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Catching Up With . . .
Alex Olmedo, Tennis Champion
September 7, 1959
Posted: Tue September 1, 1998
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(John G. Zimmerman)
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When he
asked to borrow his father's tennis racket as a
nine-year-old in Arequipa, Peru, Alex (the Chief) Olmedo
had no way of knowing that he had determined his destiny.
By age 17 he had shown enough promise to inspire tennis
patrons to take up a collection of
$700, which he used to finance a move in 1954. Olmedo took
a boat to Havana, a plane to Miami and a bus to Los
Angeles, where he went to work at a tennis shop and studied
English at night
school.
Three-plus years at USC yielded two NCAA titles in singles
and two in doubles. In 1958 captain Perry Jones named
Olmedo, eligible to represent America because of his more
than three years of continuous residence, to the U.S. Davis
Cup team. The
big-serving Chief almost
single-handedly defeated powerful Australia, winning one doubles
and two singles
matches.
Olmedo's roll continued into 1959; in a six-month stretch
he won the U.S. indoor singles and doubles titles, the
Australian Championships
and Wimbledon. But two
weeks before a Davis Cup
rematch with the Aussies, he
lost to a second-rate opponent at the national clay court
championships, and the U.S.
Lawn Tennis Association
threatened to suspend him for tanking. When Australia
regained the Cup at Forest Hills, he was vilified by the
press. SI said the mercurial Olmedo, who won one singles
match, "merely went through the
motions."
(Robert Beck)
| | "Everyone blamed my personality," recalls Olmedo,
now 62, "but they
didn't pay attention to the facts. I had been playing in
England. I
didn't want to return to the States to play on clay. I
needed to rest before my Davis Cup defense. But the USLTA
wanted to make money, and it forced me to come back and
play."
Olmedo turned pro in 1960 and barnstormed with legends such
as Pancho Gonzales, Ken Rosewall and Tony Trabert. After
retiring from competition in '65, he became the teaching
pro at the Beverly Hills Hotel. One of his early clients
was Katharine Hepburn,
who after their lessons would talk to him about her life
with Spencer
Tracy.
Olmedo is still the hotel's pro, having raised three
children—Amy, 35, Angela, 34, and Alex, 31—while
helping Robert Duvall with his serve and Chevy Chase with
his forehand. Says the Chief, "It's the first and only
job I ever had."
—Luis Fernando
Llosa
Issue date: September 7, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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