Every July the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the game’s sanctuary located in Newport, Rhode Island, inducts new honorees. On July 20th, in conjunction with the Infosys Hall of Fame Open, Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj, along with Richard Evans, will be recognized.
Paes and Amritraj, the first players from India to achieve the International Tennis Hall of Fame accolade, are recognized by those who follow the sport. They are known after having spent years on court and in Amritraj’s case, significant time behind the scenes in a variety of capacities. Both have made an impact.
Evans has too, but in a less obvious way. Which leads to the question –Who exactly is Richard Evans…?
Careful research shows that there are several British men, (and Evans is British), who share the name. There are two Sirs – Richard J., a historian specializing in 19th-20th century Europe with a focus on Germany and Richard H., a business executive (who is also known as Dick Evans).
There was a Sir Thomas Lawrence assistant, (with no knighthood) named Richard Evans, who, like Lawrence, was a portrait painter.
Another, a good deal younger, attended Loughborough University in Leicestershire, is a resident of Dubai in the United Emirates and the Executive Director of EVR Global. Prior to which he worked in sports management at the LJ Sports Group and spent time with the ATP Tour. Currently, his primary focus is managing Italian star Matteo Berrettini.
Though Evans has lived in the US, he should not be confused with the American actor who after playing Paul Hanley, the English professor in the Peyton Place television series went on to become a director. There is also an American author, an AI researcher, a graphic designer, a former Major General and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all of whom share the name (but have different middle names).
None, however, is “The…” Richard Evans.
Evans, whose father was American and his mother British, was born in Paris in early February 1939. It was an unsettling time in a world that was quickly and dramatically changing.
He and his parents barely escaped the clutches of the German army when it overwhelmed the city on June 14, 1940. Looking back, it would be safe to assume that the circumstances served as a prologue to what would become a life full of captivating adventures.
Charles Wintour, the Editor of the London Evening Standard (and father of Anna Wintour, Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief,), provided his first assignment – writing Althea Gibson’s copy for the newspaper in 1960. Evans had joined the staff on Friday and the following Monday began working with Gibson. Sitting next to the former champion, in the Centre Court press box, he transcribed her every utterance, and created “Althea Gibson at Wimbledon talking to Richard Evans”.
As he has explained, the individual who had been Gibson’s ghost writer in 1959 was unavailable which led Wintour to tell the Sports Editor to “Give him [Evans] to Althea…” So, just before The Championships began, he went to the Queen’s Club to meet Gibson for the first time.
Finding a follow-up transition after such an auspicious career launch, could have been difficult, particularly since tennis wasn’t a sport he had covered when he began writing at a Fleet Street sports agency. But Evans, who radiates British respectability, wisely took advantage of the “Found opportunity” and became a tennis journalist.
Allen Fox is widely respected thanks to having been an elite player, an insightful coach, and an esteemed sports psychologist. Evans stayed with him at his home in Santa Monica, California, for four months, while they worked on “If I’m the Better Player, Why Can’t I win?”.
“I met Richard in the mid-60s,” Fox reminisced. “He was around most of the tournaments when I played. He was a fixture; he had become part of the tour and was well accepted.”
From 1961 through 1965, Evans was the Tennis Correspondent for the London Evening Standard. During that time, he became a regular CBS radio tennis contributor. In 1966, he launched “Roving Eye”, a World Tennis Magazine column. Nine years later, he (and the column) joined Tennis Week, where his observations enthralled readers until the magazine closed in March 2009.
In a manner of speaking, he returned “home” in 1976 when he joined Tennis Magazine in Paris, to craft the column “Autour du Monde” (“Around the World).
In 1980, Evans began a twenty-three-year relationship with BBC radio as an analyst during The Championships. Between 1994 and 2004, he was the Tennis Correspondent for the London Sunday Times.
Evans’ tennis interests have always been multifaceted as his administrative career brings out. In 1973, he became the ATP Press Officer in Europe. A year later, he was named ATP European Director, and broadened his commitment by becoming a member of the ATP Ranking Committee.
Beginning in the mid-70s and lasting through the end of the decade, he set out to improve the staging of ATP events in Europe. He moved beyond the boundaries of the Continent and organized tournaments in Algiers, Cairo, Khartoum, and Malta.
In 1976, Evans evidenced a visionary understanding of the needs of young professionals when he proposed developing the ATP University to assist players just embarking on careers. The concept became an ATP reality in 1980.
Beginning in 1978, he served a two-year term on the ATP Board of Directors. At the end of the period, he stepped away from administrative responsibilities to concentrate on writing and expanding his radio work. The sabbatical continued until 1990 when he rejoined the ATP as European Communications Director.
His versatility was acknowledged in 1986 when he won the ATP Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award, which is presented annually to the journalist who has made a significant contribution to tennis.
Evans played an integral role in the founding of the International Tennis Writers’ Association’s (ITWA) in 2000 and served as President from 2001-04. The organization is the primary advocate for journalists’ dealings with the Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP and WTA, along with the ITF as well as the federations and associations.
Having spent so much of his life tennis-traveling, Evans became aware of the affect the sport had on local communities. The insight resulted in the mid-1980s partnership with Orville Brown. They created “The Grass Roots Challenge” for Boys’ 14 competitors. Initially, the event featured teams from London and New York. In 1992, the format expanded to eight teams, including five from US cities, as well as those from Madras, Melbourne and Soweto. A year later, Evans and Brown recruited Ingrid Lofdahl Bentzer, the former Swedish World Top 15 competitor who after retiring became a “Give more people a chance to play…” activist. The trio organized the Arthur Ashe Memorial Dinner, a gala that was held at Grosvenor House. The same year, Brown received the 1993 ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Having covered over 220 majors, Evans’ Grand Slam tournament total has earned him “One of a kind” prominence.
He became a mainstay of Australian Open radio commentary, after having been popular on Talk Sport2 for the ATP from London. In 2000, along with Chris Bowers, Craig Gabriel, and David Mercer, he founded the Tennis Radio Network (TRN). The broadcast, with Bowers and Evans, having added Russell D’Albertantson to the team, continues to live up to its motto “Think Tennis…Think TRN.”
Those who have had dealing with Evans will stress that he communicates easily yet balances the scale by being a careful listener. He is ethical and supremely principled which is the reason the characteristics are often used to describe “Who he is”. At the same time, he can be thoughtfully direct. His opinions, nurtured by more than 65 years in the game, are comprehensive, evidencing an appreciation of having seen so much.
Talking about the developing “If I’m the Better Player, Why Can’t I win?”, Allen Fox explained, “I would dictate, and Richard would write. He would put it together in the form of a chapter or part of a chapter. Occasionally he missed a subtlety, missed exactly what I wanted to say, but the way he wrote was so beautifully stitched together that it would be difficult for me to change anything.
“It was very hard to take Richard’s paragraphs apart because his writing flowed beautifully…” Fox added, “He’s highly intelligent and a good listener. He doesn’t miss much. Probably the only difficulties we had working together was he is quite opinionated and that was good…up to a point.”
When Evans became a journalist, tennis afforded little more than trophies and the opportunity to travel. Financially it was barely worthwhile which made it essential for players and even more so for journalists to be creative when it came to finding ways to survive. Fox pointed out, “Richard wasn’t making much but he was very wise and managed to live reasonably well on very little.”
A story like this would be a perfect “30 For 30” segment in the ESPN series that calls attention to unique people and sporting events. Though he is not as well-known as Leander Paes or Vijay Amritraj, Richard Evans’ International Tennis Hall of Fame induction would have “30 For 30” allure.
Fox concluded, “I would vote for him in a second and I did. He is a very worthy guy to be in the Hall of Fame…”
Leander Paes was a Player Category selection, while Vijay Amritraj and Richard Evans were inducted as Contributors.
Postscript
As an author, Evans is unmatched; having written a collection of tennis books that traverse a wide array of topics and have inclusive appeal. His efforts include:
“Match Point: A Candid View of Life on the International Tennis Circuit”, with Marty Riessen, was produced in 1972.
“Nasty, Ilie Nastase vs. Tennis” appeared in 1978.
“If I’m the Better Player, Why Can’t I win?”, with Allen Fox, was praised in 1979.
“McEnroe: A Rage for Perfection”, a John McEnroe biography was released in 1982.
The next year, he had two classics – “Tales from the Tennis Court – An Anthology” and “Tinling – 60 Years in Tennis”- published.
“Open Tennis: 1968-1989: the Players, the Politics, the Pressures, the Passions and the Great Matches” was richly commended in 1988.
“The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Tennis”, with John Haylett, offered a synopsis of the game, players, tournaments, fashion, and equipment in 1989.
“Vijay Amritraj: An autobiography with Richard Evans” also known as “Vijay! From Madras to Hollywood Via Wimbledon” drew notice in 1990. The same year, so did, the “Ultimate Test”, which demonstrated his writing diversity as he told the story about the official and “rebel” South Africa and West Indies cricket tours.
In 1991, Evans’ followed his first John McEnroe epic with “John McEnroe: Taming the Talent: The Authorized Biography”.
In “Open Tennis: 25 Years of Seriously Defiant Success on and Off the Court”, in 1993 Evans, as only he could, detailed the impact of the first quarter-century of Open Tennis.
Not only was David Lloyd a British standout as a player, his commercial ventures, after his playing days concluded, were even more successful, as the book with Evans titled, “David Lloyd: How to Succeed in Business While Really Trying”, brought out in 1996.
In 2000, Evans had two more books appear – “One Hundred Years of the Davis Cup” (for the ITF), and “The ATP Tour: Ten Years of Superstar Tennis”.
“Ahead of the Game with Owen Williams” was a 2013 release.
It was followed in 2014 by the delightful recollections of ATP trainer, Bill Norris written by Evans, called “Pain, Set & Match.”
“The Roving Eye: A Reporter’s Love Affair with Paris, Politics & Sport”, the 2017 synopsis of his life is by far Evans’ best effort.
Final Thought…
Richard Evans’ International Tennis Hall of Fame selection is meaningful to me because I nominated him as a Contributor in March 2017. It is safe to say that this was not the only time his name was put forth. But in the end, all that matters is he is receiving lasting recognition…
Title photo from the International Tennis Hall of Fame