Eric Clifford “Cliff” Drysdale was born in Nelspruit on 26 May 1941.[i] He was widely regarded as one of the best tennis players South Africa has ever produced.[ii] In 1965 Cliff was ranked fourth in the world and remained under the top ten best players in the world until 1973.[iii] From 1963 to 1973 Drysdale won various national titles in South Africa, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and The Netherlands.[iv] In 1968,[v] Cliff married Jean Forbes, the sister of Gordon Forbes, another South African tennis star.[vi] Cliff and Jean participated as a mixed doubles combination, earning themselves the 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1963 South African national titles in the category.[vii] Drysdale reportedly played in 44 singles and 5 doubles matches in the Davis Cup, of which he won 32 singles and 3 doubles.[viii] Drysdale was selected as part of the Handsome Eight, a group of talented tennis players signed on by Lamar Hunt in 1968, the recently founded professional World Championship Tennis group.[ix] In 1972, Cliff was elected president of the Association of Tennis Professionals,[x] however, in 1980 he retired from tennis.[xi] Drysdale currently resides in Miami, Florida with his wife Dianna Belmonte, whom he married in 2011;[xii] after the passing of his first wife Jean who died of a rare disease in 1984.[xiii] In 2013 Drysdale, along with Charlie Pasarell and Ion Tiriac, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.[xiv]
End Notes
[i]V. Baba. 2016.Cliff Drysdale bio, wiki, married, wife, new worth, height, http://dodoodad.com/cliff-drysdale-bio-wiki-married-wife-net-worth-height/. ↵
[ii]David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 204. ↵
[iii]David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 204. ↵
[iv]David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 204. ↵
[v]ESPN’s Tennis Team: My Favorite Wimbledon Memory, http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/press-releases/espns-tennis-team-my-favorite-wimbledon-memory/. ↵
[vi]P. Bodo. 2013.Dynamic, Debonair, Delightful, http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/07/dynamic-debonair-delightful/48330/. ↵
[vii]David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 204. ↵
[viii]David van Lill, Van Lill’s South African Sports Trivia (Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2005), p. 204. ↵
[ix]M. John. 2015.Cliff Drysdale, http://chrisevert.org/participant/cliff-drysdale/. ↵
[x]M. John. 2015.Cliff Drysdale, http://chrisevert.org/participant/cliff-drysdale/ ↵
[xi]V. Baba. 2016.Cliff Drysdale bio, wiki, married, wife, new worth, height, www.businesslive.co.za. ↵
[xii]V. Baba. 2016.Cliff Drysdale bio, wiki, married, wife, new worth, height, http://dodoodad.com/cliff-drysdale-bio-wiki-married-wife-net-worth-height/. ↵
[xiii]Jean Drysdale, https://www.myheritage.com/names/jean_drysdale. ↵
[xiv]P. Bodo. 2013.Dynamic, Debonair, Delightful,http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/07/dynamic-debonair-delightful/48330/. ↵
