The US Open from 1968 marked an important shift in the history of Tennis, because it was the first “open” professional edition of the tournament, open to pros and amateurs. Earlier the American subjects were open to amateur players only. Arthur Ashe famous won the first edition of this new “Open Era” event, but as the famous idiom goes: “You never remember that second end.” That year the number two was the big but much less well -known Dutch star Tom Okker. “The Flying Dutchman” was his Nick-Note and Ashe played an exciting final of five set in 1968, with Ashe who prevailed by a 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 Scoreline. Because Ashe was still an amateur player, Okker, despite the loss, received the first prize of $ 14,000.
Okker is Jewish and can be seen in the book “The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All Time” by Sandy Harwitt, available here https://www.amazon.com/dp/193755936x/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_u_x_c3pfbb43jat7b And the chapter about Okker is exclusively pronounced below.
The flying Dutchman
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In 1968 Arthur Ashe and Tom Okker-Twee played players who are still considered amateurs in the final of the very first US Open that would include professional players and offer prize money. Ashe would win and Okker 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 defeated and collected $ 15 a day for his performance. Okker, who had status as a “registered player”-which means that he was an amateur who could collect prize money at certain tournaments scored the $ 14,000 highest price check for coming in as second place. Ashe was the first African man who won a big title. In a country that has only recently undergone a deskregation process, the victory of Ashe fell over both sports and non-sports fans.
However, that final in Forest Hills is not my most lively memory of Okker. Very early in my career – just like in the first few months – I worked for the late Gene Scott, a former American semi -finalist, who then had a versatile career in the game, emphasized by a tournament director and publisher of the tennis weekly magazine, which has since been destroyed. Gene was also a lawyer. It would be difficult to find many children from the Tri-State area in New York who have not received a start in the tennis company of Gene. As the newly mentioned editor of Tennis Week, one of my benefits was that for the weekend to the Philadelphia Tournament, where Okker would collaborate with Wojtek Fibak van Polen to beat Peter Fleming and John Mcenroe in a three-set final for the title on Sunday.
I was planning to return to New York after the tournament in the same way as I arrived – on the Amtrak train. It offers handy and pain -free journeys between cities on the east coast. When I appeared with my suitcase in the lobby for a ride to the train station – most tournaments were very polite in providing transport – Tom Okker was also at the transport agency. When he heard me say that I went to the 30th street station to bring the train back to New York where he suffered. He also went to New York but flew. I am sure I must have been rejected because nobody from New York would fly to Philly or vice versa. But Okker continued from New York, so flying was logical. That was when he suggested that instead of taking the train, I should fly with him, because why should we not have each other’s company on the journey? I think it sounded a bit decadent to fly between the two places, so I agreed. Moreover, Laguardia was actually an easy place for my mother to pick me up.
It sounded like a great idea until they went on board the plane. This was not a jet-it was a small propeller number that had only about three steps higher to go and probably had about 12-16 passenger seats. I remember that I was not so happy because the plane looked like it had arrived directly from the Second World War and I must have imagined the pilot who had told everyone that it was time to flutter with their arms to keep the plane up and not stop until we landed.
Tom clearly saw my concern. It was at that time that he reached his neck and pulled out a chain crammed with hanging charms. Because he told me it would be okay because he had all his happiness medals, I noticed that two stood out: one was a Jewish symbol and the other that Christianity represented. I asked him about it and he explained that his father was Jewish and his mother was not and he thought it was advisable to take his happiness out of all possible sources. He filled in the religious conversation by saying that he saw himself as Jewish and even played on the Maccabiah matches in Israel, winning the singles and mixed double titles in 1965.
We have arrived safely in New York – it must have been Tom’s Good Luck snatches – and that remains the only time I have ever flown that route.
Thomas Samuel Okker was born on February 22, 1944 in the Netherlands, a country that was under the occupation of Nazi Germany. The Netherlands had hoped to remain neutral when the war broke out in 1939, but mid -May 1940 the Germans bombarded Rotterdam and the next day the country surrendered. The Dutch royal family sought refuge in Great Britain, but the rest of the Dutch lagged behind to be an occupied country. Before 1940 there were 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands, but by the time that the Netherlands was liberated in May 1945, only 30,000 had survived.
Growing up in a post -war country, it took a while for life to get normal again and live beyond the base. For Okker, only when he became 10 that he was introduced to tennis. When he started winning Junior tournaments, Tom thought it would be serious to follow tennis would be fun.
Okker found a road to the international tennis circuit and would eventually win 31 singles titles and reach the final of 24 extra events. He would be among the top 10 for a number of years with a career height of No. 3 in March 1974. His best Grand Slam result achieved that US Open -Final of 1968, but he also reached the semi -final with the other three Majors during his career. In 2014 he is still high on the list of top 50 all-time open era title leaders at number 24 in the world with his 31 singles trophies.
Okker was also a prominent double player and on February 5, 1979 he became the fourth double player in the history of the official ATP -Doubles ranking to be arranged at number 1 – he would occupy first place in his career for a total of 11 weeks. He won two Grand Slam Doubles titles: on the French Open from 1973 with John Newcombe and on the US Open from 1976 with Marty Riessen. In total Okker won 78 Doubles titles, which was a record until the Australian Todd Woodbridge broke it in 2005. Okker, who was one of the first to use a tough top spin recording, competed in 13 Davis Cup tires between 1964 and 1981, with a 15-20 Win-Loss record.
When Okker decided it was time to put down his racket in 1981, he became an artificial broker, first as founder of Jaski Art Gallery in Amsterdam and opened Tom Okker Art in Hazerswoude-Dorp in 2005, the city outside Amsterdam where he lives. Okker’s gallery is everything related to the Cobra movement of Art, which emphasizes abstract expressionist artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Okker was anchored in 2003 in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
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