in what had been an ordinary year for Trabert took place in the Challenge Round on the grass courts of White City Stadium in Sydney on December 27-29. (Years later he admitted that, on and off, during the season he had problems with a blister on his right hand and on both feet.)

Prior to the start of the competition, celebrated Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman told United Press, on December 20, 1954, that Trabert was the No. 1 threat to Australia holding on to the Davis Cup, adding, "While I stick by my predictions that Australia will beat America 4-1, I cannot overlook the menace this boy poses."

The outcome was more than menacing. The tie was over in two days. Trabert kicked off play, downing Hoad, 6-4, 2-6, 12-10, 6-3. Seixas duplicated his teammate's four-set success defeating Rosewall, 8-6, 6-8, 6-4, 6-3. The US duo then brought the Cup home with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 victory over the Australian tandem.

Australia made the score appear closer winning both of the "dead matches" as Rosewall defeated Trabert in three sets while Hartwig triumphed over Seixas in four to make the final score 3-2.

On the first day, a record of 25,578 spectators attended the matches. John Barrett, a former Great Britain player, Davis Cup captain and the long-time dignified BBC voice of Wimbledon, was in Australia to compete in the upcoming Australian National Championships. He remembered that temporary seats were added to the corners of the White City Stadium Court that "towered up to a terrific height…it was an amazing sight".

The US – Australia Davis Cup Final crowd record stood for 50 years until the last day of Spain's 3-2 victory over the US in 2004, when there were 27, 200 on hand at Estadio Olimpico in Barcelona.

Ten years later that total was surpassed, on the first day of the tie, when 27,488 watched. Switzerland ended up defeating France 3-1 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France. The record was equaled on the final day of the 2017 Davis Cup when France edged Belgium, 3-2 at the same facility.

Magic in 1955

The 1955 Australian National Championships began on January 21st and concluded January 31st. Though it was long after the fact, Trabert explained that of all his on-court successes, the Davis Cup victory was the most meaningful. But he added that the US players were "drained" and wished that they weren't competing in the first major of the New Year, 23 days after winning the Davis Cup Challenge Round.

"Being weary" physically and more telling, emotionally makes even more sense because of the regularly overlooked fact that the US had to contest the Inter-Zonal Final at the Milton Courts (grass) in Brisbane, December 16th – 18th. Trabert, Seixas and Richardson whitewashed Sweden (Lennart Bergelin and Sven Davidson), 5-0. Playing top tennis, after traveling to Australia, was always testing and taxing; particularly, considering that it took the US squad 50 hours--five 10-hour hops--to arrive there.

This all showed in the outcome, Rosewall, the No. 1 seed, defeated Trabert, the No. 4, seed, 8-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals. Rosewall,aving been the 1953 tournament winner, picked up his second "home" victory stopping Hoad, the No. 5 seed, 9-7, 6-4, 6-4, in the singles final. Trabert and Seixas outlasted the "Aussie twins—Hoad and Rosewall", as they were sometimes called, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 3-6, 6-1 for doubles honors.

Best Year Ever

But from that point on, the 24-year-old--who would turn 25 on August 16th--had one of the best competitive years in tennis history. In Paris, Trabert. the top seed, defended the title he won the year before downing the No. 11 seed Sven Davidson of Sweden, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2. He and Seixas again won Roland Garros doubles, this time subduing the Italian tandem, Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The Championships in London was the next major and Trabert lived up to being the No. 1 seed. In the singles final, he defeated tournament surprise, the unseeded Dane, Kurt Nielsen, 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.

In his widely acclaimed memoir A Handful of Summers, the South African player Gordon Forbes describes Trabert's year. "He was unbelievably all-American. Open faced, smiling wide, freckles and a brush-cut. And he had massive groundstrokes that came at you like hurled medicine balls. He'd beaten Kurt Nielsen in the Wimbledon final that year. "It was like a tank moving infantry," said Abe Segal, Forbes's doubles partner.

"Trabert was driving the tank. Nielsen machine-gunned him but the bullets just bounced off!"

Neale Fraser and Rosewall, the No. 3 seeded Australian duo, downed the top seeds, Trabert and Seixas, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the doubles semifinals. Fraser and Rosewall lost in straight sets to Hartwig and Hoad in the final.

The US

Prior to the US National Championships, September 2nd -11th, Trabert was on the August 29, 1955, cover of Sports Illustrated. The caption read, "Tony Trabert – The Man To Beat".

In the piece, Trabert talked about being proud of the hard work he had done to become a champion, adding that he was grateful for the help his dad Arch and Bill Talbert had given him over the years.

Then he remembered the only time he ever thought about quitting tennis was on his 18th birthday when he played his first grass court match at the Newport Casino Invitational, in Newport, Rhode Island and lost to Chauncey Steele of Cambridge, Massachusetts and thought he would never be able to play on the surface.

Because of the success he was having in 1955, there was talk that Trabert had become overconfident, but before the Nationals he explained that he had "constructive confidence" and was well aware of his capabilities and limitations.

He added that his winning didn't make him lackadaisical or a candidate to be upset. "I approach each tournament and each individual match as though it was the last and most important one I'm going to play."

That's the way he played at Forest Hills. In a No.1 seed against No. 2 seed final, Trabert closed out a magnificent year by disposing of Rosewall, who had been the one who besmirched his Grand Slam hopes that past January in Australia, 9-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Trabert's 106-7 singles match record in 1955 was the best in the game's history. Trabert put up unrivaled numbers including 18 singles and 12 doubles titles: a 38 match, 10 straight tournament win streak.

At both Wimbledon and the US Nationals he had been impeccable, not losing a set in either tournament. (To understand what Trabert accomplished in perspective, it must be noted that matches in tournaments for the most part in those days, were all the best three out of five sets in both singles and doubles which speaks to his physical and mental prowess.

Gardnar Mulloy, who was ranked in the US Top Ten for 15 years, wrote in the October 1955 issue of World Tennis Magazine, that Trabert was "sounder than Hoad and more dominating than Rosewall. He has had a completely astonishing record this year, losing only one big match."

In his Sports Illustrated article, Trabert was asked if was giving thought to leaving the amateur ranks and playing for money. He explained that he hadn't received an offer.

He added that in the fall he was planning to live in Los Angeles and become a Security Banknote Company representative. He emphasized that he didn't want to turn pro, then fade away and become a club teaching professional.

Everything changed after he won the US Nationals, along with two follow-up tournaments in California – the Pacific Southwest Tennis Championships at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and the Pacific Coast Championships (for the third straight year) at the Berkeley Tennis Club.