Obituary for tennis legend Tony Trabert: White ballet

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Tony Trabert at Wimbledon 1955: The American won three of the four Grand Slam titles of the year

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Laurence Harris / AP

1955 was the year Einstein and Thomas Mann died.

Chancellor Adenauer achieved the release of the last German prisoners of war in Moscow, James Dean demonstrated on the screen what rebellion can be.

The millionth VW Beetle was built, and Robert Lembke put his piglet on the table for the first time at "What am I?"

Caterina Valente sang "All Paris dreams of love".

But in reality Paris dreamed of Tony Trabert in 1955.

The then 24-year-old tennis player was a star, an American in Paris.

The French newspapers were full of pictures of him, the sports fans raved about the elegance and the ease with which Trabert shone on the Roland Garros layout.

And he also brought that certain glamor factor with him: Trabert had come to Paris with his wife Shauna, a beauty queen, Miss Utah.

Victory at the French tennis championships in Roland Garros, victory in the US championships in Forrest Hills, victory at Wimbledon - the American won three of the four Grand Slam titles of the year in 1955, his year.

He is one of only seven tennis players who managed to do this in the men's singles.

Listen to the other six names to see which league we are in: Donald Budge, Rod Laver, Mats Wilander, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic.

Just missed victory at the Australian Open

Only at the Australian Open, then held in Adelaide, did Ken Rosewall, the great Australian, stand in his way in the semi-finals and prevented complete success.

But if he couldn't win the singles title in Melbourne, then Trabert won the doubles: at the side of his partner Vic Seixas, himself a brilliant single player, he formed an almost unbeatable duo for years.

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Tony Trabert and his wife Shauna after Trabert's success at the 1955 US tennis championships

Photo: Anthony Camerano / AP

Trabert has been in a Grand Slam final ten times in his career, five times in singles and five times in doubles.

He left the pitch ten times as the winner and at the end lifted a trophy into the air.

The year 1955 he closed with the fabulous match statistics of 106 wins and 18 titles, he remained 38 games in a row without defeat.

But that's just the numbers.

Watching Trabert play was an aesthetic pleasure, that's what everyone who has experienced it says.

His powerful backhand, his confident volley, the overhead balls, everything on the verge of perfection.

In many ways, tennis was still the white sport back then, and Trabert looked more like a ballet dancer on the tennis court to some.

At home on every surface

Above all, he was a complete player, at home on every surface.

The US tennis championships were still played on grass at that time, Wimbledon anyway, but Trabert was also a champion on ashes.

Roland Garros and the red sand have been a complicated relationship for US players for many years.

For decades, US tennis has traditionally been rather powerful, offensively oriented, the test of patience for ashes, that was something for the persistent, as exemplified by the Spanish tennis school.

But Trabert could do everything.

Thanks to his double expertise, he was made for fast serve and volley, but he also mastered waiting for the best moment in the move that it takes on the ashes of Paris.

It took an impressive 34 years after that until another American triumphed in Roland Garros: Michael Chang.

His round of 16 against Ivan Lendl, his serve from below, his performance, how he supposedly dragged himself from game to game at the end of his strength in order to win in the end.

The way he sits there on the bench with the banana in hand, it is one of those games that tennis fans will never forget.

It is also Trabert's legacy.

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The victorious USA Davis Cup team in 1979

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Trabert watched this game like hundreds, oh well, thousands of others from the press box.

He stayed loyal to tennis after his career, it was his life after all.

For more than 30 years, he commented on the courts of the world for CBS, mostly together with Pat Summerall, it was an almost as congenial duo as he and Seixas once on the court.

He could even handle McEnroe

He not only commented on tennis, he also shaped it in other fields.

As Davis Cup captain in the USA in the 1970s, he was not only able to persuade Jimmy Connors to give up his aversion to this competition.

Above all, he promoted the young John McEnroe, whom he made number one in the US team.

Being able to deal with McEnroe, the seething volcano, speaks for a special diplomatic skill.

And Connors wasn't much less strenuous.

The reward: The USA won the trophy twice under Trabert's leadership.

In addition to McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis and Stan Smith were part of the winning team, all just legends.

Paris, that was his living room, just as Boris Becker always made Wimbledon his parlor.

After his career, Trabert helped the French tennis musketeer René Lacoste (that's what Lacoste was actually called) in building his sports and clothing line.

Together with Lacoste he developed the racket that helped Billie Jean King and Jimmy Connors to their great success.

The fact that Trabert also invented Lacoste's crocodile logo is a story that has not been denied, at least to this day.

Tony Trabert died on Wednesday at the age of 90.

Tennis has one gentleman less.

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