Seven tennis alums land All-Century honors


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The Pac-12 Conference continued their announcement of All-Century teams with men’s and women’s tennis Tuesday. USC landed six men on the All-Century team including the single’s Player of the Century — Steven Johnson. On the women’s side, only one player was named to the team — current volunteer Assistant Coach Barbara Hallquist Degroot.

Johnson played at USC from 2009-2012, a stretch in which the team captured four straight NCAA championships. Johnson also won back-to-back NCAA singles titles in 2011 and 2012. The two championships were aided by a 72-match winning streak that Johnson carried his junior and senior year and through the end of his career as a Trojan.

Johnson also racked up individual accolades as a Trojan. Johnson was named ITA Player of the Year and Pac-12 Player of the Year twice. He also earned Pac-12 Doubles Team of the Year three times as well as being named a seven-time All-American.

Johnson is now ranked No. 32 in the world as a singles player and No. 47 in doubles.

The other players on the men’s side of the All-Century team are Alex Olmedo (1956-58), Rafael Osuna (1961-63), Dennis Ralston (1962-64), Stan Smith (1966-68) and Bob Lutz (1967-69).

Olmedo won both the NCAA singles and doubles championships in 1956 and 1958.

Osuna and Ralston were teammates on the NCAA championship teams of 1962 and 1963 with Osuna winning the NCAA singles title in 1962 before Ralston went on to capture the title in 1963 and 1964. Osuna and Ralston also paired together to win the 1963 doubles championship. Osuna had won the two previous, and Ralston went on to win an additional one.

Lutz and Smith captured back-to-back doubles titles together in 1967 and 1968 with Lutz claiming the singles title in 1967 before Smith took the championship in 1968.

Each of the Trojans named to the All-Century team excluding Johnson have at least one Grand Slam to his name as well as being inducted into the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.

Degroot was the sole Trojan named to an All-Century team that was dominated by Stanford, who had seven of the 12 players on the team.

Degroot was USC’s first female scholarship athlete and won three team NCAA titles in 1977, 1978 and 1979. She also earned the USTA singles title in 1976 and 1977 and was named a four-time All-American. As a professional, Degroot reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in 1980 as a singles player before returning to USC as a volunteer assistant coach in 2014.