Bill Simons
Graphic – Frances Aubrey
I’m a fan of Amanda Anisimova. And one of the least important reasons is her cool “AA” initials, which are just like Arthur Ashe’s and Andre Agassi’s.
In Indian Wells, when she lost to Belinda Bencic, whose initials are BB, it got me thinking. Who else in tennis has double initials – first and last names that start with the same letters?
Here’s what we came up with.
AA: Andre Agassi, Amanda Anisimova, pioneer Arthur Ashe, Indian Davis Cup player Anand Amritraj, and Easter Bowl champ Alafia Ayeni.
BB: The oft-injured pro Brian Baker, wealthy American tennis-lover Baldwin Baldwin, US pro champion Bruce Barnes, Germany’s Benjamin Becker and Boris Becker and Betina Bunge, Swiss mother Belinda Bencic, Zimbabwe’s Bryon Black, Swede Bjorn Borg, ATP executive Bob Briner, younger brother Bob Bryan, promoter Butch Buchholz, Wimbledon semi-finalist Bettina Bunge. But the “Barcelona Bumble Bee,” Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and tennis legend “Big Bill” Tilden don’t count.
CC: Former No. 26 Cristiano Caratti, writer Christopher Clarey, America’s 1881 doubles dominator Clarence Clark, Rafa’s agent Carlos Costa, Piedmont’s Chris Crawford, who reached the fourth round of Slams three times.
DD: Agent Dick Dell, promoter and savvy deal maker Donald Dell, Davis Cup founder Dwight Davis, Virginia’s Dylan Dietrich.
EE: Pepperdine product Eddie Edwards and LA’s Mexican-American pro Ernesto Escobedo.
FF: Former world No. 9 Fabio Fognini and 1963 US Nationals finalist Frank Froehling.
GG: Gaston Gaudio, the Argentinian who even shocked himself when he won the 2004 French Open. Former No. 2 US doubles player Grant Golden. Germaine Golding, the four-time French Nationals doubles finalist from the early 1920s.
HH: Former No. 6 Hubert Hurkacz; legendary Aussie old school coach Harry Hopman; tennis’ answer to Thomas Edison, inventor Howard Head; former No. 17 Henrik Holm and UC Berkeley’s Hazel Hotchkiss, who founded the Wightman Cup and became the Czarina of women’s tennis.
II: Belarussian Ilya Ivashka, who was No. 40 and the pride of Uzbekistan, Ivanna Isroilova.
JJ: Former No. 39 JJ Wolf, former No. 43 and Arizona State coach Jamea Jackson; Jelena Jankovic, the former No. 1 who was one of the best players to have never won a Slam and top 10 Swede Joachim Johansson.
KK: Russian Karen Khachanov who was No. 6, former top USTA executive Kurt Kamperman, Aussie Karen Krantzcke who was No. 9, Slovak and former world No. 6 Karol Kucera and Houston’s beautifully named Kathy Kuykendall, who reached the French Open quarters in 1976.
LL: Lleyton Hewitt has two l’s in his name doesn’t count. But there’s former No. 51 Leonard Lavalle, and Jamaican pro Lance Lumsden.
MM: The pride of Bulgaria – former No. 4 Maggie Maleeva, San Franciscan pioneer Maurice McLoughlin, 1989 Indian Wells champ Miloslav Mecir, Floridian Michael Mmoh, former No. 1 doubles player Marcelo Melo, Belarusian Olympic gold medalist Max Mirnyi, Martina Hingis’ mom Melanie Monitor, and 1962 Wimbledon finalist and Fila ambassador Marty Mulligan.
NN: Former New York junior star Nadine Netter and Nathaniel Niles, our favorite player who also was a figure skater.
OO: German Oscar Otte, who was No. 36.
PP: Parisian Pauline Parmentier reached No. 40, Canadian Peter Polansky became the first player to qualify for all four Slams as a lucky loser in the same year, 1972 French Open finalist Patrick Proisy.
QQ: We had a question on “QQ,” so we thought we’d ask Adrian Quist – but the Aussie is dead. So we made a query of Sam Querrey to see if he knew any QQ players and he said: “no way,” but you could ask Olympic champ Qinwen Zheng, France’s Quentin Halys or Coco Gauff’s former hitting partner Quinton Vega.
RR: Former No. 4 Raul Ramirez, 1979 US Open doubles finalist, trailblazer Renee Richards, 1993 former No. 1 doubles player Richey Reneberg, Good Morning America host Robin Roberts, who played for Southeastern Louisiana University, and Robert Ryland, who was the first African American pro tennis player.
SS: Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, who reached No. 21, “Mr. Sneaker,” Stan Smith, Shaun Stafford, who famously lost to Venus when she first emerged as a 14-year old pro in Oakland, US Open champion Sloane Stephens, French and US Open champ Sam Stosur, three-time Slam doubles champ Sherwood Stewart and Fred Stolle’s son, Sandon Stolle, who broke into the Top 50.
TT: Canadian journalist Tom Tebbutt, ten-time Slam winner and longtime announcer Tony Trabert, world No. 2 doubles player Taylor Townsend and the unique dress designer Ted Tinling, who for decades was one of the game’s most distinctive and beloved characters.
UU: You can not be serious. Why are you asking us to come up with a tennis player with the initials “UU?”
VV: Inside Tennis Contributing Editor Vinay Venkatesh and 2000 Wimbledon semifinalist Vladimir Volchkov.
WW: Warren Wood, the greatest player in Claremont Mudd-Scripps history. (The legendary WW doubles team Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, doesn’t count).
XX: As tennis became quite raunchy in the era of Nastase, McEnroe and Connors, super coach Vic Braden said he wouldn’t take his children to tennis matches because they were too X-rated. BTW: There are plenty of Chinese players whose names begin with X, and of course there’s Belgium’s Xavier Malisse.
YY: We’re not sure “Y” it took us a while to find two former Japanese players Yuka Yamaguchi and Yuri Yamaguchi, as well as China’s Yuan Yue, who recently won the doubles in Austin.
ZZ: We thought we we were done with this and that it was at last time to get some ZZZ’s. Sure, we knew that Zizou Bergs is now Belgium’s top-ranked ATP player, New Yorker Zizou Ahmad lost in the first round of the Indian Wells juniors, and Tristan Boyer’s coach, Zibu Ncube, is from Zimbabwe. But we couldn’t come up with a proper “ZZ” until Zoo Tennis blogger Colette Lewis noted that Slovakian Zuzana Zlochova has won 14 singles titles.
Surely there are more. Email simons@insidetennis.com to let us know who we missed.
So far here are some we missed:
Super stats man Greg Sharko reminded us of Zhizhen Zhang. “Triple Z” was China’s highest ranked ATP player ever. He reached No. 31.
– Also reporting: Vinay Venkatesh and Lucia Hoffman
