Eddie Dibbs

Eddie Dibbs

Eddie Dibbs beat Jimmy Connors 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 on the carpet in London, the kind of match that summed up his career: outlast the bigger name through sheer refusal to go away. He reached the Roland Garros semi-finals in 1975 and 1976, losing to Guillermo Vilas and then to the eventual champion, Adriano Panatta, and never got closer to a major final. He and Harold Solomon, doubles partners and fellow Miami grinders, coined tennis's term for a 6-0 set, bagel, a joke Bud Collins turned into the sport's most durable slang; sportswriters nicknamed the pair the Bagel Twins.

Born in Brooklyn in 1951 to Lebanese immigrant parents, Dibbs grew up in Miami and starred at the University of Miami before turning professional in 1972. They called him Fast Eddie for footwork and a refusal to miss, and it peaked in July 1978: a career-high world No. 5 and the tour's leading money winner. He won 22 career titles and 608 of his 873 tour-level matches, most on clay against the likes of Manuel Orantes and Bjorn Borg, then retired in 1984 and settled in Fort Lauderdale.