Roger Taylor MBE (born 14 October 1941) is a British former tennis player, born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He achieved success at several Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the quarter-finals of the French Open in 1973, the semi-finals of Wimbledon during the same year and winning back to back US Open men's doubles titles in 1971 and 1972. He also enjoyed particular success in 1970, again reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon, where he achieved an upset win over defending champion Rod Laver en route, and the semi-finals of the Australian Open. Taylor also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1967. His career-high ATP ranking was 11 in its early listings in 1973; earlier unofficial year-end listings ranked him joint-7th (amateur) for 1967 and 8th (open) for 1970.
He was active from 1958 to 1982 and won 31 career singles titles, of those toward the end of his career included 6 Grand Prix tour singles titles and 10 doubles titles.
He was also ranked British No 1 1973 and 1974. Additionally, Taylor scored 29 wins and 11 losses at the Great Britain Davis Cup team. He is a member of the AELTC.
Taylor is the former husband of tennis player Frances MacLennan, whom he married in 1969. The couple had three children.
Tennis career Taylor was shown how to play tennis by his mother, Lilian, and he used to play in various parks across Sheffield, such as Weston Park. He often practised by hitting a tennis ball against a wall. He played his first singles tournament at the South of France Championships in 1958. He won his first singles title in 1959 at the Lee-on-Solent Open. Taylor was the sole British member of the so-called Handsome Eight signed by Lamar Hunt to compete in his newly created World Championship Tennis tour in 1968.
Taylor endeared himself to millions of viewers during his 1973 Wimbledon quarterfinal match against the 17-year-old Wimbledon debutant Björn Borg. Having already been declared the match winner by the umpire following his match-point serve which was disputed by Borg, Taylor voluntarily offered to replay the point. The linesman then questioned by the umpire as to whether he wished to reconsider his decision, changed his "in" call to "out" and the umpire requested that the point be replayed as a "let". Taylor subsequently went on to win the match, but lost to eventual champion Jan Kodeš in the semifinals. He won his final singles title at the Fairfield Open Indoors in March 1975.
He played his final singles tournament at the Caribbean International Championships in 1982. He retired from professional tennis in 1983 and following his retirement he operated tennis holidays. He was Great Britain's Davis Cup captain from February 2000 until January 2004. Taylor also captained the British ladies Wightman Cup team; steering them to their last victory in the competition in 1978. He was awarded an MBE in the 1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours.
He is currently active on the ITF Seniors Tour and has a singles ranking of 54 as at 2020 in the over 75's category. He won the 70+ title at Woking's Veterans Open Tournament in 2012. In 2019, he teamed up with Australia's Gordon Waygood to win the Men's 75 Doubles title at the British Open Seniors Clay Court Championships.
Grand Slam finals Doubles (2 titles) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1971US OpenGrass John Newcombe Stan Smith Erik van Dillen6–7, 6–3, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6Win1972US OpenGrass Cliff Drysdale Owen Davidson John Newcombe6–4, 7–6, 6–3
Open Era career finals Singles: 19 (9 titles / 10 runner-ups) Finals by surface Hard (4–2) Grass (2–3) Clay (1–3) Carpet (2–2)
ResultW-LDateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1–0 Oct 1968 Port Elizabeth WCT, South Africa Hard Tony Roche 10–8Loss 1–1 Aug 1969 Hilversum, Netherlands Clay Tom Okker 8–10, 9–7, 4–6, 4–6Loss 1–2 Dec 1969 Madrid, Spain Carpet Rod Laver 3–6, 3–6Win 2–2 Feb 1970 Auckland, New Zealand Grass Tom Okker 6–4, 6–4, 6–1Loss 2–3 Jul 1970 Leicester, England Grass Tom Okker 1–6, 8–10Loss 2–4 Aug 1970 Hilversum, Netherlands Clay Tom Okker 6–4, 0–6, 1–6, 3–6Loss 2–5 Aug 1970 Toronto, Canada Clay Rod Laver 0–6, 6–4, 3–6Win 3–5 Oct 1970 Midland, US Hard John Newcombe 2–6, 7–6, 6–1Win 4–5 Apr 1971 Palermo, Italy Clay Pierre Barthès 6–3, 4–6, 7–6, 6–2Loss 4–6 Jul 1971 Newport, UK Grass Ken Rosewall 1–6, 8–9Win 5–6 Aug 1972 Haverford, US Hard Mal Anderson 6–4, 6–0, 6–4Win 6–6 Feb 1973 Copenhagen, Denmark Hard Marty Riessen 6–2, 6–3, 7–6Loss 6–7 Mar 1973 Chicago WCT, US Carpet (i) Arthur Ashe 6–3, 6–7, 6–7Loss 6–8 Mar 1973 San Juan, Puerto Rico Hard Alex Metreveli 4–6, 4–6, 6–0, 5–7Loss 6–9 Apr 1973 Cleveland WCT, US Hard Ken Rosewall 3–6, 4–6Loss 6–10 Jun 1973 Queen's Club, England Grass Ilie Năstase 8–9, 3–6Win 7–10 Jul 1973 Newport, UK Grass Bob Giltinan 9–8, 8–6Win 8–10 Feb 1975 Roanoke, US Carpet (i) Vitas Gerulaitis 7–6, 7–6Win 9–10 Feb 1975 Fairfield, US Carpet (i) Sandy Mayer 7–5, 5–7, 7–6
Doubles: 21 (11 titles / 10 runner-ups) ResultW-LDateSurfacePartnerOpponentScoreLoss 0–1 Sep 1968 Los Angeles, US Hard Cliff Drysdale Ken Rosewall Fred Stolle 5–7, 1–6Win 1–1 Jan 1969 Hobart, Australia Grass Mal Anderson Tony Roche Fred Stolle 7–5, 6–3, 4–6, 1–6, 6–4Win 2–1 Feb 1969 Auckland, New Zealand Grass Ray Moore Mal Anderson Toomas Leius 13–15, 6–3, 8–6, 8–6Loss 2–2 Jun 1969 Bristol, UK Grass Cliff Drysdale John Newcombe Marty Riessen 6–4, 13–15, 3–6Loss 2–3 Jul 1969 Dublin, Ireland Grass Nikola Pilić Bob Hewitt Frew McMillan 2–6, 6–2, 5–7Win 3–3 Aug 1969 Hilversum, Netherlands Unknown Tom Okker Jan Kodeš Jan Kukal 6–3, 6–2, 6–4Loss 3–4 Aug 1969 Rhode Island, US Grass Dennis Ralston Tom Okker Marty Riessen 3–6, 6–3, 1–6Win 4–4 Apr 1970 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay Marty Riessen Pierre Barthès Nikola Pilić 6–3, 6–4, 6–2Win 5–4 Jul 1970 Gstaad, Switzerland Clay Cliff Drysdale Tom Okker Marty Riessen 6–2, 6–3, 6–2Loss 5–5 Apr 1971 Monte Carlo, Monaco Clay Tom Okker Ilie Năstase Ion Țiriac 6–1, 3–6, 3–6, 6–8Loss 5–6 May 1971 Rome, Italy Clay Andrés Gimeno John Newcombe Tony Roche 4–6, 4–6Win 6–6 Jul 1971 Newport, UK Grass Ken Rosewall John Clifton John Paish 7–5, 3–6, 6–2Win 7–6 Sep 1971US Open Grass John Newcombe Stan Smith Erik van Dillen 6–7, 6–3, 7–6, 4–6, 7–6Win 8–6 Aug 1972 Cleveland Hard Cliff Drysdale Frank Froehling Charlie Pasarell 7–6, 6–3Win 9–6 Sep 1972US Open Grass Cliff Drysdale Owen Davidson John Newcombe 6–4, 7–6, 6–3Win 10–6 Apr 1973 Vancouver, Canada Unknown Pierre Barthès Tom Gorman Erik van Dillen 5–7, 6–3, 7–6Loss 10–7 Apr 1974 Tokyo WCT, Japan Hard Juan Gisbert Sr. Raymond Moore Onny Parun 6–4, 2–6, 4–6Loss 10–7 Feb 1975 Salibury, US Carpet (i) Jan Kodeš Jimmy Connors Ilie Năstase 6–7, 2–6Win 11–7 Jul 1977 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Buster Mottram Colin Dowdeswell Chris Kachel 7–6, 6–4Loss 11–9 Oct 1977 Paris, France Hard Jeff Borowiak Brian Gottfried Raúl Ramírez 2–6, 0–6Loss 11–10 Jan 1978 Baltimore, US Carpet Tonino Zugarelli Frew McMillan Fred McNair 3–6, 5–7
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