Frank Sedgman looks back at thrashing the USA in the 1952 Davis Cup final in Adelaide

The Davis Cup final has been held in Adelaide four times, beginning in 1952 when Frank Sedgman led a rout of a star-studded US team. The legend reveals his fond memories, including the time the victorious team was turned away from dinner.

Tennis players Vic Seixas of America and Australia's Frank Sedgman walk onto the court for their singles match during Davis Cup tie at Memorial Drive in December 1952.

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The Davis Cup final has been held in Adelaide four times, beginning in 1952 when Frank Sedgman led the rout of a star studded American outfit.

Sedgman, the best player of his day bar none before seeking his fortune on the more financially glittering American professional tour, is now 91 and remembers Adelaide fondly.

“I won the Australian Championships in Adelaide, that was ‘49, my first big win. The venue was excellent, grass courts and an excellent cricket ground right next door. In the middle of town.”

Lew Hoad, Ken McGregor, Mervyn Rose and Frank Sedgman ahead of their victorious 1952 Davis Cup tie against the USA at Memorial Drive.

The 1952 occasion came near the start of a quite extraordinary period of global Australian dominance within men’s tennis, the Davis Cup captured a mind boggling 15 times in 18 years

as autocratic coach Harry Hopman, held sway.

“I was in the team when we won the cup back from America in 1950 and that was a big event, beating the Yanks in New York,” Sedgman said.

“I won my first match and then Ken McGregor had to play Ted Schroeder. Schroeder was a big star then and McGregor came out and beat him in straight sets. And then we won the doubles, John Bromwich and me.

“So we brought the cup back to Australia and then it became the big event of the summer, Christmas time was always the Davis Cup. We had a reception back at the town hall in Melbourne, Swanston St was just jam packed with people.”

The huge crowd in the temporary stand at Memorial Drive in 1952.

Two years later, from December 29 to 31, a forerunner of the annual Big Bash celebrations, arguably came the real fireworks, Sedgman and Adelaide’s McGregor dispatching the USA team 4-1.

“We were really wound up but there weren’t any celebrations afterwards, they made a big fuss of us in the stadium but once we’d left it was all gone. I didn’t drink beer then.

“We go back to the hotel, the South Australian hotel on North Terrace (briefly home to the Beatles also in 1964) and the head waiter says ‘Oh, you haven’t got a booking, you can’t come in for dinner’. We’d just won the Davis Cup...”

Sedgman’s wife, Jean, recalls the New Year’s Eve snub well.

“We actually went back to the hotel with the American players Tony Trabert and Vic Seixas, they were just as low key as we were. We still keep in touch with them,” she said.

Sedgman during the 1952 Davis Cup tie at Memorial Drive.

Sedgman in action at Memorial Drive.

The Cup though was a huge event, Memorial Drive packed to the rafters, suburban back yards and beaches brought together, radio the communication king as the exploits in Adelaide were relayed across the country.

The Drive’s temporary, and near vertical stands (a knee buckling affair) housed about 15,000 people, contemporary health and safety dogma absent at a venue that can pack in just 5000 today, albeit an uplift is expected very soon.

The pressure to win was real says Sedgman.

“You put up to play Davis Cup and you knew the whole country was concentrating on you when you walk on court and you think ‘I am representing my county here’. You had to perform, there was a ‘you couldn’t let your country down sort of thing’.”

The victorious Australian Davis Cup team, from left, Frank Sedgman, Meryn Rose, captain-manager Harry Hopman, Lew Hoad and Ken McGregor.

Limiting countries to just one tie a year before the 18 nation final in Madrid in November from this year hurts says Sedgman.

“That’s why it’s sad, they are going to play it at just one venue from now. You can’t go over there just to watch it, you are not playing in front of your home crowd.”

There is, intriguingly, a postscript to the 1952 final belonging to Tony Trabert.

On December 30, before the last day of match play, the American team were invited to a beachside barbecue by a South Australian tennis official. They went, indulged, and after a few hours thought it time to leave.

Trabert asked for the official’s wife, the hostess, to thank her for a cracking and welcoming night.

“Oh, she’s not here,” he was told. “She lives four doors away.”

A different time.