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Marion Anthony Trabert (born August 16, 1930 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a former star tennis player and longtime tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivation speaker. Trabert was a standout athlete, a starter on the basketball team and 1951 University Intercollegiate singles championship winner at the University of Cincinnati.
Trabert’s record in 1955 was one of the greatest ever by an American tennis player. He won the three most prestigious tournaments in amateur tennis – the French, Wimbledon, and American championships – en route to being ranked “World No. 1” for the year. Only Grand Slam winners Don Budge and Rod Laver have ever achieved the same feat. Trabert’s own chance at a Grand Slam was stopped with a loss in the semi-finals at the Australian championships. Trabert won 18 tournaments in 1955, compiling a match record of 106 wins to 7 losses.
An extremely athletic right-hander who mostly played a serve and volley game, Trabert also won the French singles in 1954 and the U.S. championship in 1953. In fact, he won the only five Grand Slam event finals he appeared in. He won the French doubles in 1950, 1954, and 1955. Trabert, along with Vic Seixas, was an American Davis Cup team mainstay during the early 1950s, during which time the Americans reached the finals 5 times, winning the cup in 1954. It was their only victory over the dominant Australian teams during the decade.
Having reached the top amateur ranking in ‘55, Trabert turned professional in 1956. He was beaten on the head-to-head tour by the reigning king of professional tennis Pancho Gonzales, 74 matches to 27. He beat Gonzales for the French Pro Championship in 1956, however, and beat Frank Sedgman for the same title in 1959. He was runner-up to Sedgman in the London Indoor Pro in 1958; in the U.S. Pro Championships he was runner-up to Alec Olmedo in 1960.
Trabert was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1970.
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