Bernard Bartzen

Tut Bartzen

Full name	Bernard Bartzen
Country (sports)	Ft. Worth, Texas, U.S.
Turned pro	1945 (amateur tour)
Retired	1960
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
College	College of William & Mary
Singles
Highest ranking	No. 8 (1959, Lance Tingay)[1]
Grand Slam singles results
French Open	4R (1953)
Wimbledon	2R (1953)
US Open	SF (1959)

Bernard "Tut" Bartzen (November 25, 1927 - July 10, 2019) was an American former tennis player in the mid-20th century, who later became a winning college tennis coach.

Biography

Born in 1927 in Austin, Texas, Bartzen moved with his family to San Angelo when he was 5 years old.^[2] He won three Texas state high school titles — two in singles and one in doubles — and the National Interscholastic singles championship.

Bartzen attended the College of William & Mary, where the left-hander posted a 50–0 singles record. He also won the NCAA doubles title with Fred Kovaleski in 1948.

Bartzen went on the American tennis circuit and was ranked in the top 10 nine straight years (1953–1961), two of them at No. 2 (1959 and 1960).

Bartzen reached the semifinals of the U.S. National Championships in 1959 (beating Vic Seixas before losing to Neale Fraser)^[3] and the quarterfinals in 1955.

He also won four

Bartzen served as co-captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team and won 15 singles matches.

After his playing career, Bartzen served 12 years as head tennis pro at Colonial Country Club in

Bartzen was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Bernard James "Tut" Bartzen died on July 10, 2019, 19 years to the day after his wife, Sara Jane Ledbetter.^[4]

References