Roscoe Tanner

Roscoe Tanner was born in Chattanooga and with Sandy Mayer helped to lead Stanford University's rise to the number 1 spot in collegiate tennis in 1973. Tanner played number one singles, with Mayer playing number two. The team also featured Rick Fisher, Stanley Pasarell, Jim Delaney, James "Chico" Hagey, Gery Groslimond, Pat DuPre, and Paul Sidone. Tanner is best remembered for his devastating left-handed serve, his victory at the 1977 Australian Open (January) and 5-set loss to Björn Borg in the 1979 Wimbledon finals. Of the winning 1973 Stanford tennis team, Tanner, Mayer and DuPre were all brothers in the Zeta Psi fraternity. Tanner defeated Haroon Rahim 10-8 in the 5th set to win the 1970 United States Amateur Championships (Men's Tennis). Tanner is best remembered for his dominating serve. Thrown very low and struck with a lunge involving the whole body, his first serve was among the fiercest on the circuit of his day, perhaps behind only that of Victor Amaya of Chile. During his loss to Borg in the 1979 Wimbledon championships he is credited with close to thirty aces. Though Borg defeated him at Wimbledon, several months later at the U.S. Open Tanner had his revenge, outing Borg in the fourth round.