Owen Williams (tennis)

Owen Williams (born 23 June 1931) is a retired South African male tennis player and tournament director.

Owen Williams

Full name	Owen Gordon Williams
Country (sports)	South Africa
Born	(1931-06-23)23 June 1931 Idutywa, Transkei, South Africa
Retired	1959
Plays	Right-handed
Singles
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	2R (1954)
Wimbledon	3R (1955)
US Open	4R (1954)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (1954)
Wimbledon	QF (1954)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (1954)
Wimbledon	QF (1952, 1954)

He was educated at the Selborne College, East London, South Africa.

His best performance at a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the quarterfinals in the men's doubles at the 1954 Australian Championships and 1954 Wimbledon Championships, partnering Abe Segal and Trevor Fancutt respectively.[1][2] His best singles performance was reaching the fourth round at the 1954 US Championships as the seventh–seeded foreign player. In the fourth round he lost in straight sets to Ham Richardson.[3]

He retired from playing tennis in 1959 at the age of 27. After his playing career he became a tournament director. In the early 1960s he became the tournament director of the South African Tennis Championships. Under his directorship the tournament grew in popularity and stature and became one of the main tournaments on the tour.[4] In early 1969, Williams became Tournament Director of the US Open at Forest Hills, the first full-time director in the tournament's history.[5][6] That same year the African American tennis player Arthur Ashe requested a visa to participate in the South African Open but was denied by the South African authorities. In the following years he was again refused a visa, but in 1973 his visa application was finally granted and he accepted Williams' invitation to participate in the tournament on the condition that the spectator stands would be racially integrated. Afterwards Ashe and Williams established the Black Tennis Foundation aimed at making tennis accessible to every black child in South Africa.[7][8] In 1981 Williams was hired as CEO of Lamar Hunt's World Championship Tennis (WCT) circuit and remained in that position until the WCT disbanded in 1990.

In addition to his tennis activities, Williams founded, owned and operated several businesses ventures including distributorships in Scotch whisky, chocolate liqueur and champagne, a sporting goods firm, a small publishing company and a public relations company.[5][6] As part of the deal to sign Williams for the WCT organization, Lamar Hunt purchased his South African businesses in 1981.[9]

In 1998, Williams partnered with chess legend Garry Kasparov to form Sports Management Strategies International in Palm Beach, Florida.[5]

Further reading

• Ahead of the Game, a memoir By Owen Williams with Christopher Moore and Richard Evans. SMSI Inc, 2013. ISBN 978-0615853352

References

1. "Australian Open – Players – Results Archive – Owen Williams". Tennis Australia.
2. "Wimbledon Players Archive – Owen Williams". AELTC.
3. Talbert, Bill (1967). Tennis Observed. Boston: Barre Publishers. p. 129. OCLC 172306.
4. Mathabane, Mark (1998). Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography--The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa (1. ed.). New York [u.a.]: Free Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0684848280.
5. "S.M.S.I, Inc., The Kasparov Agency". SMSI, Inc. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
6. Kim Chapin (1 September 1969). "Living Dangerously At Forest Hills". Sports Illustrated. pp. 36–39.
7. "Ashe again refused South African visa". Eugene Register-Guard. 25 February 1971.
8. Djata, Sundiata (2008). Blacks at the Net: Black Achievement in the History of Tennis (1st ed.). Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. pp. 70, 71, 80, 81. ISBN 978-0815608981.
9. Sweet, David A. F. (2010). Lamar Hunt : The gentle giant who revolutionized professional sports. Chicago, Ill.: Triumph Books. p. 159. ISBN 9781600783746.

External links

• ATP – Player profile