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Why was 1968 tennis such an important year?In 1968 tennis and its structure turned into what we know it as today: a sport where amateurs and professionals can compete at the same tournaments and feature in the same ranking system. It was one of those odd years where nobody won more than one grand slam. In those years, the Australian Open was held in December, and so the order of the slams was French, Wimbledon, US, and Aussie. The French Open that year was won by Ken Rosewall, Wimbledon was won by Rod Laver, the US Open by Arthur Ashe and the Australian Open by Bill Bowrey from Australia. To give you an indication of how much tennis has changed since then, the US Open total prize money was US$100, 000, and in 2007 it was US$7 million. After 1968, it took a while to organize computerized rankings, and in 1973 the official
ATP Rankings
were started, giving the tennis game a measurable gauge for who the best player in the game really is, now that everybody played in the same tournament.
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