The Open Era
United States · born Dallas, 1956 · died 2021 · right-handed · Newport champion 1986
All playersBack to the rankings
9
Career-high ATP singles ranking, January 1984
7
ATP singles titles, the last on grass at Newport
QF
Wimbledon 1979, his best result there
24
Points in a row in his golden set, Delray Beach 1983
1976
NCAA singles champion for Trinity University
William Scanlon was born in Dallas in 1956. As a sophomore at Trinity University in Texas he won the 1976 NCAA singles title, beating UCLA's Peter Fleming in the final, and within a year of turning professional he was in the ATP top 30. By September 1978 he had fallen to No. 100, but he ended that year with his first title, in Maui, beating Fleming 6-2, 6-0 in the final.
He reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1979. In February 1983 at Delray Beach he won a golden set, every one of the 24 points, against Marcos Hocevar, and at that year's US Open he beat the top seed John McEnroe 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 in the fourth round before losing the semi-final to Jimmy Connors. He reached No. 9 in January 1984. After two knee operations in 1985 he won one more title, on grass at Newport in 1986, for seven ATP singles titles in all.
Off the court he served on the ATP board, founded the Dallas Youth Foundation in 1984 and later worked in investment management in Los Angeles. He wrote Bad News for McEnroe (2004) and, with Joe Parent, Zen Tennis (2014). He died of cancer in Park City, Utah, on 2 June 2021, aged 64.
| Newport 1986 | Won the Hall of Fame Championships, beating Tim Wilkison 7-5, 6-4 in the final; it was the last of his seven singles titles |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 1979 | Reached the quarter-finals, his best result at the Championships, and lost to Jimmy Connors |
| Australian grass doubles | Brisbane 1977 with Vitas Gerulaitis, beating Mal Anderson and Ken Rosewall 7-6, 6-4 in the final; Adelaide 1987 with Ivan Lendl, beating Peter Doohan and Laurie Warder 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 |
| Adelaide 1987 | Lost the singles final to Wally Masur 6-4, 7-6 in the same week as his doubles title with Lendl |
| South Pacific Classic | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Men's doubles | with Vitas Gerulaitis |
| Newport, Rhode Island | ||
| 1986 | Men's singles Hall of Fame Open | |
| South Australian Championships | ||
| 1987 | Men's doubles | with Ivan Lendl |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I walked on the court against Marcos without even hitting a ball with them."
The person behind the player.
Corpus Christi, 1976
As a sophomore at Trinity University he won the 1976 NCAA singles title in Corpus Christi, beating UCLA's Peter Fleming in the final. Two years later he beat Fleming again, 6-2, 6-0, for his first tour title in Maui.
Source: Texas Tennis Museum; Tennis.comDelray Beach, February 1983
That morning he practised with Rod Laver and tried new graphite racquets, found no feel in them and went back to wood. He beat Marcos Hocevar, then ranked 39th, 6-2, 6-0, winning all 24 points of the second set. The feat is in the Guinness Book of Records, and the scorecard is on display at the Texas Tennis Museum.
Source: Tennis.com; Texas Tennis MuseumUS Open, 1983
His finest win was over the top seed, John McEnroe, in the fourth round. McEnroe led their meetings 9-3, but Scanlon was not intimidated by his gamesmanship: he worked out which side McEnroe was off on that day and kept serving to it.
Source: Tennis.comThe writer
In 2004 he published Bad News for McEnroe, about the players of his era. "It was the first generation of professional and the sport was being revolutionized at every level," he wrote. In 1978 he had told Bud Collins that the touring life "gets old".
Source: Tennis.comDallas, 1984
In 1984 he founded the Dallas Youth Foundation, which brought professional tennis players, Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks and Olympians together to run sports activities for local young people. He was inducted into the Texas Tennis Hall of Fame in 1986 and the ITA Collegiate Hall of Fame in 1999.
Source: Texas Tennis MuseumFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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