Frank Kovacs

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Frank Kovacs (1919 - 1990) was an American tennis player in the 1940s; he was known as the "Clown Prince of Tennis" for his on-court antics but was a good enough player to be the number 3-ranked American in 1940 and the number 2 in 1941.

Probably the most eccentric major player ever, stories of his antics are still told in the tennis world. Once, serving for a match point, he tossed three balls in the air - hitting the middle one for an ace. He was known to jump into the stands to applaud his opponents, and once staged a sit-down strike during a match. He often stopped play so that he could complain about the heavy nap on the balls, and would then shove the offending balls into his mouth so that he could chew on the nap.

Although he showed flashes of brilliance (it was said of him that on the right days, when he was briefly "in the zone", he could be unbeatable), his career results were relatively mundane. His best amateur result was a second-place finish in the U.S. National Singles Championship in 1941, losing to Bobby Riggs; he also had a second-place finish in the United States Pro Championship in 1950, losing to Pancho Segura in the finals. As tennis great Jack Kramer, and Kovacs' near contemporary, has written: "Kovacs had picture strokes, but the reason he could never win anything is because he didn't have any idea how to go about winning. He never had a set plan for a match. Hell, he never had a set plan for a shot. He could sort of decide what to do with it halfway through the stroke."

Kovacs' best shot, says Kramer, was "a hard, angled backhand crosscourt, but he could never figure out how to set it up so he could take advantage of it." As Riggs said to Kramer one day: "...don't worry about Frankie.... He looks great, but give him long enough and he'll find some way to keep you in the match, and give him a little longer and he'll find a way to beat himself."

Kovacs was also responsible for something of a scandal over money in tennis, which before the Open era was strictly divided into amateurs and professionals. After he was barred from amateur tennis in 1941 (leaving with a characteristic witticism - "Amateur tennis stinks - there's no money in it any more."), he talked about how money was quietly - and widely - paid to supposedly amateur players for entering tournaments.

After being evicted from the amateur ranks, he and Riggs turned professional at the same time. In 1942 the Pro tour consisted of round-robin matches between Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Fred Perry, and Kovacs. Budge ended up with the best record, 54 wins to 18 losses, but Kovacs had the second best, 25 wins to 26 losses. He then joined the U.S. Army.

His cousin was the famous entertainer Ernie Kovacs. He married the legendary San Francisco vocal coach Judy Davis in 1950 and they lived for many years in a beautiful home in the Oakland hills.