The Handsome Eight

The Handsome Eight was the name given to eight amateur tennis players who signed with a New Orleans promoter named Dave Dixon in late 1967 and 1968 to play for a newly formed professional tour, World Championship Tennis (WCT). The WTC was backed financially by a wealthy Texas oilman, Lamar Hunt, who had, in 1960, been the prime founder of the American Football League. Taken together with a rival group called the National Tennis League, which had such prestigious professionals such as Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, Pancho Gonzales, Andres Gimeno, and Fred Stolle, as well as another recently signed top amateur, Roy Emerson, so many of the world's top players were lost to amateur tennis that a final impetus was given to the push to create Open Tennis, which would let both professional and amateur players compete in the same tournaments. As a direct result, 12 Open tournaments were authorized for the year 1968 by the International Tennis Association, and the first Open tournaments were held in the spring and summer of 1968.

Who they were

The Handsome Eight were Nikki Pilic of Yugoslavia, Earl "Butch" Buchholz and Dennis Ralston of the United States, Pierre Barthes of France, Cliff Drysdale of South Africa, Roger Taylor of Great Britain, and John Newcombe and Tony Roche of Australia. All of them were fine players, prominent in their own countries and with many amateur titles to their names, but only Newcombe and Roche were quite at the very highest level of the game as exemplified by Rosewall and Laver in the other touring group.

For many years the London Daily Telegraph had published an annual unofficial ranking of the top ten amateur tennis players in the world. At the end of 1967, Lance Tingay, who complied the list that year, considered Newcombe to be the world's best amateur, with Roy Emerson, of the rival professional group, as the #2 player. Roche was #5, Pilic was #7, and Drysdale was tied with two others for #10. The other four of the Eight were not ranked.

French Open

Of the 12 Open tournaments played in 1968, the three most prestigious were the national championships of France, Great Britain, and the United States. The first of these, the French Open, was played in Paris in May. For reasons unknown at this date, none of the Eight participated in the tournament. Six members of the rival professional group, the National Tennis League, however, were among the top eight seeds, and all four of the semi-finalists were NTL players. In the final, Rod Laver defeated Ken Rosewall in four sets.

Wimbledon

A month later at the British championships at Wimbledon, the world's most prestigious tournament, all of the Handsome Eight participated, with six of them among the top 16 seeds. Barthes and Taylor were unseeded, but Newcombe was #4, Ralston was #9, Buchholz was #10, and Drysdale, Roche, and Pilic were the final three seeds, #14 through #16.

In the matches themselves, Pilic lost in the first round to the unseeded Herb Fitzgibbon. Barthes lost in the second round to the unseeded V. Korotkov, Drysdale lost in the third round to the unseeded Tom Edlefsen, and Newcombe lost in the fourth round to the #13 Arthur Ashe. Both Ralston and Buchholz lost in the quarterfinals, Buchholz to his touring companion Tony Roche, and Ralston to the #1 seed, Rod Laver. Roche, the #15 seed, lost to Laver in the finals in three quick sets.

United States Open

At the final national championships of the year, the United States Open at Forest Hills in New York City, all of the Eight participated except for Earl Buchholz. Roche and Newcombe were seeded #2 and #4 respectively, while Ralston was #6 and Drysdale was #16. The top seed was Rod Laver, the winner of the French Open and of Wimbledon.

All seven players advanced to at least the third round. In that round Taylor lost to the #7 seed, Clark Graebner, while Barthes lost to the #8 seed, Tom Okker. Unseeded Nikki Pilic lost in the fourth round to teammate Dennis Ralston, while Roche was shocked in the same round by the 40-year-old Pancho Gonzales, seeded 13th, in straight sets. Ralston lost in the quarterfinals to #3 Ken Rosewall, while Drysdale, who had preciously upset top-seed Rod Laver in the fourth round, was beaten by an amateur, #3 Arthur Ashe. Newcombe was also beaten in the quarterfinals by another amateur, Clark Graebner. In the finals, the American Arthur Ashe beat another amateur, Tom Okker of the Netherlands.

1968 rankings

Unofficial rankings for the year 1968, including both professionals and amateurs, were compiled retrospectively by Bud Collins, the noted tennis commentator, in 2003. Tony Roche and John Newcombe of the Handsome Eight were ranked #4 and #6 respectively, while Dennis Ralston and Cliff Drysdale were #8 and #9. He judged Rod Laver to have been the world's #1 player for the year.

Subsequent careers in the Open Era

All eight players continued to compete throughout the first few years of the Open Era, with varying degrees of success. They are listed here by ascending number of singles titles won in 1968 and subsequent years.

• Pierre Barthes, who was a better doubles player than singles, never got past the fourth round of any of the four Grand Slam tournaments. He was a finalist as a singles player in six other tournaments, however, and in doubles won six tournaments, including the 1970 United States Open with his teammate Nikki Pilic. He played his last match in a Grand Slam tournament in the doubles competition of the 1980 French Open. He was never ranked in the top ten world players by either Bud Collins or, beginning in 1972, by a computer-generated ranking service.

• Roger Taylor was also a successful doubles player: he twice won the United States Open, in 1971 with John Newcombe and the following year with Cliff Drysdale. He won his last doubles title in 1977. He also, however, won three singles titles between 1971 and 1975. In 1973 he reached the quarterfinals of the French Open as well as the semifinals of Wimbledon. He was never ranked in the top ten world players by either Bud Collins or, beginning in 1972, by a computer-generated ranking service.

• Nikki Pilic won the United States Open doubles title with Barthes but also won four singles titles from 1969 through 1975. He lost the singles finals of the 1973 French Open and reached the quarterfinals of the United States Open that same year. At the Australian Open he never advanced beyond the third round and at Wimbledon beyond the fourth round.