Unflappable: Whitney Reed Part 1

[johnyandell]

Let's discuss C.F. Stewart's article, "Unflappable: Whitney Reed Part 1"

[waynebeymer]

I began playing tennis in the summer of 1960 and Whitney Reeds pro career may have been behind him by then. I remember seeing some of his tournament matches at Golden
Gate park courts around the mid sixties. It’s been too many years since then to recall his hitting style accurately but he was very entertaining, played at a high level and he carried on a dialogue, mostly with himself in a manner that was reminiscent of W.C. Fields. Occasionally he would lose to lesser players and I think I have an explanation for those losses. In some of those matches it seemed that he would purposely play below his ability and be down a set and maybe 4 or 5 love when he would suddenly raise his level of play. I posit that he may have done this as a way of disciplining him self. We may never know if that was the case. Thanks for this opportunity to share my memories of a great player who is seldom mentioned.

[markwinters]

We were playing points on one occasion. I hit a solid serve to the ad court and came to the net.. Whitney hit a floater and I cracked a forehand volley. He was trapped in “no-man’s land”, stumbled to his left, almost fell down and feathered, what amounted to a no-look, backhand drop-shot winner …I just stood there and laughed…. Whitney kind of cocked his head to the side, as he often did, and gave me his patented “What’s the big deal …” Whitney grin.

[doctorhl]

The picture of Ham Richardson brings back memories as he brought Louisiana tennis and us Southern boys out of the marsh. His stint at Tulane helped establish towns like New Orleans and Baton Rouge as hot beds for tennis activity in the 50’s. The 50’s were the golden years for Southern U.S. tennis with the likes of Gardner Mulloy and Bitsy Grant. Tennis never did quite reach the same heights in production of talent in the south with the exception maybe of Atlanta and south Florida.