Allan Stone – Amateur Professional and Tv Commentator

Written by: Global Chick on 2nd September 2011

Allan Stone - Amateur Professional and Tv Commentator |

Allan Stone played tennis during the amateur and professional eras. The Tasmanian is full of stories from all over the world and from all areas of tennis.

Before the Open era of tennis, the players were not allowed to receive any kind of prize money. Allan tells the story when he had to write letters to the tournament directors in Europe, South Africa and in the Caribbean asking for free accommodation and maybe a free breakfast each day. The different tours would last up to six weeks in each location.

He was never in the top echelon of the sport. The top International stars of the time were Arthur Ashe, Charlie Pasarell, Pancho Gonzales and Tom Okker. The best Australians were Fred Stolle, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe and Tony Roche.

If you were ranked in the top tier of the amateurs you might get lucky to strike a deal with the tournament organisers and receive a few pennies for your troubles. The press found out about the “money under the table” and the sport was given a tarnished reputation.

American Jack Kramer a former World No. 1 in the 1940s created a Pro Group for the top players of the 50s and 60s era. Kramer was the ultimate promoter of the professional tennis tours. The players belonging to Kramer’s Pro Group were black listed by most amateur tournament organisers. Kramer in conjunction with the International Tennis Federation came up with the idea of having the Open tennis an alternative to the amateur circuit.

The Wimbledon tournament in 1968 was the first time there were no contracts, no expenses and no guarantees. The Open era had begun and the prize money increased the more rounds you won. Rod Laver went on to win Wimbledon that year and he pocketed a massive cheque of $5000.

The Open Tennis gave players like “Stoney” a reason to play tennis and they could make good money. The players below the top level knew they could make a living out of playing tennis and not just receive a free room at a mediocre establishment.

In the late 1960s tennis became a hip sport and it recovered from its bad reputation of paying the amateurs. Golf was huge at this time but it didn’t provide any cardio exercise. Celebrities and movie stars began to play tennis and gave the sport the attention it needed to kick off. People realised it gave them a good cardio workout and it was part of the fitness craze of that era.

Back to 1968. Tennis was an Open event, the rich and famous played the sport and the first sponsors came on board and made the sport interesting to all the major television networks.

Stone played between 40-50 Grand Slams during his career. His best singles result came at the Australian Open in 1972 when he lost to Ken Rosewall in the semi-final. Allan had more success in the doubles where he won two doubles titles at the Australian Open, once with Dick Crealy and the second with Ray Ruffels. Allan also won the US Open doubles trophy.

In 1975 Allan was the runner up at the Australian Open with Bob Carmichael and runner up at Wimbledon with Colin Dowdeswell of South Africa.

The Tasmanian was 33-years-old when he was offered a career of a lifetime. Channel 7 in Australia offered Allan a full time job commentating on the women’s circuit and part time on the men’s circuit.

It was hard work for the newly retired player, who had to commentate on all the matches the network broadcasted which could be six hours per day and seven days a week.

This year “Stoney” will do his 36^th consecutive year as a special comments man for the Channel 7 Network, which has maintained the broadcast rights for all these years.

He has also worked for Foxtel simultaneously covering the Wimbledon and US Open. His Foxtel contract ran out three years ago and with the Global Financial Crisis Foxtel decided to cut down on their personnel and rather use players already on site to cut out travel costs.

These days the former World No. 38 also does work for the American Tennis Channel. Allan says, “With the men and women’s events combined and the new technology there are five courts showing at the same time and all the courts need commentary. In the early days we only used to broadcast from the Centre Court and I had to do all the work.”

A typical day in a commentator’s life is to get to the courts and visit the media centre where you have access to all information on every player playing on that day. The producer will let you know the night before when you are required to arrive at the court and what matches you will cover.

Allan remembers the rivalry between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. The two played some great matches on the grass at Kooyong. One of the best matches he ever saw was between Steffi Graf and Monica Seles in the early 90s at the Australian Open. Seles beat Graf but the German knew she had given it her best and was satisfied with that.

Another unforgettable moment was when John McEnroe was defaulted at the Australian Open in 1990. The American played Swede Mikael Pernfors when he got defaulted in the fourth set. McEnroe claimed he had misunderstood the rules and claimed he could have four warnings instead of three before he got kicked off the court.

Pat Cash’s two sets to love down comeback against Sweden’s Mikael Pernfors in Davis Cup at Kooyong is another beauty many people will never forget. “The commentary booths at Kooyong has not changed since 1977,” Allan added.

One recent match Stone will always remember was at this year’s Australian Open when Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia and Francesca Schiavone of Italy battled it out on court for four hours and 44 minutes. The match finished 6-4 1-6 16-14 with Schiavone as the winner having to fight off 6 match points. This was the longest women’s Grand Slam match in the open era.

Only once has a there been a near disaster with a commentary booth. It was at Sydney’s White City venue where the booth was propped up on scaffoldings. Bad weather set in and Allan and his co-host had to step out of the booth until the weather had settled down again.

Allan also known as “Rolling” has been around for a long time but he is very impressed with the way tennis has developed. “More media are involved. Pay TV, internet, more full time journalists covering the tour and slow motion replay has turned tennis into a global event,” Stone said. “Hawk Eye is one of the best innovations that has happened to tennis, it has a 99.2% accuracy rate,” the Australian Open Doubles Champ said.

If he could change one thing about today’s tennis, it would be the grunting in the women’s game. I’m sure “Stoney” is not the only one thinking that!