The Open Era

Stan Smith

United States · born Pasadena, California, 1946 · right-handed · Wimbledon champion 1972, in the first Sunday final

Hall of Fame 1987
Stan Smith
Robbie Mendelson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

All players

2

Major singles titles, both on grass: US Open 1971, Wimbledon 1972

6

Wimbledon finals in singles and doubles, 1971 to 1981, one won

1972

Year-end world No. 1

7

Davis Cup titles with the United States

13

Davis Cup ties in which his doubles win was decisive

Playing career

Stanley Roger Smith was born in Pasadena on 14 December 1946, the youngest of three sons. He was coached by Pancho Segura on the public courts of Pasadena, and Perry Jones of the Southern California Tennis Association paired him with Bob Lutz. He won the US 18-and-under title at Kalamazoo in 1964 and went to the University of Southern California, where he was a three-time All-American and won the NCAA singles in 1968 and the doubles with Lutz in 1967 and 1968.

Smith and Lutz won the doubles at the first US Open in 1968 and the doubles in the Davis Cup Challenge Round in Adelaide that December, when the United States took the Cup from Australia. Drafted into the US Army on his 24th birthday in 1970, he served two years and was allowed to keep playing. He won the first year-end Masters in 1970, lost the 1971 Wimbledon final to John Newcombe in five sets, and won the 1971 US Open at Forest Hills over Jan Kodeš. In 1972 he beat Ilie Năstase in the Wimbledon final and finished the year No. 1.

He won the WCT Finals in Dallas in 1973 but missed Wimbledon that year, the year of the players' boycott. With Lutz he won four US Open doubles titles and the 1970 Australian Open; he won 37 singles titles and played Davis Cup for 11 years. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1987 and served as its president from 2011. He married Marjory Gengler in 1974; the couple later mentored the South African player Mark Mathabane. To most people his name means the adidas shoe.

On grass

Wimbledon singles finals1971: lost to John Newcombe 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 after leading by two sets to one. 1972: beat Ilie Năstase 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 on his fourth match point, in the first men's final played on a Sunday after rain washed out the Saturday
Wimbledon doubles finalsLost four: 1972 with Erik van Dillen to Bob Hewitt and Frew McMillan 6-2, 6-2, 9-7; 1974 with Bob Lutz to Newcombe and Tony Roche 8-6, 6-4, 6-4; 1980 and 1981 with Lutz, the last to Peter Fleming and John McEnroe
Forest Hills1968 US Open doubles with Lutz: beat Arthur Ashe and Andrés Gimeno 11-9, 6-1, 7-5. 1971 US Open singles: beat Jan Kodeš 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6, the first US Open final to end in a tiebreak. 1971 doubles final with van Dillen: lost to Newcombe and Roger Taylor 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6
Wimbledon 1974Semi-final: lost to Ken Rosewall 6-8, 4-6, 9-8, 6-1, 6-3 after leading by two sets
Davis Cup, Adelaide, 1968Challenge Round at Memorial Drive: with Lutz beat John Alexander and Ray Ruffels 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 as the United States ended Australia's four-year hold on the Cup

Every grass title: 15

Show every title, tournament by tournament
Wimbledon
1972 Men's singles
US Championships
1968 Men's doubles US National Amateur Championships with Bob Lutz
1968 Men's doubles US Open with Bob Lutz
1969 Men's singles US National Amateur Championships
1971 Men's singles US Open
1974 Men's doubles US Open with Bob Lutz
Nottingham
1970 Men's singles
1974 Men's singles
Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion)
1966 Men's doubles† with Bob Lutz
Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange)
1969 Men's singles
Victorian Championships
1969 Men's singles
Australian Championships
1970 Men's doubles Australian Open with Bob Lutz
Kent Championships (Beckenham)
1971 Men's singles
Queen's Club
1971 Men's singles
Newport, Rhode Island
1979 Men's doubles Hall of Fame Open with Bob Lutz

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

"You don't try to lose here just because all the best players aren't here. The subject isn't even worth my time. This is still the greatest tournament in the world, and the pros know it. For me, this championship would be the pinnacle."

Smith before the 1972 Wimbledon Championships, from which the WCT professionals were banned; quoted by the International Tennis Hall of Fame

Anecdotes

The person behind the player.

Pasadena, 1963

Be best in the world

At 16 he watched Arthur Ashe, three years older, play in the Davis Cup. He went home and wrote down a list of goals; one of them was "be best in the world".

Source: Wikipedia

Pasadena

Basketball first

His first love was basketball, and he played for his high school team until his senior year. In 1972 he joked: "the better I get in tennis, the better I become in basketball. If I ever win at Wimbledon, I think they'll make me an All-American in basketball."

Source: Tennis Abstract

December 1970

A draft notice for his birthday

His draft notice arrived on his 24th birthday, 14 December 1970, and two days later he was in the US Army. The Army saw the public relations value of a tennis champion: he kept playing tournaments, toured as a recruiter and gave clinics at bases and in inner-city areas. He won the 1971 US Open as a corporal.

Source: Wikipedia; Tennis Abstract

Wimbledon, 1972 · Final

Eighty per cent guts

Before the final he told reporters: "If I have to, I can always go to my guts to beat this guy." He had to. Năstase played brilliantly, and Smith came through with what he called "80 percent guts and a little luck", winning on his fourth match point when Năstase missed a smash.

Source: Tennis Abstract

On tour

Partners who hardly met

Smith and Lutz won titles together for years and roomed together on the road, yet Lutz said: "we hardly knew each other.... I only met him on the court." When a group went out on the town, Smith might stay in the hotel to skip rope.

Source: Tennis Abstract

adidas

The shoe that was not his first

The white leather shoe began in the early 1960s as the Haillet and was renamed the adidas Stan Smith, with his portrait and signature on the tongue. More than 50 versions exist, and the Hall of Fame notes they are not recommended for competitive play.

Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame

Explore

Where they won on grass

All players

Sources

Page updated 4 November 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.

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