Sam Match

Samuel "Sam" Match (January 3, 1923 – January 23, 2010)[1] was an American tennis player. He was born in Los Angeles, California.

Sam Match
Full nameSamuel Match
Country (sports) United States
BornJanuary 3, 1923
Los Angeles, United States
DiedJanuary 23, 2010(2010-01-23) (aged 87)
Redondo Beach, California, United States
Turned pro1954 (amateur tour from 1940)
Retired1968
Singles
Highest rankingNo. 8 (1949)
Grand Slam Singles results
US Open3R (1946, 1947, 1949)
Professional majors
US ProQF (1954)
Doubles
Highest rankingNo. 4 (1948)
Last updated on: October 1, 2012.

Match was ranked among the top ten amateur players in the United States in 1948, 1949, and 1950 in both singles and doubles play.[2][3] Lawn Tennis and Badminton magazine ranked him as the 12th-best professional player for the year 1955.

Early life

Match was born in Los Angeles, California, and was Jewish.[4][5][6] He attended Los Angeles High School.[7]

Career

He was the California state junior champion at age 18.[8]

He was a radio operator for three years in the United States Army Air Corps while in Guam, and played and lost to Bobby Riggs in the finals of the Army-Navy Championships in 1945.[3]

In 1947, playing doubles for Rice University, Match along with his doubles partner Bob Curtis beat Herbert Flam and Gene Garrett of UCLA 6–4, 8–10, 3–6, 6–2, 7–5 to win the NCAA doubles title.[9][10]

Match twice defeated US No. 1, Pancho Gonzales. The first time was 1948 at Newport, Rhode Island,[11] and the second time was in 1949 at River Oaks in Houston.[3] He was a terrific player with classic groundstrokes.

As an amateur, Match won at La Jolla, California, on February 16, 1948; at Philadelphia in 1948; and at the Utah State Open in 1948 and 1949.

In 1949, playing for the University of San Francisco, Jack Tiero of Tulane beat Match in five sets in the finals of the NCAA tournament. Match and Art Larsen lost the doubles championship in the finals.[9][12]

Match was the runner-up in La Jolla (March 19, 1950), the California State in San Francisco (May 21, 1950), the Colorado State in Denver (June 9, 1950), and in Salt Lake City (July 2, 1950).[13]

Match's first appearance in a professional tournament was at the California State Pro in Beverly Hills, California (August 11–16, 1953).[14]

Accolades

Match was inducted into the University of San Francisco Athletic Hall of Fame.[3]

In 1991, Match was inducted into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame.[15][3]

Match was inducted in 2000 into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[8]

In 2005, he was honored as one of the University of San Francisco's 75 greatest athletic legends.[16]

See also

References
  1. "PASSINGS: Sir Percy Cradock, Sam Match". Los Angeles Times. January 30, 2010.
  2. "Match, Sam". Jews in Sports. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  3. "Rice Institute Owls tennis player Sam Match". Rice University Archives R Association records, UA 089, Box 12, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University. September 21, 1991 – via scholarship.rice.edu.
  4. Wechsler, Bob (September 21, 2008). "Day by Day in Jewish Sports History". KTAV Publishing House, Inc. – via Google Books.
  5. "The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle from Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 25, 1950 · Page 6". Newspapers.com.
  6. Jews In Sports
  7. "Sam Match (1971) - Hall of Fame". University of San Francisco Athletics.
  8. "PASSINGS: Sir Percy Cradock, Sam Match". Los Angeles Times. January 30, 2010.
  9. "2005 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships". Texas A&M University. Archived from the original on May 9, 2006. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  10. Collins, Bud; Hollander, Zander (September 21, 1994). "Bud Collins' Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis". Visible Ink Press – via Google Books.
  11. Grimsley, Will; Heldman, Julius David (September 21, 1971). "Tennis: Its History, People and Events: Styles of the Greats". Prentice-Hall – via Google Books.
  12. Daves, Jim; Porter, Tom; Porter, W. Thomas (November 21, 2000). "The Glory of Washington: The People and Events That Shaped the Husky Athletic Tradition". Sports Publishing LLC – via Google Books.
  13. Sutter, Michel. Vainqueurs 1946-1991.
  14. McCauley, Joe. The History of Professional Tennis.
  15. "Hall of Fame". Rice Owls. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  16. "Domain For Sale". www.afternic.com.
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