World Championship Tennis (WCT)
In 1967, future USFL founder Dixon persuaded his friend and the AFL founder Lamar Hunt to finance World Championship Tennis. After signing John Newcombe to a professional contract, Dixon persuaded Cliff Drysdale, Nikki Pilic, Roger Taylor, Tony Roche, Dennis Ralston, Pierre Barthes and Butch Bucholtz, seven of the world's ten best male tennis players, to turn pro within a few weeks. The US Open, the French Open, the Australian Open, and the Wimbledon Championships, formerly limited to amateur players, admitted professionals and the popularity of the game grew dramatically. Remarkably, within ten years the leading money winner on the tennis pro tour was earning more money than the leading money winner on the pro golf tour.
Read more about this topic: David Dixon (businessman)
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or tennis:
“Oh, Scott, for people like you and me the world can be a wonderful place. The sky’s as blue as it is for the giants, the friends are as warm.”
—Richard Matheson (b. 1926)
“[My one tennis book] was very, very old. It had a picture of Bill Tilden. I looked at the picture and that was how I learned to hold the racket.”
—Maria Bueno (b. 1939)