Art Larsen

Larsen won the 1950 U.S. Open Tennis Championships, defeating John Horn, Sven Davidson, Jaroslav Drobný, Tom Brown, Dick Savitt in the semifinal, and Herb Flam in the final.

John Olliff of The Daily Telegraph ranked Larsen as world No. 3 in 1950. [1] Larsen was ranked as the U.S. No. 1 tennis player for 1950 by the USLTA.[2] He won the "Times" national sports award for the outstanding tennis player of 1950.[3]

Although he was ranked by the USLTA as the No. 1 U.S. tennis player for 1950 and the U.S. No. 3 for several other years, Larsen was never selected to represent the United States in Davis Cup Challenge Round competition presumably because "he never met the selection requirements as mandated by the USLTA."[4] Players who were ranked well below Larsen by the USLTA were chosen instead.

In 1950, Budge Patty was the Wimbledon champion and was ranked world No. 1 by John Olliff,[5] and Larsen ranked world No. 3 by the same source. However neither player would represent the U.S. in the Davis Cup Challenge, with Tom Brown and Ted Schroeder being chosen instead. The results of that 1950 Challenge Round were disappointing for the U.S. team. In November of 1950, Larsen won the New South Wales White City tournament in Sydney, defeating the two Australian singles representatives in the Davis Cup Challenge Round, Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor, in the final two rounds.

He was the first man to win all of the recognized U.S. national titles, the US National Championships (grass), the US Clay Court Championships (clay), the US Hardcourt Championships (cement), and the US Indoor Championships. Since then, only Tony Trabert has equaled his feat.

A member of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, he previously attended the University of San Francisco, where he was a member of the 1949 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship team. He was 5 feet 10 inches and 150 pounds and was known for his partying before and during his tournament appearances. It frequently was written that Larsen would arrive for an important match directly from an all-night party with no benefit of sleep.[6]

Larsen's tennis career ended abruptly in November 1956 after a motor scooter accident in Castro Valley, California. He partially was paralyzed and lost sight in one eye. He was the no. 8 ranked American amateur at the time.

Larsen was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1969.[7]

Larsen died on December 7, 2012 at the age of 87.[8]

Jack Kramer, tennis player and long-time promoter, stated in his 1979 autobiography that "Larsen was fascinating to watch. He had concentrated on tennis as mental therapy after serving long stretches in the front lines during (World War II). He was called Tappy because he went around touching everything for good luck,[9] and sometimes he would chat with an imaginary bird that sat on his shoulder. This was good theatre, but it could never have made Larsen a candidate for a professional tour."[10][11]

• The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)

• Art Larsen at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Art Larsen at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Art Larsen at the International Tennis Federation
• Art Larsen at the Davis Cup