ROSAMUND wrote:

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Jan Kodes won the French Championships in 1970 and 1971 and Wimbledon in 1973, the year of the boycott. He was also runner up in the 1971 and 1973 US Open Championships. He could obviously play on both clay and grass. I know  he showed his capabilities at the 1973 US Open when all the players who boycotted Wimbledon  played and he was still able to reach the final. 

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 That last point is a good one Rosamund - A lot of folks write off Kodes as someone who only won Wimbledon because of the boycott, your point proves he wasnt just a flash in the pan.

ROSAMUND wrote:

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JonH comes home wrote:

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ROSAMUND wrote:

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Jan Kodes won the French Championships in 1970 and 1971 and Wimbledon in 1973, the year of the boycott. He was also runner up in the 1971 and 1973 US Open Championships. He could obviously play on both clay and grass. I know  he showed his capabilities at the 1973 US Open when all the players who boycotted Wimbledon  played and he was still able to reach the final. 

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 That last point is a good one Rosamund - A lot of folks write off Kodes as someone who only won Wimbledon because of the boycott, your point proves he wasnt just a flash in the pan.

  

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 No he wasn't a flash in the pan and he always gave 100%  effort.

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 He also reached the Tour FInals each year from 1970 to 73 and the semis of the WCT Finals (which in the 70's was effectively rated as highest event outside the Slams and for a while it was above the Australian Open) in 1974. He beat Nastase before losing to Borg. 

WCT Finals in Dallas , initially at the Moody Colisseum and then at Reunion Arena, was a BIG deal. BBC showed it live for a number of years before the WCT folded into the Grand Prix and ATP Tour came to fruition. Dallas was their crown jewel and, even back in 1973, they had $100k prizemoney with the winner getting half of that. $50k in those days , 50 years ago almost, was big money for tennis and attracted a strong field. What was strange though was the schedule. They would play an 8 man event and usually have 1 match per day, best of 5 sets. The order of play left a lot to be desired in modern times and so some players would play a SF/Final back to back, others would have 3 days between a QF and a Semi. Players seemed to accept it more then though!

I loved the WCT Finals, the WCT Tour generally , and I also liked the Virginia Slims Tour and then the Avon Tour that followed it on the womens side   

ROSAMUND wrote:

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Marcelo Rios of Chile was world number 1 for a short time in 1998. However he never won a Grand Slam singles title  and his best was runner up to Petr Korda at the 1998 Australian Championships. He never got beyond the quarter finals of any other Grand Slam.

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 Korda himself is very interesting - I liked his game and in subsequent life, two of his daughters are top pro golfers on the LPGA Tour in the States, very successful, and his son played tennis as well I recall (Seb Korda). But Korda was  suspended for doping (nandrolone?) after his Aussie Open title, not long afterwards either if I recall, but was never stripped of his title and it stands to this day. 

I guess there are others such as Puerta (drugs, 8 year ban straight after his FO title), Coria (7 months suspension for nandrolone), Roscoe Tanner (Tanner was in the news in the 2000s for legal problems that included stretches of imprisonment, arrests for missing child support payments, allegations of financial misdeeds, and bankruptcy.), who have all gone through issues and problems that may , or may not, impact on peoples view of their fitness to be a favourite in this vote!