The combination celebrated player and preeminent journalist is a rare convergence in sports, and Eugene "Gene" Scott was one of a few who were able to take those talents and merge them into a tremendous tennis career.
Scott was a world-ranked player, agent, tournament director, author of great acclaim, and most recognized for being the founder, publisher, and editor of Tennis Week Magazine.
If you were dining with Scott, you’d never know he held a No. 11 world ranking in 1965 – No. 4 in the U.S. in 1963 – or that he advanced to the semifinals of the 1967 U.S. National Championships. Scott was a serve-and-volley specialist who reached the quarterfinals of the 1964 French Men’s Singles Championship and was a member of the United States Davis Cup team in 1963 and 1965. But Scott was unassuming, with little pretense, a gentleman. He wasn’t afraid to speak – and write – what was on his mind, and there was no tennis faction that could escape Scott’s prose. But the Yale educated Scott (class of 1960) and Virginia Law School graduate (1964) was a skillful journalist who expertly navigated choppy waters and made no enemies with Tennis Week, though he did leave many in the establishment disgruntled at times. As a top echelon player turned journalist, Scott had unmatched credibility. His byline appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire and he authored Björn Borg: My Life and My Game, which rose to No. 5 on the London Times best-seller list. He also authored Tennis: Game of Motion and OPEN!
In 1974, he founded Tennis Week for the serious tennis fan. His “Vantage Point” publisher’s column was a provocative, combative, and insightful sliver of journalism that held strong for 25 years. Scott was often viewed as the “conscience of the tennis business.”
Scott was the director of more than 200 tournaments, ranging from Madison Square Garden to the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. He produced tennis documentaries for CBS-TV and was a television commentator for the 1973 exhibition match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, known as the Battle of the Sexes.
In 1969, he was a co-founder of the National Junior Tennis League and mentored young players John McEnroe and Vitas Gerulaitis. Playing tennis always remained an integral part of Scott’s life, remaining a world class player. In September 2004, he won the USTA Men's 65 Grass Court Championships and the International Tennis Federation's Men's Super-Seniors World Individual Championships in the 65 division a week later.
