Roy Stanley Emerson was born on 3 November 1936 and is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam titles.
27 Facts About Roy Emerson
2.
Roy Emerson is the only male player to have completed a career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles, and the first of four male players to complete a double career Grand Slam in singles.
3.
Roy Emerson was ranked world No 1 amateur in 1961 by Ned Potter, 1964 by Potter, Lance Tingay and an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 14 experts and 1965 by Tingay, Joseph McCauley, Sport za Rubezhom and an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 16 experts.
4.
Roy Emerson held that record for 30 years until it was passed by Pete Sampras in 2000.
5.
Roy Emerson held the record of six Australian Open men's singles titles until 2019 when Novak Djokovic won his seventh title.
6.
Roy Emerson won five of those titles consecutively, a still-standing record.
7.
Roy Emerson is one of only five tennis players ever to win multiple slam sets in two disciplines.
8.
Roy Emerson won his first Grand Slam tournament doubles title in 1959 at Wimbledon.
9.
Later that year, Roy Emerson claimed his second major singles crown when he again beat Laver in the final of the US Championships.
10.
Roy Emerson was primarily a serve-and-volley style player, but was able to adapt to the rigours of slow courts, allowing him to enjoy success on all surfaces.
11.
From 1963 to 1967, Roy Emerson won five consecutive men's singles titles at the Australian Championships.
12.
Roy Emerson won 55 consecutive matches during 1964 and finished the year with 109 victories out of 115 matches.
13.
Roy Emerson won three of the year's four Grand Slam events that year.
14.
Roy Emerson was the world No 1 amateur player in 1964 and 1965 according to Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and in 1961 and 1964 according to Ned Potter of World Tennis.
15.
Roy Emerson was the heavy favourite to win Wimbledon again in 1966, but during his fourth round match he skidded while chasing the ball and crashed into the umpire's stand, injuring his shoulder.
16.
Roy Emerson still finished the match, but was unable to win.
17.
Roy Emerson signed a professional contract with the National Tennis League in early April 1968.
18.
Roy Emerson had 10 straight victories in Grand Slam tournament finals in which he appeared, which is an all-time record.
19.
Roy Emerson had the perfect doubles shot, a backhand that dipped over the net and came in at the server's feet as he moved to the net.
20.
Roy Emerson was a member of a record eight Davis Cup winning teams between 1959 and 1967.
21.
Roy Emerson defeated Roscoe Tanner, Arthur Ashe, and Bjorn Borg in the last three rounds of that tournament.
22.
Roy Emerson mostly played doubles with the Lobsters and often teamed with fellow Australian Tony Roche.
23.
The final Lobster team that Roy Emerson coached consisted of Tony Roche, Mike Estep, and Roy Emerson himself as the male players.
24.
Roy Emerson briefly coached promising juniors at East Lake Woodlands in Oldsmar, Florida.
25.
Roy Emerson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1986.
26.
In 2009 Roy Emerson was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.
27.
Roy Emerson was honoured during the 2013 Australian Open at the Australian Open Legends' Lunch.