Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The Mail on Sunday (London, England)

CHAMPION TO JAILBIRD; He was victorious in the Australian Open, dazzled the Duchess of Kent at Wimbledon and took Bjorn Borg to the brink of defeat, but Roscoe Tanner now languishes in an American prison.

Article Excerpt
Byline: PETER HIGGS

EVERY morning he wakes in the dormitory he shares with 30 other inmates, pulls on his blue regulation-issue uniform and sets off to work in the prison hospital. His gaunt, almost haunted features reveal a 54-year-old man whose life has hit rock-bottom, a man desperate to serve his time and rebuild his relationship with the family he knows he has badly let down.

Who could believe that prisoner R35415 was once one of the most recognisable figures in the tennis world? A handsome, clean-cut all-American boy who was adored by women and feared by his opponents for the power of his 150mph serve.

But Roscoe Tanner has fallen a long way since he stood in the sunlight of the All England Club, came within a few points of beating Bjorn Borg in the 1979 men's final and was consoled by the Duchess of Kent for his courageous performance.

As his contemporaries make their annual pilgrimage back to SW19 to

reminisce about the good old days, their onetime friend and rival will allow himself a rare reminder of happier times.

'I'd love to be there at Wimbledon,' he said from the North Florida jail he shares with a thousand other inmates. 'But, for obvious reasons, I can't.

Maybe one day.' Tanner had it all and threw it away. He was a...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!