Ham Richardson


Hamilton Farrar Richardson was an American tennis player, who was active in the 1950s and 1960s.

Life

Richardson was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics at Tulane University, where he won two NCAA Singles Championships. He was named a charter member of the Tulane University Athletic Hall of Fame.
He was named a Rhodes scholar and earned a master's degree at Oxford University during which he achieved the U.S. No. 1 ranking, both in 1956 and 1958. Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph ranked Richardson the World No. 3 in 1956, No. 6 in 1958, No. 7 in 1955 and No. 10 in 1954.
Richardson reached four Grand Slam singles semi finals. At the French championships in 1955, Richardson beat Herbert Flam before losing in the semi finals to Tony Trabert. In 1956 Richardson reached the Wimbledon semi finals. At the U. S. championships, Richardson reached the semi finals in 1952 and 1954. In 1958, he won a U.S. National doubles title in 1958 with Alex Olmedo, and reached the mixed doubles final at the Australian National Championship with Maureen Connolly.
At the Cincinnati Masters, Richardson reached two singles finals, losing in 1950 to Glenn Bassett and in 1953 to Tony Trabert, and won two doubles titles, in 1950 with George Richards, and in 1953 with Trabert. He played on seven U.S. Davis Cup teams, including the winning Cup teams of 1954 and 1958. He was 20–2 in Davis Cup play.
After retiring from tennis, he founded Richardson and Associates, a New York investment and venture capital firm.

Personal life

Richardson had three children from his first marriage, which ended in divorce. He was later married to author and editor Midge Turk Richardson from 1974 until his death from complications from diabetes in 2006.

Grand Slam finals

Men's doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Rankings

Richardson's Top Ten U.S. Rankings