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Sedgman recalls scandal of turning professional
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The club was the scene of the first big win of his career and his last serious tennis game. Mr Sedgman (76) was in town for a reunion with WA tennis greats such as Margaret Court, Arthur Marshall and his old friend Cliver Wilderspin, from Wembley Downs. Mr Wilderspin and Mr Sedgman, friends since their Davis Cup days in the early 1950s, last played tennis together in 1991 when they won the World Over-60s doubles championship at the club. Mr Sedgman said: "That was the last serious game I played." The club was also the place where Mr Sedgman burst on to the Australian tennis scene in 1947 by winning the WA state championship - he was 20 years old. The young man from Melbourne won five grand-slam singles titles over the next six years before giving up his day job with sports company Oliver to play on the professional circuit in the US. He was promptly banned from every tennis club in Australia and was not allowed to play in Australian competitions such as the Davis Cup. He said: "I had an offer to turn professional of US$100,00, which was a bit different to what I was getting paid as a representative of the sporting goods company. "I was able to make some money to get started in life. Looking back, it was the right decision." The flak that Mr Sedgman got for turning professional was ridiculous, according to his friend and contemporary, Clive Wilderspin. Mr Wilderspin said the barring of players who turned professional "put tennis backwards" in Australia. Mr Sedgman and Mr Wilderspin don't play tennis any more but they said they loved to watch exciting young players such as Lleyton Hewitt. And they said it was a good thing that tennis now brought rich rewards for so many talented players. The King's Park reunion was organised for the International Club, a tennis group to build goodwill and camaraderie among former international players. Mr Sedgman is the world president of the club. Among those at the reunion were former world top 10 player Lesley Hunt, Rob Casey, Tim Clayton - who made his first overseas tour as a teenager in 1962 - and doubles specialist Dawson Hamilton. Retired touring professional Paul Kilderry is one of the International Club's newest members. Mr Sedgman recalled his unexpected defeat in the Australian singles final in Adelaide in 1952. He was the best player in the world, but claimed he went down to fellow Australian Ken McGregor in Adelaide because he kept looking at the seat saved for his fiancée, who didn't turn up for the big match. "I just wasn't concentrating on the match," Mr Sedgman said. "That's my excuse, anyway." Mr Wilderspin, widely regarded as WA's best male player at the peak of his career, still has an axe to grind with the officials of the 1950s. He was locked at two-sets-all and seven-all in the fifth set against the sensational teenager, Ken Rosewall, when the referee called off the match due to "bad light", with Rosewall on the ropes. The Sydney official insisted the set be replayed in full two days later. "I was pretty naïve," Mr Wilderspin said. "He was a top Davis Cup referee and what he did was against the laws of the game. "Needless to say, Ken beat me in the replay."
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