Fox Had a Grand Old Time

Next week marks the start of the 75th Los Angeles Open tennis tournament, now called the Mercedes-Benz Cup. Another in a series looking back at some of the more memorable moments.

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What did Manuel Santana, Tony Roche, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson have in common in 1966?

If you guessed that the 1966 Pacific Southwest tennis championships represented a gathering of the Grand Slam winners that year, you would be correct. Emerson started the year by winning in Australia, Roche took the French Open at Roland Garros, Santana won the third leg at Wimbledon and Stolle won at Forest Hills.

The four players also had something else to share after the final ball was hit at the Los Angeles Tennis Club in the Pacific Southwest event in 1966.

They were victims of a 27-year-old postgraduate psychology student from UCLA, who added to his aura of coolness by showing up for matches on his motorcycle. Allen Fox beat the four Grand Slam winners--all in straight sets--capping off the accomplishment by taking out Emerson, 6-3, 6-3, in 47 minutes.

In fact, the toughest test came in the second round against Graham Stilwell when Fox trailed, 4-3, in the third set.

After Fox beat Stolle, 8-6, 6-4, in the semifinals, he joked about his potential accomplishment, saying: “If I can beat Emmo [Emerson] tomorrow, that means I’ll win the Grand Slam.”

Although Emerson had defeated Fox in their only previous meeting, on clay, the fast hard-court surface benefited Fox in their final.

“The final act of Fox’s dramatic march of triumph through what was considered the strongest international field ever assembled for the 40-year-old tournament was an inspiring performance in which he pecked, lobbed and virtually hypnotized Emerson into submission,” wrote Jeff Prugh of The Times.

“And when Fox unloaded a blistering forehand drive that practically tore the racket out of Emerson’s hand to win the match, the partisan capacity crowd of 3,500 leaped to its feet and cheered him wildly.”

Emerson returned and won the event in 1967 for his fourth Pacific Southwest title. Fox never won the Pacific Southwest event again but he did beat Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Stan Smith and John Newcombe and was named to the U.S. Davis Cup team three times.