For those who were at the Davis Cup semi-final at Chandigarh it was the chance to se a 73 year old lady with a tanned face and a figure that you get to see on Star TV. The lady is none other that Mrs. Lucy Hopman, the wife of Late Harry Hopman who was the most successful captain –coach in the Davis Cup history.Under Harry Hopman’s watchful eye the Australians won the Cup 16 times in 21 years, and players like Neale Frazer, John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, and our own Ramesh Krishnan attend his Saddlebrook International Tennis Camp, at Tampa Bay, Florida, after he had moved to the USA. In 1985 Harry Hopman died, leaving his ever-smiling wife Lucy Hopman to carry on.
It was like a baseline ballet down memory lane as Mrs Hopman narrated her past. She married Hopman and recalls how much she loved him with a hint of tears in her eyes.
Lucy first met Harry when she was just 18 years-age when the Australian team was in the US for the Challenge Round of the Davis Cup. It happened again the next year, but this time the Australians triumphed, coming back from 0-2 down to beat the US. Then came World War II which caused a break in Davis Cup history. Thereafter Australia declined while the US grew in Davis Cup Strength.
As Mrs Hopman wipes her sweaty brow she adds with delight and pride that Australia won the Davis Cup in 1950 and on 14 more occasions till 1969 under Harry.
In every country in the world there is at least one player who was coached by the ‘Great Kangaroo’ from Down Under. Mrs Hopman herself came from a tennis family. Her aunt Hazel Wightman became the US national champion in 1920, the year in which she was born. She shyly says “I was born in and fed tennis, but I could not be more than a social player.”
Talking about the Harry’s dream – the tennis camp at Florida, she said that of the 40 courts at the camp two were grass to help players prepare for Wimbleton, two red clay for French Open, and the rest clay courts. This camp is used by the present World No 1 and 2 Pete Sampras and Jim Courier for training. “I will continue the work as long as me knees mal me stand upright, though I cannot play tennis.” Yet she was seen wielding the racquet on the synthetic surface with Ramanathan Krishanan two days before the start of the Davis Cup tie.In 1996 she was in Australia to witness the tie against India and got an enormous look of how Indian lady's dressed, when Ramesh Krishnan’s mother and another lady came in sarees and wore jewels to steal the center stage from the players. “Well I am taking back home a lot of these sarees and jewels,” she says as she displays a few of them with her eyes twinkling.
She adds that she as is old as the Pope and has been to Perth on occasions especially to watch the Hopman Cup in which 12 countries participate. “I do this only because I love tennis and Harry. Talking about the kind of tennis played during the three days she said that it was not bad but both the Indians were not at their best and ends “that’s all I can say”.
