Stan Smith’s 1972 Wimbledon Cup sits alongside his 1971 U.S. Open winning prize in a trophy case in his home on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Smith hoped to defend the title in ’73.
“I was playing the best tennis of my life,” Smith said. Smith lost the 1971 Wimbledon final to John Newcombe in five sets, and again defeated Illy Nastase in five sets in the 1972 final. “Once you win, you want to win again.”
In 1973, however, Smith decided not to play. Instead, he and 80 other players voted to boycott the tournament just before the first match in favor of Nikola Pilic. Pilic was banned from the tournament by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (now the ITF) a month ago after refusing to play for his native Yugoslavia in a Davis Cup match. “It was really hard,” Smith said in a phone interview.
This year, as the Women’s Tennis Association celebrates the momentous meeting at Wimbledon 50 years ago when Billie Jean King encouraged his fellow players to found the organization, the Tennis Professionals Association also marks a turning point in its own history. I remember the moment of the dot. That was when its members banded together, built muscle and competed in tennis’ most prestigious tournaments, and its impact is still being felt today. These include enhanced communication between players and tournaments and expanded prize distribution at all levels of professional gaming.
“This was the beginning of the union between the ATP and the players, because the relationship was really being tested,” said current ATP president Andrea Gaudenzi, born a month after the boycott, in a video call. “Everyone was blown away by the support Niki got and it made the players feel that when we come together we are strong and we can do something. It is a very important milestone. was.”
The boys’ group had been launched a year earlier, but the boys still endured power struggles between members and the tournament. Many of the top players were committed to World Championship Tennis, Pro Circuit, founded in 1968 with the backing of Texas businessman Lamar Hunt. The tour competed with the International Lawn Tennis Federation.
The ATP’s first group of players, dubbed the Handsome Eight, included Cliff Drysdale, Pilic and Newcombe. Arthur Ashe, Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall were immediately signed.
In 1971, the federation sought to maintain control over its players and resolved to ban all competitors from rival world championship tennis from major 1972 federation events, including the French Open and Wimbledon. The ban lasted only a year and created animosity with the players.
Pilic and his doubles partner Alan Stone qualified for the 1973 WCT Masters, which coincided with the Davis Cup quarter-final between Yugoslavia and New Zealand. Pilic chose to compete in the World Championship tennis event, but Yugoslavia were furious and Yugoslavia lost to New Zealand.
The Yugoslav Tennis Federation has called on the International Lawn Tennis Federation to take action against Pilic. The federation imposed a nine-month suspension on him, but it was reduced to one month, enough to keep him out of Wimbledon.
“Maybe if I had played I would have won easily,” Pilic said of the Davis Cup over the phone from his home in Croatia. “I had a big fight with them.” [Yugoslav] Federation”, and the Lawn Tennis Federation. “They could do whatever they wanted. We had no control over the sport. We had to do something.”
When the players gathered in London for Wimbledon, there were countless discussions and late-night meetings. Four-time champion Laver said he would not compete. So did Newcomb, who has won three times, as well as Smith, Rosewall and Ashe.
“We had to take the pulse of the players,” Drysdale, the first ATP president, said by phone. “We were professionals and we wanted to stay that way. Niki had the right to play wherever he wanted. No one objected to what we were doing. We never wavered over whether what we were doing was right.”
On the morning of the first game, Drysdale called 9-year-old tournament umpire Mike Gibson, asked if he had a pen and paper, and began reading out the names of the 81 players who would not be playing, including 12 of them. Out of 16 seeds. By the time the match started hours later, 29 qualifiers and 50 lucky losers had entered the draw. These are the men who suddenly qualified for the main draw after losing in the qualifying tournament.
There were also voices against the withdrawal plan of the players. Nastase, who was second only to Smith the previous year, chose to compete. So did Roger Taylor, who refused to speak for a year afterward.
Jimmy Connors also played, and 17-year-old Bjorn Borg played at Wimbledon for the first time.
Two-time French Open champion Jan Kodes from Czechoslovakia also chose to compete, winning his only Wimbledon. In the final, he defeated Alex Metreveli (Russia).
“Nobody asked me to support the boycott,” Mr. Kodes said in an email. “I wasn’t there because I wasn’t a member of the ATP. Nobody believed this could happen. In my opinion, it was created to show and enhance the power of the players. I think it was driven by ATP.
“I don’t know if the boycott was really necessary,” Codes added. He reached the final at the US Open two months later. “Tennis is full of controversial situations and questionable decisions.”
Former player Drysdale said the effects of the boycott were long lasting.
“The game has changed forever because no one has forgotten what happened that year,” he said. “And we all know the same thing could happen again depending on how the players are treated.
“Everyone knows that players have withdrawn from one of the most important tournaments in the world once, and no one can be sure they won’t do it again.”
Gaudenzi said he believes player unity is key to the growth of the game. What he now wants is greater synergy between the ATP, WTA, ITF and Grand Slam tournaments.
“We need to come together and work more closely,” Gaudenzi said, but didn’t say there should be one commissioner for the men’s and women’s tours. “I want tennis to be bigger. I want tennis to have relevance to other sports and other entertainment. We need to adapt to new ways of consuming competition, so we need to step up our game, and the only way to do that is by uniting.”
Now 83, Pilic still marvels at the tremendous sacrifice his fellow players have made for him.
“At the time, I thought maybe Niki Pilić wasn’t that important,” he said. “But we are the product and you can’t have a tournament without the product. People couldn’t believe we did it. We proved to be a very strong group, we lost the year, but we won the war.”
