BILLIE JEAN KING

Mervyn Rose, tennis player and coach. Born: January 23, 1930, Coffs Harbour, Australia. Died: July 23, 2017, aged 87.

Mervyn Rose, an Australian tennis player who won seven Grand Slam tournament titles in the 1950s and later coached champions like Billie Jean King and Margaret Smith Court, died on Sunday. He was 87.

Tennis Australia, the country’s governing body for tennis, announced his death but did not specify a cause or say where he died.

Rose, a left-hander, was somewhat overshadowed in the Australian tennis elite by Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad — and later by Rod Laver, who is considered the country’s greatest player. But he was a tough, sometimes temperamental player known for strong volleying and what was called his “chip and charge,” in which he would chip, or slice, a return and rush to the net.

In 1954, at the Australian Championships (now the Australian Open), Rose defeated Rosewall in five sets in the semi-finals, avenging his loss in straight sets to Rosewall in the finals a year earlier. Rose then needed just 70 minutes to beat Rex Hartwig in the final to win his first Grand Slam singles championship. He and Hartwig also won the tournament’s doubles title.

Afterward, Harry Hopman, Australia’s longtime Davis Cup captain and coach, praised Rose’s victory as a breakthrough.

“At the beginning of the championship,” he said, “Mervyn was an outsider among the top men, but he came through and showed great fight to win. This win of Mervyn’s strengthens Australia’s hand for the future.”

Rose played for Hopman on six Davis Cup teams from 1950-1957 and was ranked No. 3 in the world in 1958, his highest ranking. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 2001.

Rose’s victories at the Australian Open were not his first major titles. He had won doubles at the US National Championships (now the US Open) in 1952 with Vic Seixas, an American, and in 1953 with Hartwig.

Rose and Hartwig also won the doubles title at Wimbledon in 1954. Rose would win two more titles: mixed doubles with Darlene Hard at Wimbledon in 1957, defeating Althea Gibson and Neale Fraser, and singles at the French Championships (also known as the French Open) over Luis Ayala of Chile in 1958.

But to Rose, nothing stood out more than his five-set victory over Nicola Pietrangeli in the final of the 1958 Italian Open. “I knew how popular he was, and I really wanted to beat him on his home court,” he said in 2012. “I outplayed him all match, and the crowd didn’t like to see their champion defeated, so they pelted bottles and cans at me.”

In his haste to leave the court, he added, “I never got my hands on the trophy.”

At the time, the tennis world was split between amateurs and professionals. Only amateurs were allowed to compete in the four Grand Slam championships, while pros played in tournaments controlled by promoters like Jack Kramer, a former player, who was eyeing top-ranked players like Rose.

By 1958, Rose was locked in a year-long battle with the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia over travel expenses he had received for playing at various tournaments, including Wimbledon. The association suspended Rose’s amateur status in August 1958, and later that year, he threatened to expose other Australian players who, he said, had done the same thing he had. “I’ve got plenty of dope on our Davis Cup players,” Rose was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying. “I hate making threats, but on the other hand, I’ve probably been soft too long.” He vowed that there would be “a few blushing faces” among the amateurs at a coming tournament.

But he cooled off and did not, as he told the Herald, “blow the gaff ” on fellow players. Instead, he joined the pro tour organised by Kramer, who promised Rose he would make at least $20,000 playing in ten tournaments and 75 exhibition matches in 1959. He would not play in another Grand Slam for another decade, after the start of the Open era in 1968.

Mervyn Gordon Rose was born in Coffs Harbour on Australia’s east coast. Considered a free-spirited personality, he once smashed three rackets during a match and won a final in the rain while playing in his socks.

There was no immediate information on survivors.

As his playing days waned, Rose began to coach Billie Jean Moffitt — she had not yet married Larry King, a lawyer and promoter, and taken his name — after she left California State University, Los Angeles, in 1964.

“Merv Rose is the reason I became the No. 1 player in the world,” King said this week “I spent several months working with Merv and hitting with some of the best Australian players of the time. Because of what Merv Rose did for me, I was able to fulfil my dream and become number one in the world.” © New York Times 2017. Distributed by NYT Syndication Service

“Because of what Merv Rosedidforme,iwas able to fulfil my dream and become number one in the world”