Alex Olmedo, Tennis Champion September 7, 1959

When he asked to borrow his father's tennis racket as a
nine-year-old in Arequipa, Peru, Alex (the Chief) Olmedo had no
way of knowing that he had determined his destiny. By age 17 he
had shown enough promise to inspire tennis patrons to take up a
collection of $700, which he used to finance a move in 1954.
Olmedo took a boat to Havana, a plane to Miami and a bus to Los
Angeles, where he went to work at a tennis shop and studied
English at night school.

Three-plus years at USC yielded two NCAA titles in singles and
two in doubles. In 1958 captain Perry Jones named Olmedo,
eligible to represent America because of his more than three
years of continuous residence, to the U.S. Davis Cup team. The
big-serving Chief almost single-handedly defeated powerful
Australia, winning one doubles and two singles matches.

Olmedo's roll continued into 1959; in a six-month stretch he won
the U.S. indoor singles and doubles titles, the Australian
Championships and Wimbledon. But two weeks before a Davis Cup
rematch with the Aussies, he lost to a second-rate opponent at
the national clay court championships, and the U.S. Lawn Tennis
Association threatened to suspend him for tanking. When
Australia regained the Cup at Forest Hills, he was vilified by
the press. SI said the mercurial Olmedo, who won one singles
match, "merely went through the motions."

"Everyone blamed my personality," recalls Olmedo, now 62, "but
they didn't pay attention to the facts. I had been playing in
England. I didn't want to return to the States to play on clay.
I needed to rest before my Davis Cup defense. But the USLTA
wanted to make money, and it forced me to come back and play."

Olmedo turned pro in 1960 and barnstormed with legends such as
Pancho Gonzales, Ken Rosewall and Tony Trabert. After retiring
from competition in '65, he became the teaching pro at the
Beverly Hills Hotel. One of his early clients was Katharine
Hepburn, who after their lessons would talk to him about her
life with Spencer Tracy.

Olmedo is still the hotel's pro, having raised three
children--Amy, 35, Angela, 34, and Alex, 31--while helping
Robert Duvall with his serve and Chevy Chase with his forehand.
Says the Chief, "It's the first and only job I ever had."

--Luis Fernando Llosa

COLOR PHOTO: ROBERT BECK [Alex Olmedo]

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN G. ZIMMERMAN [Cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED featuring Alex Olmedo]

In 1965 he took a job as the pro at the Beverly Hills Hotel. One
of his clients was Katharine Hepburn.