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Just about anyone in the world alive at the time could probably answer the question of where exactly they were on November 22, 1963.
This day was of course one of the most terrible days in American history as President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. The people of the United States – and the world – were not only stunned by the tragedy, but also stunned by the astonishing sights and events that followed, including the sudden inauguration of President Lyndon Johnson on Air Force One, the assassination of Kennedy’s alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, and the president’s mournful state funeral.
In the sports world, the National Football League controversially went ahead with its full schedule just two days after Kennedy’s death. This was a decision that NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle struggled with, but was reassured by Kennedy’s press secretary Pierre Salinger.
The tennis world was still five years away from the more structured “Open Era” of professional tennis, but the focus of American tennis at the time was in Australia, as the amateur members of the U.S. Davis Cup team competed in events leading up to their Davis Cup final against Australia, then called the Challenge Round.
Dennis Ralston, then a 21-year-old student at the University of Southern California and a top 10 amateur player in the world, learned of Kennedy’s death while he was in Adelaide, Australia on the morning of November 23, the day he was scheduled to play John Newcombe in the final of the South Australian Tennis Championships in Adelaide.
Ralston recalled in 2013 that he first heard of Kennedy’s death while staying at the Travel Lodge in Adelaide and listening to the morning news and at first thought the news broadcast was a hoax.
“I thought it was another broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds,’ but I realized it was real and something bad had happened,” Ralston said.
Ralston was heartbroken by the news of the president’s death and was unsure whether he wanted or should play the final, but he was urged to go to court by the US ambassador to Australia, William Battle, a close friend of Kennedy, who assured Ralston that the president would have wanted him to come to court and play the final.
“I wasn’t that excited about playing,” Ralston recalled 50 years after the murder. “Everything was in turmoil. I didn’t think something like this would ever happen in the US. We certainly weren’t prepared for it.”
In his fragile mental state, Ralston was defeated in the South Australian final by future three-time Wimbledon champion Newcombe 6-1, 6-3, 15-17, 6-1.
“Our entire team was saddened by the news of the president’s assassination,” Robert Kelleher, the captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team, told local reporters after the final. “Denny didn’t know if he should play or not.”
However, Ralston would come through for his grieving country a month later, with Ralston and Newcombe meeting again on the same field in Adelaide in the opening match of the Davis Cup Challenge Round between the US and Australia. Ralston reversed his result from the previous month to claim a 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Newcombe in a match that proved crucial to the United States regaining the Davis Cup with an eventual 3-2 win, ending Australia’s four-year reign as champions.
To read more daily anecdotes and match summaries from tennis history, order the book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY here https://a.co/d/9IHJIBH
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