Anthony Dalton Roche AO MBE (born 17 May 1945), professionally known as Tony Roche is an Australian former professional tennis player.
A native of Tarcutta, Roche played junior tennis in the New South Wales regional city of Wagga Wagga. He won one Grand Slam singles title, the 1966 French Open at Roland Garros, and 15 Grand Slam doubles titles (12 of these with John Newcombe).
In 1968, Roche won the WCT/NTL combined professional championship in men's singles in the final event of the season at Madison Square Garden. He was ranked World No. 2 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph in 1969.
He won the U.S. Pro Championships in 1970 at Longwood in Boston. Roche won the New South Wales Open twice, in 1969 and 1976. He won a key Davis Cup singles match in 1977.
He also coached multi-Grand Slam winning world No. 1s Ivan Lendl, Patrick Rafter, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt.
Playing career Amateur
Roche started to play tennis at school when he was nine. His father, who worked as a butcher, and his mother were both recreational tennis players and encouraged his interest. Roche grew up playing in Australia under the tutelage of Harry Hopman, who also coached other Australian tennis players such as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall.
Roche won one singles Grand Slam tournament, the 1966 French Open at Roland Garros, defeating István Gulyás in straight sets in the final. He was runner-up at the French Championships in 1965, where he beat Roy Emerson in four sets in the semi finals before losing to Fred Stolle and 1967, when he lost to Emerson in the final.
Professional In January 1968, Roche turned professional, signing with World Championship Tennis, joining other pros like John Newcombe, Cliff Drysdale, Nikola Pilić and Roger Taylor to form the "Handsome Eight". Roche was guaranteed $125,000 annually, an amount equivalent to the annual salary of Willie Mays, the top paid baseball player.
Roche was the leading money winner on the WCT tour in 1968. In the 1968 final in the combined WCT/NTL professional event at Madison Square Garden, Roche defeated Rod Laver in the semifinal and Pancho Gonzales in the final. At Wimbledon 1968 Roche beat Ken Rosewall in the fourth round in straight sets. "Roche played brilliantly. Rosewall never got going and netted shots that should have been winners". He lost in the final in straight sets to Rod Laver. "Roche played a more consistent game, but Laver produced the flashes of genius that won the big points".
Roche held a personal head-to-head edge over Laver during the latter's Grand Slam season of 1969, 5 to 4. At the News South Wales Open in Sydney, Roche beat Laver in the final in four sets. Rod didn't serve well "so Laver had to call upon his impromptu brilliance so many times to win points. He just couldn't keep it up against the tighter play of Roche." The following week Roche and Laver played a classic match against each other in the 1969 Australian Open at Brisbane, two days after Roche had won a five set quarter final against John Newcombe. The Laver-Roche semi final was one of the longest matches played at that stage in tennis history (they were on court for 4 hours and 45 minutes in searing heat). Roche "displayed phenomenal fighting qualities to come from two sets down to get back on level terms with Laver" but Laver won the fifth set.1969 Australian Open. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maUzQvkJX_k Roche lost in the French Open semi finals to Rosewall and the Wimbledon semi finals to Newcombe. Roche contested the final match of Laver's Grand Slam run that year, the 1969 U.S. Open final, after beating Newcombe in five sets in the semi finals in intense humidity. Laver beat Roche in four sets. The match started late due to rain and the court was dried by a helicopter to get it into a playable condition.1969 U.S. Open final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwPo-6Hxiuk
Roche won the U.S. Pro Championships at Longwood, Boston in 1970, defeating Laver in a hard fought five set final. He lost in the 1970 US Open final in four sets against Ken Rosewall.
Roche missed much of the 1972 and 1973 seasons due to an elbow injury to his playing arm. He had surgery and then visited a faith healer in Manila. He returned to regular play in 1974 and in December that year won his first title in more than two years when he beat Phil Dent in the final in five sets on a windy day to win the New South Wales championships. At the 1975 Australian Open, Roche led Newcombe 5-2 in the fifth set and had 3 match points before losing their semi final. After beating Ken Rosewall in the fourth round, Roche lost in five sets in the Wimbledon 1975 semi finals to Arthur Ashe.
Roche won his fourth New South Wales title (his first title was in the amateur era) by volleying well to beat Dick Stockton in the 1976 final in four sets. Perhaps one of his greatest achievements came in 1977, playing singles in the finals of the Davis Cup tournament versus Italy, nearly 10 years since he had last played for Australia. In the tie, Roche upset top Italian Adriano Panatta in three straight sets to lead Australia to a 3–1 victory, winning the Davis Cup. One of his last great victories was in the final of Queen's in 1978, when the 33-year-old Roche beat 19-year-old John McEnroe in "as good a final as Queen's have had".
Shoulder and elbow injuries cut short his career after having finished in the top 10 for six consecutive years.
Coaching career After completing his playing career, Roche has developed a highly successful career as a tennis coach. He was the player-coach of the Denver Racquets who won the first World Team Tennis in competition 1974, and he was named WTT Coach of the Year. Ivan Lendl hired Roche in 1985 as a full-time coach for Roche's advice on volleying. Lendl dreamed of winning Wimbledon, and because Roche had been a fine grass court player, he sought his tutelage. Roche also coached former world no. 1 Patrick Rafter from 1997 to the end of his career in 2002. Roche coached world no. 1 Roger Federer from 2005 to 12 May 2007. It is reputed this was on a "handshake agreement" with no contract; Roche was paid by the week. Federer hired Roche for the opposite reason that Lendl hired him: to work on his clay-court game (as Roche had won the 1966 French Championships). He also coached two-time Grand Slam singles titlist Lleyton Hewitt, who was aiming to get his career back on track after a number of unsuccessful years on the ATP Tour.
Honours Roche was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1981 Birthday Honours and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2001. He entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame alongside doubles partner and close friend John Newcombe in 1986. In 1990 he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. He received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Centenary Medal in 2001.
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 6 (1 title / 5 runners-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1965 French Championships Clay Fred Stolle 6–3, 0–6, 2–6, 3–6Win 1966 French Championships Clay István Gulyás 6–1, 6–4, 7–5Loss 1967 French Championships Clay Roy Emerson 1–6, 4–6, 6–2, 2–6↓ Open Era ↓Loss 1968 Wimbledon Grass Rod Laver 3–6, 4–6, 2–6Loss 1969 US Open Grass Rod Laver 9–7, 1–6, 2–6, 2–6Loss 1970 US Open Grass Ken Rosewall 6–2, 4–6, 6–7, 3–6
Doubles: 15 (13 titles / 2 runners-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 1964 French Championships Clay John Newcombe Roy Emerson Ken Fletcher 5–7, 3–6, 6–3, 5–7Win 1965 Australian Championships Grass John Newcombe Roy Emerson Fred Stolle 3–6, 4–6, 13–11, 6–3, 6–4Win 1965 Wimbledon Championships Grass John Newcombe Ken Fletcher Bob Hewitt 7–5, 6–3, 6–4Loss 1966 Australian Championships (2) Grass John Newcombe Roy Emerson Fred Stolle 9–7, 3–6, 8–6, 12–14, 10–12Win 1967 Australian Championships (2) Grass John Newcombe Bill Bowrey Owen Davidson 3–6, 6–3, 7–5, 6–8, 8–6Win 1967 French Championships Clay John Newcombe Roy Emerson Ken Fletcher 6–3, 9–7, 12–10Win 1967 U.S. Championships Grass John Newcombe Bill Bowrey Owen Davidson 6–8, 9–7, 6–3, 6–3↓ Open Era ↓Win 1968 Wimbledon (2) Grass John Newcombe Ken Fletcher Ken Rosewall 3–6, 8–6, 5–7, 14–12, 6–3Win 1969 French Open (2) Clay John Newcombe Roy Emerson Rod Laver 4–6, 6–1, 3–6, 6–4, 6–4Win 1969 Wimbledon (3) Grass John Newcombe Tom Okker Marty Riessen 7–5, 11–9, 6–3Win 1970 Wimbledon (4) Grass John Newcombe Ken Rosewall Fred Stolle 10–8, 6–3, 6–1Win 1971 Australian Open (3) Grass John Newcombe Tom Okker Marty Riessen 6–2, 7–6Win 1974 Wimbledon (5) Grass John Newcombe Bob Lutz Stan Smith 8–6, 6–4, 6–4Win 1976 Australian Open (4) Grass John Newcombe Ross Case Geoff Masters 7–6, 6–4Win 1977() Australian Open (5) Grass Arthur Ashe Charlie Pasarell Erik van Dillen 6–4, 6–4
Mixed doubles: 5 (2 titles / 3 runners-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 1965 Wimbledon Championships Grass Judy Tegart Margaret Smith Ken Fletcher 10–12, 3–6Win 1966 Australian Championships Grass Judy Tegart Robyn Ebbern William Bowrey 6–1, 6–3Loss 1967 Australian Championships Grass Judy Tegart Lesley Turner Owen Davidson 7–9, 4–6↓ Open Era ↓Loss 1969 Wimbledon (2) Grass Judy Tegart Ann Haydon Fred Stolle 2–6, 3–6Win 1976 Wimbledon Grass Françoise Dürr Rosemary Casals Dick Stockton 6–3, 2–6, 7–5
Grand Slam Singles performance timeline
Tournament19631964196519661967196819691970197119721973197419751976197719781979Career SRAustralian OpenAQFSFQFSFASFQF3RAA2RSFQF3R1RQF3R0 / 14French Open1R2RFWFASFAAAAAAAAAA1 / 6Wimbledon1R2R2RQF2RFSFQF1RAA3RSF4RA1RA0 / 13US Open3RQFA3RA4RFFAAA3R2RAAAA0 / 8Grand Slam SR0 / 30 / 40 / 31 / 40 / 30 / 20 / 40 / 30 / 20 / 00 / 00 / 30 / 30 / 20 / 20 / 20 / 11 / 41
Open-Era finals
Singles: 41 (21 titles / 20 runners-up)