Roscoe Tanner

Early life

Leonard Roscoe Tanner III hailed from Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, graduated from Baylor School in Chattanooga, and with teammate Sandy Mayer helped to lead Stanford University's rise to the number one ranking in collegiate tennis in 1973. Tanner played number one singles, with Mayer playing number two. The team also featured Rick Fisher, Stanley Pasarell, Jim Delaney, Chico Hagey, Gery Groslimond, Pat DuPre, Tim Noonan and Paul Sidone. Of the winning 1973 Stanford tennis team, Tanner, Mayer and DuPre were all brothers in the Zeta Psi fraternity.

Playing history

Tanner defeated Haroon Rahim 10–8 in the fifth set to win the 1970 United States Amateur Championships (Men's Tennis).

Tanner defeated Guillermo Vilas in three straight sets in the 1977 Australian Open (January) final, to win his first and only grand slam title. Tanner lost a five set match to Björn Borg in the 1979 Wimbledon final, which was the first Wimbledon final to be broadcast live in the United States as part of NBC's Breakfast at Wimbledon. Tanner avenged this loss to Borg by beating him in four sets in the US Open quarterfinals two months later, a match where Tanner's 140 mph serve brought the net down during the fourth set. Tanner lost to Vitas Gerulaitis in the semifinals. Tanner described his 1979 US Open win over Borg and loss to Gerulaitis in his autobiography as "the highest of my highs and the lowest of my lows on a tennis court within two days of each other".

Tanner's strong left-handed serve was thrown very low and struck with a lunge involving the whole body, earning him the nickname "The Rocket". His booming 153 mph serve was the fastest ever recorded in tournament competition from February 1978 until Andy Roddick posted a 155 mph serve in a Davis Cup tournament in September 2004.

He won the Davis Cup in 1981 playing for the United States Davis Cup team along with John McEnroe, Eliot Teltscher, Peter Fleming and Captain Arthur Ashe at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

¹The Australian Open was played twice in 1977, in January and December.

Personal life

Tanner has been married three times, first to Nancy, next to Charlotte and currently to Margaret. He has five children, all daughters.

Tanner has coached Dennis Early, Frank Norman, Jesse Stirge, Adrienne Radakovic and a session with Kenzo Wong.

Criminal record

Tanner has an extensive record of conflicts with the law. He was first arrested in 1997 for failure to pay child support to Connie Romano, with whom he fathered a child in the early 1990s. Tanner was arrested again in Karlsruhe in June 2003 on a fugitive warrant. He had fled from Florida after felony charges were filed against him. In this case, the charges related to passing a bad cheque to purchase a yacht in 2000 and to further nonpayment of child support to Romano. He pleaded guilty and received an initial sentence of probation.

After violating the terms of his probation, Tanner was arrested again on Fugitive and Probation Violation warrants and was convicted and sentenced to two years in the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections. He was released one year early for "good behavior" and extradited to Orange County California where he was jailed there on an outstanding warrant for Contempt of Court on a charge of refusal to pay child support.

In May 2008, Roscoe Tanner was arrested in Knoxville, Tennessee, for the felony of writing US$72,000 in worthless cheques as payment for two Toyota Highlanders. The felony charge was dismissed on August 14, 2008 after the dealership obtained return of the vehicles, which were taken out of town, and upon Tanner's payment of US$5,000 in restitution to the dealership for the reduced value of the vehicles after their recovery. Several years before, Tanner had been arrested in Knoxville for violating probation resulting from his guilty pleas in Florida relating to felony worthless cheques and grand theft.

In April 2010, Tanner was evicted from his residence in Florida, and was in hiding from another warrant for his arrest from July 2010 until he was arrested in January 2012, on charges of writing a worthless $1,200 cheque for boat repairs.

On March 13, 2013 Tanner was arrested in Indian River County Florida on additional warrants, including a warrant for Worthless Cheque/ Failure to Appear and a Felony 3rd Degree Grand Theft warrant from St Lucie County, Florida. Tanner pleaded guilty to a reduced charge and was sentenced to restitution and probation. In November 2014, Tanner was arrested again in Indian River County, Florida, this time for driving on a suspended license, and he was sentenced to serve an active jail term of ten days in the Indian River County Detention Center. On March 2, 2015, Tanner was arrested once again by the Indian River County Sheriff in Florida, this time for Failure to Appear in court on a previous warrant, and he was held without bond pending transfer to another jurisdiction. Additionally, Tanner was wanted in Georgia for Contempt of Court according to the Clerk of Court of Dade County, Georgia, as of March 29, 2013. Tanner has been evading service of that warrant since July 23, 2009, according to the Sheriff of that county, where Tanner used to reside.