or U.S. Pro played that year under the VASS scoring system. Kovacs defeated Riggs to reach the semifinal where he lost a very close match to Gonzales. Two months later he played Pancho Gonzales in two matches using the VASS scoring system at the California Tennis Club in San Francisco and nearly beat him in both matches. Kovacs was ranked third in 1955 by the International Professional Tennis Association. Later years Kovacs continued to play in the Cleveland World Pro or U.S. Pro, the one major tournament which he had won. Ironically, the Sports Illustrated article of his 1957 appearance at Cleveland claimed that Kovacs "...has the finest collection of strokes in tennis but has never cashed in on this potential," despite the fact that Kovacs had previously won the event in 1951. Kovacs was ranked sixth for 1957 in the Jack March professional rankings, just ahead of Kramer at seventh. He spent his later years teaching tennis at the Davie Tennis Stadium in Piedmont, in Florida and at public courts near his home in Oakland. Playing style and assessment Kovacs won many clay events, including the Great Lakes Professional Clay Court Championships near Chicago and also five U. S. Professional Clay Court Championships. He reached two U.S. Pro finals at Cleveland, on clay in 1950 and on cement in 1951, winning the latter. Kovacs also reached the semifinals of the US Pro a further eight times. He lost five U.S. Pro semifinals at Forest Hills on grass. Kovacs did not play in the U.S. Clay Court Championships after 1938, or at Roland Garros or in Davis Cup, events where he would have been expected to achieve some success. Kovacs won a head-to-head series on an indoor surface against Riggs, with both players reportedly in excellent form throughout the matches. It was said of him that on the right days, when he was "in the zone", he could be unbeatable. Fred Hawthorne, reporter for New York Herald-Tribune who watched nearly all the early matches of the 1941-1942 pro tour thought that Kovacs at his best reached "sheer brilliancy never before excelled", but at other times Frank played "surprisingly poor tennis." Kovacs had an arm injury in that tour and missed one month of play. In his first pro match, on December 26, 1941 he defeated Don Budge, and won his first five matches against Budge on that tour. Bowers evaluated