Arthur Ashe discovered part of more US Open History
By Randy Walker
@TenniisPublisher
Arthur Ashe not only wrote history in the final of the US Open of 1968, but he was also part of the history in the first round.
Ashe opened his historic US Open Championship -Run from 1968 by beating US Singles champion Frank Parker in the first round 1944 and 1945
In retrospect, the game was historical because Parker would be known at the age of 52 as the oldest player who participated in the men’s Singles competition in the US Open. It was of course the first staging of the tournament as an “open” tournament (open to professional players and not only amateurs as it was before 1968).
With the US Open “Open” for pros from 1968, Parker, who became Pro in October 1949, was able to play the event and enter the tournament “for LOL”, as described by Bud Collins in his book “The Bud Collins History of Tennis.” Other players who were forbidden to play Forest Hills after they became pro returned to the holy site after they were allowed to play in the national championship of the United States, including some other long -term players such as Pancho Segura (Age 47), Pancho Gonzalez (AE 40) and Vic Seixas (44 years).
Ashe defeated Parker 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and of course won the very first staging of the American “Open” that Tom Okker defeated the Netherlands in a final of five set that became the first black man who won a big singles title. Ironically, Ashe was an amateur player.
In all subsequent staggering of the tournament there was no other competitor as old as Parker. The second oldest was Segura in 1970 at the age of 49 and Segura again when he played in 1968 at the age of 47. Since 1990, the oldest competitor in Heren Singles was the 42-year-old Ivo Karlovic, who lost in the first round of Andrey Rublev in 2021 in the first round.
Parker’s full bio, as seen in the book ‘The Bud Collins History of Tennis’ can be found here:
Frank Parker
United States (1916-1997)
Hall of Fame – 1966
Frank Andrew Parker, a beautiful Groundstroker, especially on the backhand side, was a paragon of sustainability, ranking in the American top 10 for 17 consecutive years (1933-49), a male record until Jimmy Connors surpassed it in 1988 in 1988. One of the youngest with the Elite, he was in heeled.
He entered the fun in 1968, this handsome, graceful man who had worked together with Don Budge and Gene Mako to win the Davis Cup for the US in 1937 and said he wanted to be part of another era, the ‘Open’. He lost his first match of the final champion, Arthur Ashe, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and thus completed a championship career that was defeat with a third round of no. 4-class George Lott, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, in Forest Hills in 1932. In between as Sgt. Parker, Frankie, won the American title on his thirteenth attempt in 1944, again in 1945, both during the leave of the US Army Air Force during the Second World War. Based on Guam in 1945, he was commissioned to report to New York, 9,000 miles away, to do his duty by defending his title. He defeated the citizen
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 Quarterfinals-Lordag in 1946 by Tom Brown has his dream to win three times together. However, he almost shocked Jack Kramer by winning the first two sets of their final of 1947, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. After the American championships of 1949, his 19th ended with a semi-final 3-6, 9-7, 6-3, 6-2 loss for champion Pancho Gonzalez, Frankie became Pro to tour with Kramer, Gonzalez and Pancho Segura.
Grass or clay? It did not matter for 5-foot-81/2, 145 pound Frank, at home somewhere, the third of only four American men who could win on the Greensward of Forest Hills and the heavy salmon-colored 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-after Don McNeill, and preceding Tony Trabert. But his certain Groundies looked especially good in the American Clay Court Championship that he won five times between 1933, at the age of 17 and 1947. His 24-match Streak was terminated in the final of 1949 by Gonzalez, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6, 6-3. Parker built the streak on titles in 1941 (about Bobby Riggs, 6-3, 7-8, 6-8, 4-6, 6-3), 1946 (about Bill Talbert, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2) and 1947 (about Ted Schroeder, 8-6, 6-2, 6-4). Although he and Gonzalez were best known for singles,
They played a short but powerful duet on both sides of the English canal in 1949 and won the French and Wimbledon
Doubles titles.
Frank won 12 of 14 Davis Cup competitions. In 1948 he won both singles in the successful defense, 5-0, against Australia, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, about Billy Sidwell. In combination with his clinching singles win on Charlie Hare 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, while the US switched the cup of Great Britain in 1937, Parker was the only man who helps the cup with singles wins to win on both ends of the Second World War. He was a poor boy who made up for it. The youngest of five children of a struggling widow, he was born in an unlikely tennis situation, January 31, 1916 in Milwaukee, who grew up there. Baptized Franciszek Andrzej Paikowski, as a young child he deserved an apparent to help the family as Ballboy in the Town & Tennis Club. He showed a talent for the game, he was encouraged by members, started winning at 11 -youth tournaments and was called ‘Boy Wonder of Tennis’.
He was accompanied by a famous coach, the professional of the club, Mercer Beasley, who felt that Frankie could become a champion. Are
Mother allowed Frank to live and travel with the Beasleys as his game progressed. Audrey and Mercer considered him their own son, who supervised his development as a nationally arranged junior. In 1937, however, something of a scandal developed – Audrey, 42, and Frank, 21, falling in love. She divorced Beasley, married Frank, and despite their tabloid knowledge it worked. They happily lived and traveled together, until her death in 1971.
He was arranged six times in the world’s top 10 between 1937 and 1949, no. 1 in 1948. He went into the Hall of Fame in 1966 and died in San Diego on July 24, 1997.
Large titles (6) —French Singles 1948, 1949; US Singles, 1944, 1945; Wimbledon Doubles, 1949; French double. 1949. Other American 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), US (60-18).
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