Richard Evans, a preeminent voice on tennis & new International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee
Richard Evans, the longtime tennis journalist and official who has helped tell the story of the sport for more than 60 years, will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday in the contributor category.
Patrick McEnroe, the president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, introduced Evans at a press conference Thursday.
“For over six decades Richard has been a preeminent voice on tennis as a journalist and historian. He’s reported on over 200 Grand Slam tournaments. Maybe we should add one more because I just saw you in London at Wimbledon, which was awesome,” McEnroe said. “He’s been doing that since 1960. He’s written 23 books, including anthologies on open tennis, the Davis Cup, and biographies on some of tennis’ most legendary names, including two books on my brother John.”
It has been a memorable journey for Evans, who for more than 20 years has been part of the nominating committee for the Hall of Fame. Now, he is enjoying induction weekend on the other side of the equation — as an inductee alongside Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj.
“I’d like to think it’s the brains trust of the game, because we have 25 people who really know tennis, mostly players, but also journalists like Steve Flink and Chris Bowers serve on the committee,” Evans said of the nominating committee. “It is not uncomplicated, but it still came as an enormous surprise to me and I was very honoured to think that my colleagues on that committee felt that I [should] have my name put forward.”
Evans’ career truly began when he was assigned to ghostwrite write Althea Gibson’s copy at Wimbledon. He worked on The Evening Standard’s sports desk and worked on the icon’s columns.
“I’d already been a journalist for about 18 months before I went in the British Army, doing national service, came out and got that assignment. That really started my tennis writing career, because before that it had been all football, rugby and cricket,” Evans said. “I’d watched tennis. I’d played a bit of tennis. I remember in my uniform in a club in Piccadilly on a black and white television watching Alex Olmedo beating Rod Laver in 1959. Everybody forgot Rod Laver lost two Wimbledon finals before he started winning everything in sight.”
Evans entered the sport in an era of Australian domination with champions ranging from Lew Hoard to Ken Rosewall and Tony Roche.
“I was their age, so I had this huge advantage of being able to travel with a group of players… There were no coaches, no managers, no agents, no wives or girlfriends, except for the odd occasion, traveling the world,” Evans said. “You can imagine the Aussies knew how to travel the world. They knew how to enjoy themselves on court, very competitive, and off court less competitive.
“It was great fun and an enormous introduction for me into tennis because I was living it.”
[ATP APP]Evans had the opportunity to enjoy plenty of dinners with the greats of the game. He recalled Ken Rosewall explaining why he was able to slice his backhand to Roy Emerson.
“You found yourself being in the thick of what it was like to be a top-class tennis player,” Evans said. “It was a wonderful school for me. It helped my writing.”
Over the years, Evans has written books about the history of the sport as well as its biggest stars, including McEnroe and Ilie Nastase. He also was a longtime commentator, spending time alongside the likes of Fred Perry and Frew McMillan.
“They showed me the commentary box and put some earphones on my head and said, ‘Right, you’re on’,” Evans recalled. “Nice introduction. It’s called being thrown into the deep end. You can either do it or you can’t. I hopefully got better with it.”
Evans also spent several years working for the ATP in multiple capacities. He also spent seven years as a foreign corresponded in the United States and Paris.
“But always tennis was there,” Evans said. “I never let go of tennis.”
The chronicler of the sport also inspired fellow Class of 2024 inductee Paes.
“On the 12th of May, 1986, Richard Evans was there,” Paes said. “He was writing Vijay’s autobiography. I walked up to him as an 11-year-old and I stuck my hand out and I said, ‘Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Evans, I’m Leander Paes’. He goes, ‘What are you here for?’”
“I want to emulate my father in winning an Olympic medal,” Paes responded.
“On the 12th of May, 1986, Mr. Evans turned to me and said to this young 11-year-old kid, If you work hard enough, you might even get into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
“Well, here we are.”
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