Latest news with #Stolle
Otago Daily Times
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Fred Stolle, tennis player
Fred Stolle at Wimbledon, July 1, 1965, in London. Fred Stolle was not only a great tennis player, but the two-time grand slam singles title winner was the voice of the sport as a commentator on Australian and US television. Born in Sydney, Stolle emerged from an incredibly competitive Australian tennis scene, where rivals included Roy Emerson, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, Tony Roche and Rod Laver. He lost the first five grand slam singles finals he reached and also lost three Wimbledon finals in a row from 1963-65. His first singles major came at the 1965 French Open and he won the US Open the following year. Doubles was where Stolle really made his mark, winning all four men's grand slam doubles titles from 10 victories in total and seven major mixed doubles titles. He was part of the Australian Davis Cup-winning team in 1964, '65 and '66. Stolle coached American major winner Vitas Gerulaitis for several years; his son Sandon was a US Open doubles winner. Fred Stolle died on March 5, aged 86. — APL/agencies
New York Times
09-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Fred Stolle, Golden-Age Australian Tennis Star, Dies at 86
Fred Stolle, a popular Hall of Fame Australian tennis player who won 19 Grand Slam titles, including two singles championships, during a golden age for his countrymen internationally, died on March 5 at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 86. His granddaughter Sydney Bose said the cause was cardiac arrest. Stolle had his greatest success in the 1960s when he and other Australian players, like Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson and John Newcombe, dominated the sport in the pre-open era before professionals were allowed to join amateurs in 1968 to play in major tournaments. Stolle was on the strong Australian squad that won the Davis Cup, the international men's team event, from 1964 to 1966. But Stolle also lost three consecutive Wimbledon singles finals, twice to Emerson, from 1963 to 1965. Stolle once said that Emerson was a better athlete than he was and a 'bit quicker around the net.' Stolle won his first singles title at the 1965 French Championships (now the French Open), where he rebounded from losing an error-filled first set, 3-6, to overcome a fellow Aussie, Tony Roche, 6-0, 6-2 and 6-3 in the next three games. In the second set, The New York Times reported, 'the tall blond Stolle punched his backhand volley and stroked his service more cleanly' and 'quickly found that he could overpower Roche's backhand.' In the third set, Stolle attacked the net 'for repeated winners' with his backhand volley. 'It was his sharpest tool all afternoon.' A year later, Stolle defeated Newcombe to win the United States National Championships (now the U.S. Open), in Forest Hills, Queens. Stolle had lost to Emerson in the finals in 1964. The four-set victory over Newcombe earned Stolle a 'Man in the News' profile in The Times, which described him as resembling a 'dehydrated octopus' — because of elbows and knees that 'jut out like stunted tentacles' — as he waited for a serve. 'But when he uncoils,' the article added, he 'moves with a fluid grace that has propelled him to the finals of the world's major tennis championships during his career.' It was a particularly satisfying victory for Stolle, who had felt slighted by the fact that he had not been seeded by officials at Forest Hills. 'They must think I'm just a bloody old hacker,' he said before the tournament. After winning, he said, 'I guess the old hacker can still play a bit.' From 1962 to 1969, he won 10 Grand Slam doubles championships (three at the Australian Championships, two in France, two at Wimbledon and three at Forest Hills) with his partners Bob Hewitt, Emerson and Rosewall. Stolle also won two Australian, two United States and three Wimbledon mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, with partners who included Margaret Court, Lesley Turner Bowrey and Ann Haydon Jones, one of his fellow inductees into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. Stolle was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1988. Frederick Sydney Stolle was born on Oct. 8, 1938, in Hornsby, Australia, a suburb of Sydney. His father, Wilfred, was a railroad worker, and his mother, Mildred (Hucker) Stolle, managed the home. Both played tennis and taught Fred the sport. Fred was a ball boy on courts in Sydney, and for a Davis Cup match in Australia in 1951. He also played cricket as the wicketkeeper, but his hands kept getting banged up, so his mother told him to stick to tennis, he told The Times. His career would spread over more than 30 years during which he earned the nickname Fiery, or Fiery Fred. Conflicting accounts suggest that the monikers reflected his competitiveness or, ironically, his morning listlessness after partying late in the night. As his career wound down, Stolle was the player-coach of the New York Sets (later the Apples) of World Team Tennis, leading them to championships in 1976 and 1977. He also coached Vitas Gerulaitis, who played for the Apples, for several years. In 1978, Stolle was hired as the tennis pro at the Turnberry Isle Country Club in Aventura, Fla., a job that he held for about 25 years. He continued to play — mostly doubles — into his 40s. In 1979, he and Emerson advanced to the doubles semifinals of the U.S. Open but lost to the fourth-seeded Stan Smith and Bob Lutz. Two years later, Stolle, 42, was back in the doubles semifinals with Newcombe, 37, against John McEnroe and Peter Fleming, who were 22 and 26. Stolle and Newcombe lasted until the fifth set. While Stolle and Newcombe hugged and laughed at their good fortune as they extended the match by winning the third and fourth sets, their opponents barely spoke to each other. When a reporter asked Stolle afterward if he thought that victory was possible, he was quoted by The Boston Globe as saying: 'For the first two sets, I was so bloody nervous I couldn't even hit the ball. Then when John hit a ball off my neck, I wasn't nervous — just twitching.' In addition to his granddaughter Sydney, Stolle is survived by his wife, Patricia (Beckman) Stolle; two daughters, Monique Stolle-Lemon and Nadine Delius; his son, Sandon, a former professional tennis player who won the 1998 men's doubles title at the U.S. Open; seven other grandchildren; and his brother, Don. Stolle was also a television commentator in the United States, for ESPN, and in Australia, for the Nine Network and Fox Sports. David Hill, who as a producer at the Nine Network hired and worked with Stolle as an analyst, wrote in an email that Stolle was able 'to tell you what was going to happen, not what had just happened.' Hill, who in the 1990s became the president of Fox Sports in the United States, added: 'His big thing was the seventh game of a set, and who won the seventh likely determined the eventual winner of the set and the match. And he was inevitably right.'
Boston Globe
06-03-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Australian tennis great Fred Stolle has died at age 86
Nicknamed 'Fiery Fred' or 'Fiery' for short, he lost the first five Grand Slam singles finals he reached — four of them to fellow Australian Roy Emerson. He also fell in consecutive Wimbledon finals in 1963, 1964, and 1965. He broke through on his least favorite surface, on clay at the 1965 French Championships, beating Tony Roche in the final. Advertisement 'I lost a bunch of those to Emmo but against anybody else I felt comfortable,' Mr. Stolle told the Tennis Channel. 'The French was not the one I was supposed to win, but it was exciting for me.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up At the 1966 US Championships in Forest Hills, he beat John Newcombe in another all-Australian final, becoming only the second unseeded champion. Newcombe was also unseeded. Mr. Stolle beat three seeds to reach the final. Afterward, he held the No. 1 ranking and turned pro. He won 10 men's doubles titles at Grand Slams from 1962-69, four each with Bob Hewitt and Emerson and two with Ken Rosewall. He's one of the few to win all four doubles majors. Mr. Stolle also won seven mixed doubles majors, his partners including Margaret Court, Lesley Turner Bowrey, and Ann Haydon Jones. He was part of the team that won the Davis Cup in 1964, 1965, and 1966. His most notable win was in 1964 in Cleveland, where, with Australia 2-1 down, he beat American Dennis Ralston 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 9-11, 6-4. The following year, he launched Australia's defense in Sydney by overcoming Spain's Manolo Santana 10-12, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5. Mr. Stolle coached American Vitas Gerulaitis to the 1977 Australian Open title and would continue playing singles on tour until 1982. Advertisement 'His legacy is one of excellence, dedication, and a profound love for tennis,' Tiley said. 'His impact on the sport will be remembered and cherished by all who had the privilege to witness his contributions.' Rod Laver, an Australian who won 11 major titles including the calendar-year Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969, posted a tribute to Stolle on X. 'As I wrote in my book on the golden era of Aussie tennis, Fred Stolle was too nice a guy to hold a grudge. He won many Grand Slams and was in the finals of many more. It took the best to beat the best,' Laver posted. 'We never tired of reliving the past as we traveled the world looking into the future with an enduring love of the sport.' Mr. Stolle was born in Sydney but lived in the United States after his playing career. Tennis Australia said he leaves his wife, Pat, his son Sandon — a US Open doubles winner — and daughters Monique and Nadine.
The Guardian
06-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Fred Stolle obituary
The Australian tennis player Fred Stolle, who has died aged 86, won the French Championship in 1965 and the US Championship in 1966, along with a hatful of doubles titles around the world. But he could never quite get over the line at Wimbledon, where he lost in three consecutive finals between 1963 and 1965. Typically, however, Stolle did not allow his frustrating failure to win Wimbledon to deter him from making the most of his ability as a world-class player, or to douse the huge enjoyment he derived from being one of the game's most popular personalities. He played in an era when, outside Wimbledon and a couple of other grand slams, the nocturnal hours were to be enjoyed as much as sunlit days on the courts of the world's most glamorous locations. This did not mean the players of his era were unfit. Far from it. Unlike today, practically every tournament insisted on matches that were best of five sets, and all the top singles stars automatically played doubles as well. The beer from the night before was simply removed from the system by punishing early morning runs and tough work on the practice court. Stolle's great Aussie friend Roy Emerson, who beat him at Wimbledon in the 1964 and 1965 finals, led the way in that department, with Stolle following closely behind. In retrospect, Stolle's success was largely forged out of two incidents that he rightly considered to be unfair and publicly embarrassing slights from the powers that governed the game before it professionalised in 1968. The first came when he was trying to make his mark as a Davis Cup player for Australia under the stern and demanding captaincy of Harry Hopman. He was the junior member of the team that beat Italy in the challenge round in 1961 and, as such, was ordered to go to the umpire's dinner after the victory. It was at the dinner that Hopman stood up and praised the other members of the squad, but offered the opinion that Stolle would never be good enough to make the grade. Stolle was crushed and humiliated, but Emerson, who had experienced his own problems with Hopman, tried to console his friend by telling him it was just the captain's way of seeing if he could take it. Intellectually, Stolle understood what Emerson was saying but, as he wrote in his autobiography, 'emotionally it was very difficult to listen to Harry Hopman tell the world I was not good enough'. Stolle had to live with that assessment until 1964, when Hopman pulled off a surprise by selecting him for the singles and doubles matches in a tough tie against Mexico in Mexico City. Although he lost to the brilliant Rafael Osuna on the first day, Stolle proved his worth by teaming up with Emerson to win a marathon doubles game then complete Australia's victory with a reverse singles win against Antonio Palafox. Proving he was, indeed, good enough, Stolle finished with a career Davis Cup record of 13 wins out of 16 singles and doubles matches. The second public slight came in 1966 when the seeding committee for the US Championships at Forest Hills in New York omitted him from the list of eight seeds. There were no computerised ranking lists in those days and a player's career was in the hands of faceless officials. Stolle, who had been playing well, was furious. Determined to prove the committee wrong, the lanky serve-and-volley expert cut a swathe through the draw on the slick grass, playing what he described as the best match of his life to beat Emerson 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in the semi-finals, and John Newcombe 4-6, 12-10, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Although that triumph probably gave Stolle the greatest personal satisfaction, his surprise victory at the French Championship the previous year was undoubtedly his finest achievement. European clay was never the easiest surface for Australians, but Stolle stayed true to his attacking instincts to battle his way past a gaggle of Europeans before beating his fellow Australian Tony Roche 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3 in the final. In addition to his two grand slam singles titles, Stolle was one of the leading doubles experts of the 60s, winning three US men's doubles titles, two with Emerson and one with Ken Rosewall; three Australian, two with his original partner, Bob Hewitt, and one with Emerson; two French (Emerson and Rosewall) and two at Wimbledon with Hewitt. He also won seven mixed doubles titles, including Wimbledon with the British player Ann Jones in 1969, the year she won the singles title. Born in Hornsby, Sydney, Stolle benefited from the fact that in Australia – unlike many other countries in the world – tennis was a pastime for all classes. His father, Bill, was a labourer on the railways, but that did not stop him playing competitive doubles at the local club on Sunday mornings, and young Fred was soon joining in. Although Stolle quickly began winning local junior titles, his early progress did not quite warrant the corporate sponsorship offer that would have enabled him to play tennis almost full time. Instead he took a job at a bank and was lucky enough to choose one that had Cliff Sproule, a leading International Tennis Federation official, among its directors. Sproule eased Stolle's way on to the travelling tennis circuit, and as a bright and charming young man with a special Aussie line in sardonic humour, he never looked back. With his wife, Pat, and young family in tow, Stolle quickly took to life in the US and, once he turned pro, accepted a series of jobs as a tennis director at country clubs, beginning in Tucson, Arizona, and eventually settling at Turnberry Isle near Miami. For several years Stolle was also chief summariser on ESPN's tennis broadcasts, which were headed by one of his old rival players, Cliff Drysdale. It was with Drysdale that he set up Grand Slam Sports, a company offering corporate hospitality outings all over the US. The business's partners included such well-known names as Emerson, Rosewall, Marty Riessen, John Lloyd and Owen Davidson, who would offer their services. Most of them were capable speakers, none more so than Stolle himself, whose personality enabled him to 'roast' his guests and still retain their friendship and respect. He was made an officer of the Order of Australia in 2005. Stolle is survived by Pat and their children, Sandon (also a professional tennis player), Monique and Nadine. Frederick Sydney Stolle, tennis player, born 8 October 1938; died 5 March 2025
Jordan News
06-03-2025
- Sport
- Jordan News
Australian Tennis Star Fred Stolle Dies at 86 - Jordan News
Australian Tennis Star Fred Stolle Dies at 86 Legendary Australian tennis player and commentator Fred Stolle has passed away at the age of 86, as announced by officials on Thursday, who praised his "excellence, dedication, and deep love for tennis." اضافة اعلان Born on October 8, 1938, in Hornsby, Stolle won the French Open in 1965 and the US Open in 1966. He also reached the finals of the Australian Open in 1964 and 1965, as well as Wimbledon three times in 1964, 1965, and 1966. However, his greatest successes came in doubles and mixed doubles, where he won 17 Grand Slam titles and claimed victories in all four major tournaments at least twice. His career also included 39 singles titles, 10 in doubles, and 7 in mixed doubles. After retiring from competitive tennis, Stolle became a renowned commentator, gaining widespread fame as the "voice of tennis" for generations of fans through Australian networks such as Nine Network, as well as Fox Sports and ESPN in the United States. Craig Tiley, President of Tennis Australia, praised the late Stolle's qualities, calling him an iconic figure both in Australia and internationally. He said, "When we talk about the golden era of Australian tennis and the transition from amateurism to professionalism, Fred's name is among the best." He added, "Fred was an integral member of Australia's Davis Cup team, and he made significant contributions to the sport after his decorated career as both a coach and an insightful commentator." Tiley concluded, "His legacy is one of excellence, dedication, and a deep love for tennis. Anyone who had the honor of witnessing his contributions and his impact on the sport will remember and cherish it." Stolle was part of three Australian Davis Cup-winning teams (1964–1966) and was a long-time coach of American player Vitas Gerulaitis, who won the Australian Open in 1977.
