Roscoe Tanner

Roscoe Tanner is a name that prompts both admiration and a sense of disappointment for sports fans. Tanner played splendid tennis, but ended up incarcerated because of a conviction in grand theft.

Born October 15, 1951 to an affluent family, Tanner trained in tennis early, his parents Leonard and Ann encouraging their son to excel in the sport. The summer after first grade, his father enrolled him for his first tennis lesson, Leonard himself being fond of tennis. The older Tanner played competitive tennis for the University of Chattanooga. A lefthander, Roscoe began competing in tennis three (3) years after he took his first lesson. From the start of his tennis career, he was a pampered, all-American boy who seemingly held the world in his hands. In fact, when he won the Boys 16 National Indoors in Dallas, his father gifted him with a 1965 Pontiac Tempest.

Tanner was the runner-up at the Wimbledon Singles title in 1979 against the Swede legend Björn Borg, losing in 5 tough sets. His only Grand Slam title was the 1977 Australian Open then played on grass, Tanner's best surface. His other wins include sixteen (16) Singles titles. In the 1977 Australian Open, Tanner defeated the all-time great Argentinean Guillermo Vilas. Tanner’s brilliant play on court is credited to his ability in hitting fierce power serves that could go as fast as 153 mph, a record never broken until 2004 when Andy Roddick hit a 155 mph serve at the Davis Cup. To top it all, the lefthanded Tanner served this lethal serve from the other side of the court, a trajectory his opponents were not used to.

Roscoe Tanner became the golden boy of tennis during his time, raking in big money and enjoying the luxuries and faults that come with it: women, drugs and fame that proved to be his downfall. Financing events he couldn’t afford and ‘borrowing’ expensive luxury cars from a friend, Roscoe Tanner had repeated brush-ups with the law, including failing to provide child support for his four (4) daughters from three different women. He has served time in a number of jails a number of times. He is under probation until year 2012.