FROM BOND HILL PARK TO NO. 1 IN THE WORLD:  CINCINNATI OPEN NAMES STADIUM FOR TONY TRABERT 

The boy who lined the clay courts at Bond Hill Park just to earn his turn to play on them now has a stadium with his name on it at the Cincinnati Open. 

Tony Trabert’s name now adorns Stadium 3 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center, named for the Cincinnati native who learned the game at a public park at the end of his childhood street and rose to No. 1 in the world.  

The Cincinnati Open will further honor Trabert with a pair of annual scholarships with the Cincinnati Tennis Foundation to assist with the training of two young players from the area. The first scholarship recipients are Mia Presley (11, Dayton, Ohio) and Evan Fan (13, Mason, Ohio).  

A dollar well spent 

Marion Anthony Trabert, born at Christ Hospital on Aug. 16, 1930, would have turned 96 during this year’s tournament. He was the youngest of three boys, and his father had a philosophy about how they should spend their time. 

“I remember my dad saying to us, I want to keep you involved in sports, so you don’t have time to be a drugstore cowboy,” Trabert said in a 2014 interview. 

He would play tennis, basketball and volleyball at Walnut Hills High School, but first picked up a racquet at six on the clay courts at Bond Hill Park. A junior permit cost 50 cents a year, but a junior could be bumped off a court by a player with a senior permit. So Trabert’s father spent a dollar on a senior permit to end the interruptions. Trabert became a fixture lining courts and shagging balls, all in the hopes of an early-arriving adult hitting with him for a few minutes. 

When Trabert was 12, Bill Talbert arrived at the Cincinnati Tennis Club for a match and noticed him, stopping long enough to offer some volley tips. Talbert — a fellow Cincinnatian, 12 years older, and one of the best players in the country — would become a defining figure in Trabert’s career. 

Beating his hero 

In 1950 when Trabert was a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati, Talbert invited him to Europe as his doubles partner, but only if Trabert promised to finish his degree. The pair won the French Championship, giving a 19-year-old Trabert the first of his 10 Major titles (five singles and five doubles). Trabert would return to UC and win the 1951 Intercollegiate singles championship while also starting for the Bearcats basketball team. 

At the 1951 edition of the Tri-State Tennis Tournament (the event today known as the Cincinnati Open), Trabert would beat his idol and mentor Talbert in the final. That milestone moment, now 75 years ago, marked the first of six titles Trabert would win at this tournament: singles in 1951 and 1953, and doubles in 1949, 1951, 1953 and 1955. 

One of the greatest seasons ever played 

In the fall of 1951, Trabert was drafted into the Navy Reserve and spent 16 months aboard the aircraft carrier Coral Sea. Returning home in June 1953, he got back on the court, and by September, won the U.S. Championship at Forest Hills. 

He added the French Championship in 1954. Later that year in December, he helped the United States take back the Davis Cup from Australia, an achievement he called the highlight of his career. 

Then came 1955, one of the greatest single seasons in tennis history. Trabert played 23 tournaments and won 18 singles titles, putting together a 106-7 record. He won the French, Wimbledon and the U.S. Championship with a semifinal loss to Ken Rosewall in Australia the only blemish on his Major record. He rose to No. 1 amateur in the world and landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated that August, becoming just the second man after Don Budge to win three Majors in a single season. 

“I was fortunate to accomplish what I accomplished, but it’s not unique,” Trabert said of the career that took him from Bond Hill Park to the top of the world. “A lot of people have done it. But it was a heck of a trip.” 

A life in the game 

Trabert turned professional on Jack Kramer’s tour, a forerunner to today’s ATP Tour, competing until 1963 and later helping Kramer run it. In 1971 he joined CBS Sports, beginning a three-decade broadcasting career alongside Pat Summerall. He captained the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1976-80, guiding a squad that included John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors to two titles. 

Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970, he later served as its president from 2001-11. The University of Cincinnati named its Trabert-Talbert Tennis Center for him and his mentor in 2006. Trabert was also the author of four books. 

Trabert died on Feb. 3, 2021, at age 90 at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where he and Vicki, his wife of more than 30 years, had settled. He left behind five children, 14 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren — and a hometown he never stopped claiming. “I’ve always felt very strongly about Cincinnati as home,” he said.