Sam Match

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sam Match (Samuel Match) was an American tennis player born January 3, 1923, in Los Angeles, California, and died January 23, 2010, in Redondo Beach, California. A Jewish athlete who attended Los Angeles High School, he became a top competitor in the 1940s and later played professionally in the early 1950s, retiring in 1968. His peak singles ranking was No. 8 in 1949, and his best doubles ranking was No. 4 in 1948.

As a college player, Match helped Rice University win the NCAA doubles title in 1947 with Bob Curtis. He later played for the University of San Francisco and reached the NCAA singles final in 1949. He twice defeated Pancho Gonzales, who was the US No. 1 at the time, in 1948 and 1949. He won several amateur events, including La Jolla and Philadelphia in 1948 and the Utah State Open in 1948–49.

During World War II, Match served as a radio operator in the United States Army Air Corps in Guam and played in the Army–Navy Championships in 1945, losing to Bobby Riggs in the final. He played in the US Open (1946, 1947, 1949), reaching the third round each time. He began competing as a professional in the early 1950s, with his first pro event in 1953 at the California State Pro in Beverly Hills, and his best professional major result was a US Pro quarterfinal in 1954.

Match was inducted into the University of San Francisco Athletic Hall of Fame, the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame (1991), and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2000). In 2005, he was named one of the University of San Francisco’s 75 greatest athletic legends.