I wholeheartedly agree. It was one for the ages. And it should be celebrated more. I'm trying to reach Mark for comments. I've actually traded emails with him. But I haven't been able to engage him in an interview or even any Q&A by email.
Thanks for your comments. I will probably watch the whole match again soon. It was incredible. Edmondson had so many great shots. And he was the epitome of someone in the zone, the way he never looked around at the crowd and kept coaching himself after losing points. He did have a lot of unforced errors. It wasn’t perfect tennis. But he was playing against the former world #1, so anyone would have had unforced errors.
The most amazing thing to me is how I never heard of this story previously. Perhaps in the tennis world they discounted it because most of the top 10 players passed up the Australian Open in those years because the money was no good and the expenses to go were high. It was an odd time, because years earlier the top players did make the trek there, but by the late 1970s the top players were accustomed to higher class traveling and the money contrast with what they could make even playing exhibition matches was far higher.
But all that can’t take away from Emondson’s victory because he did in fact beat the #2 in the world (Rosewall) and the guy who was the last man to be the world #1 before Connors.
What a match that was and such an impressive performance by an underdog like that, how do you hold serve at that clip?
You can never take that away from Edmondson. 🎾 🏆
I wholeheartedly agree. It was one for the ages. And it should be celebrated more. I'm trying to reach Mark for comments. I've actually traded emails with him. But I haven't been able to engage him in an interview or even any Q&A by email.
Thanks for your comments. I will probably watch the whole match again soon. It was incredible. Edmondson had so many great shots. And he was the epitome of someone in the zone, the way he never looked around at the crowd and kept coaching himself after losing points. He did have a lot of unforced errors. It wasn’t perfect tennis. But he was playing against the former world #1, so anyone would have had unforced errors.
The most amazing thing to me is how I never heard of this story previously. Perhaps in the tennis world they discounted it because most of the top 10 players passed up the Australian Open in those years because the money was no good and the expenses to go were high. It was an odd time, because years earlier the top players did make the trek there, but by the late 1970s the top players were accustomed to higher class traveling and the money contrast with what they could make even playing exhibition matches was far higher.
But all that can’t take away from Emondson’s victory because he did in fact beat the #2 in the world (Rosewall) and the guy who was the last man to be the world #1 before Connors.