VITAS, "TAPPY" AND THE WOMAN CALLED RICHARD

 

VITAS GERALAITIS: THE PLAYBOY CHAMPION

    

When Vitas Geraliatis (pictured: right) passed away at the age of 40, 

it left the tennis community in shock. The Grand Slam winner and a perennial 

top-ten player had been bigger than life during his years as a tennis professional 

When news on the passing of Vitas Geralaitis reached the news outlets around the world there was a sense of shock throughout the tennis community. It was hard to believe that Geralaitis, a larger than life personality, was no more.

Born in Brooklyn, New York on July 26th, 1954, Geralaitis was as flamboyant off-court as he was a superstar on-court. With his long curly blonde hair and athletic game, Geraliatis was tagged with the "playboy" label at a time when there were already several larger than life personalities in tennis.

Vitas Geralaitis was a regular fixture on the New York 

club scene

But it would be unfair to remember Vitas Geralaitis as merely a flamboyant playboy tennis pro. He achieved a top ten ranking in 1979 and although he was plagued by a back injury during the latter part of his career, was able to stay in the top ten for a 10 year period.

His sole Grand Slam victory came at the1977 Australian Open, but he will be remembered also for a thrilling five-set, semi-final loss to Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon, and losing in the final of the US Open to great John McEnroe. He lost again to Borg in another Grand Slam final, this time the French Open in 1979.

Geralaitis became a larger than life character in tennis at a time 

 when tennis was beginning to capture the attention of the sporting world.  

But it was his semi-final loss to Borg that I first saw how good the Geralaitis game was. He was incredibly fast, perhaps faster than even Borg. One rally in particular stays with me. Geralaitis had been going forward to the net at every opportunity. Borg on the other hand was content to stay back at the baseline and attempt to either pass Geralaitis or lob him. In this particular rally, Geralaitis crashes into the back fence chasing a Borg lob and falls at the net trying to return a Borg drop shot. A spectacular display of speed.

Watch a short video: The Geralaitis Story 

During the early days of the "tennis boom" there were many colorful characters in professional tennis. Vitas Geralaitis stands out as one of the truly great characters that helped promote tennis to a sporting world that was just beginning to take notice.

    

ART "TAPPY" LARSEN: THE WWW2 WAR VETERAN

Arthur David "Art" Larsen

Arthur David Larsen (April 17, 1925 - December 7, 2012), known to his friends as "Art", won the US Championship in 1950, beating Herbert Flam in a five-set final.  In 1954 he lost to Tony Trabert in straight sets in the finals of the French Open. He also won U.S. Indoor, U.S. Hard Court and U.S. Clay Court titles. In 1955 he was ranked No. 3 in the country.

Art Larsen served on the front lines during World War 2, and it was believed that many of his on-court eccentricities were due to the mental stresses he suffered during his service as a soldier in the war,

As good as he was as a tennis player, it was his unusual behavior during matches that has ensured that his name will be remembered fondly by tennis historians.

He developed an unusual habit of tapping everything he could find during a match, in the belief that it would bring him good luck. He would tap the net post as he walked past it, and the umpire's chair multiple times during matches, fences, the net, and almost anything else that was near him at the time.

Art "Tappy" Larsen was perhaps the most eccentric tennis player 

to play our game

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer wrote:

"Larsen was fascinating to watch. He had concentrated on tennis as a mental therapy after serving long stretches in the front lines during World War 2. He was called Tappy because he went around touching everything for good luck, and sometimes he would chat to an imaginary bird that sat on his shoulder. This was good theatre, but it could never have made Larsen a candidate for a professional tour".

 Ramkumar Ramanathan, the Indian player currently ranked in the top 150 on the ATP Tour, is another player who seems to want to get in as many taps as possible before returning serve. He will constantly tap the baseline with his racquet right up until the server tosses the ball to serve.

Like many quirks and habits of this nature, it began to become a distraction for Ram, and over recent seasons he has limited the tapping  somewhat. 

In a sport that seems to feature many eccentric characters, Art "Tappy" Larsen may just be the most eccentric tennis player of them all.

In 1969 Art "Tappy" Larsen was inducted into

the Tennis Hall of Fame

His compulsion was to tap people and things a given number of times on a given day. 

“Every day was a onesie day, or a fivesie day — that’s what he called them — and if he happened to run into you on, say, a threesie day, he’d tap you three times,” Dick Savitt, the 1951 Wimbledon champion, said in an interview once.

Tappy Larsen's tennis career was cut short by a scooter accident that almost cost him his life. He died on December 7, 2012.

THE RENEE RICHARDS STORY

In 1971 the winner of a woman's tournament in La Jolla, California, Renee Clark, was "outed" by a newspaper-heading the next day saying "Women's Winner Was A Man". It was true, Renee Clark, previously known as Richard Raskin was in fact a man.

Richard Raskin came from a privileged background, was an 

extremely talented sporstman, but carried a deep secret

Raskin was the son of two Russian immigrant doctors and grew up in a privileged household. At school, he excelled at swimming, baseball, and played wide receiver on the school football team. But what he did best was tennis. 

He considered a full-time tennis career but instead decided to study ophthalmology (specializing in eye muscle surgery and correcting double vision)  at the University of Rochester. 

During this time in medical school he was still able to compete 5 times in the US Open championships between 1953 and 1960.

Richards reached the top 20 on the Women's tour 

while in her 40s

Soon, Richard Raskin was a successful surgeon in Manhattan, married, and considered by all to be a highly successful guy with a great future ahead. But for one problem, he identified as a woman and not a man.

In 1975, at the age of 41, Richard Raskin underwent gender reassignment surgery at a New York hospital and left the hospital as Dr. Renee Richards. He divorced his wife and moved to California to start a new life. Soon after arriving, Richards began entering women's tennis tournaments in the area under the name of Renee Clark.

Renee Richards competed on the Women's professional circuit

during a time of considerable controversy 

Because of all the publicity over her participation in women's tennis events, Richards's story went around the world. The USTA mounted a strong court case against her,  attempting to ban her from participating in tennis events as a woman. Richards's won the case.

Free now to compete in Women's events, two weeks later, Richards's played in the US Open (as a woman participant) and lost in the first round of the Women's singles to the then reigning Wimbledon singles champion, Virginia Wade of Britain.

After four more years of playing on the Womens' circuit, Renee Richards retired and continued her career as a successful eye surgeon. She has written two memoirs, and has been the subject of a documentary (Renee, 2011), and a movie (Second Serve, 1986), where her part was played by Venessa Redgrave.

"I never would have been allowed to play on the women's tour if I was a 'trans' something. But now it's a third category. It's not male-female. It's gender fluidity. It's something in between .... I am as bewildered by it as the average person. But look, things are different now. The world changes."   - Renee Richards

Renee Richards, now 84, lives an hour north of Manhattan. She has a tennis court at her home but it is never used. She worries about aggravating an old knee injury, and says "Wheels, wheels, wheels,", "Tennis is all about wheels".

She still follows tennis on television and on social media, but today golf is her passion, playing every chance she gets on the course near to her home. She has been on a single digit handicap, and now plays off an 18. "But that is ok, because my age keeps going up also".