page_title: Ken Rosewall
section_title: 1968
hierarchical_section_title: Ken Rosewall / Tennis career / Open-closed career: April 1968 through July 1972 / 1968
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: De Australiër Ken Rosewall in actieEnglish: Australian tennis player Ken Rosewall at a tournament in Scheveningen, The Netherlands
context_page_description: Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM, MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won a record 23 tennis Majors, including 8 Grand Slam singles titles and, before the Open Era, a record 15 Pro Slam titles; overall, he reached a record 35 Major finals. He won the Pro Grand Slam in 1963. Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career doubles grand slam. He had a renowned backhand and enjoyed a long career at the highest levels from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. Rosewall was world No. 1 player for a number of years in the early 1960s in some rankings. Rosewall was first ranked in the top 20 in 1952 and last ranked in the top 20 in 1977. Rosewall is the only player to have simultaneously held Pro Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces. At the 1971 Australian Open he became the first male player during the open era to win a Grand Slam tournament without dropping a set. Rosewall won world professional championship tours in 1963, 1964, and the WCT titles in 1971 and 1972.
  A natural left-hander, he was taught by his father to play right-handed.
context_section_description: During the 1968 season several categories of players coexisted:
  Amateur players, dependent on their national and international federations, allowed to play the amateur events and open events but forbidden to receive official prize money
  Registered players, also dependent on their national and international federations, eligible to play the Davis Cup and forbidden to play pro events as an amateur, but authorised to take prize money in the open events (e.g. Okker)
  Professionals under contract with the National Tennis League (NTL)
  Professionals under contract with the World Championship Tennis (WCT)
  Freelance professionals (e.g. Hoad, Ayala, Owen Davidson and Mal Anderson).
  In 1968 there were a) an amateur circuit including the Davis Cup (closed to any "contract" professional until 1973) and the Australian Championships, b) two pro circuits: WCT and NTL, which met at four tournaments, and c) an open circuit (with a little more than 10 tournaments). At the beginning of the open era WCT founder Dave Dixon did not allow his players to enter tournaments where NTL players were present: there were no WCT players at the first two open tournaments, the British Hard Court Championships and French Open, while all the NTL players were present. The first tournament where NTL and WCT players competed against each other, was the U.S. Pro, held at Longwood in June. Several events were still reserved to the amateur players between 1968 and 1972.
  Two tournaments were at the top in 1968: Wimbledon (a 128-man field), and the US Open (a 96-man field), both played on grass, where all the best players competed. Other notable tournaments that year were the Queen's Club tournament and the greatest pro tournaments where all the NTL and WCT pros competed (but without amateur or registered players) as the U.S. Pro (outside Boston, on grass), the French Pro (coming back to Roland Garros after the 5-edition interlude at Coubertin), the first Pacific Southwest Open in Los Angeles (64-man field) with all the best players present, the Jack Kramer Tournament of Champions at Wembley in November and the Madison Square Garden Pro in December with the four best pros of each organisation.
  In this context Rosewall played almost all NTL pro tournaments in 1968, the four "NTL-WCT" tournaments and some open tournaments. He entered his first open tournament at 33 years old at Bournemouth on clay (the WCT players did not take part) and defeated Gimeno and Laver, to win the first open tennis title. At the French Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the Open Era, Rosewall confirmed his status of best claycourt player in the world by defeating Laver in the final in four sets. Defeats followed against some of the upcoming 1967 amateur players (Roche twice on grass at the US Pro and at Wimbledon, Newcombe on clay at the French Pro and Okker on grass at the U.S. Open in the semifinals). Rosewall was finalist to Laver at the Pacific Southwest Open, defeating the new US Open winner, Arthur Ashe, and in November captured the Wembley Pro tournament over WCT player, John Newcombe. At age 34 Rosewall was still ranked No. 3 in the world behind Laver and Ashe according to Lance Tingay and Bud Collins. Rino Tommasi ranked Rosewall 2 behind Laver.
caption: Ken Rosewall (1970)
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