John Newcombe

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John Newcombe
John Newcombe.jpg
John Newcombe at the 1965 Dutch Open
Country  Australia
Residence Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Born (1944-05-23) 23 May 1944 (age 69)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 80 kg (180 lb)
Turned pro 1967
Retired 1981
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money $1,062,408
Int. Tennis HOF 1986 (member page)
Singles
Career record 429–136 (75.9%)
Career titles 68 (including 32 in the Open Era listed in the ATP Website)
Highest ranking No. 1 (1967, Lance Tingay)[1]
No. 1 (3 June 1974) by the ATP
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open W (1973, 1975)
French Open QF (1969)
Wimbledon W (1967, 1970, 1971)
US Open W (1967, 1973)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals SF (1973, 1974)
WCT Finals W (1974)
Doubles
Career record 332–113
Career titles 33
Highest ranking No. 1 (1965)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open W (1965, 1967, 1971, 1973, 1976)
French Open W (1967, 1969, 1973)
Wimbledon W (1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1974)
US Open W (1967, 1971, 1973)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open W (1965)
US Open W (1964)
For additional information on John Newcombe, please see John Newcombe career statistics.

John David Newcombe, AO, OBE (born 23 May 1944 in Sydney) is a former World No. 1 tennis player who won seven Grand Slam singles titles.

Contents

Biography[edit]

A natural athlete, Newcombe played several sports as a boy until devoting himself to tennis. He was the Australian junior champion in 1961, 1962, and 1963 and was a member of Australia's Davis Cup winning team in 1964. He won his first Grand Slam title in 1965 by taking the Australian Championships doubles title with fellow Australian Tony Roche. That same year, the duo won the Wimbledon doubles title. They teamed to win the Australian doubles championship three more times, Wimbledon another four times and the US Championships in 1967, the French Championships in 1967, and the French Open in 1969. They won 12 Grand Slam titles, which remained the all-time record for a men's doubles team until 2013, when it was surpassed by Bob and Mike Bryan.

Newcombe's powerful serve and volley was the backbone of his attacking game. He frequently came up with a second-serve ace. He was the top ranked amateur in the world in 1967 according to Lance Tingay, although Rex Bellamy ranked him second behind Roy Emerson. As a professional, Newcombe was the joint world number one player in 1970 and 1971. In singles play, he was a two-time winner of the Australian Open, a three-time winner of Wimbledon, and a two-time winner of the US Open.

As a member of Lamar Hunt's World Championship Tennis professional tour group and the players' union, he was banned by the International Tennis Federation from competing in the 1972 Wimbledon Championships and he boycotted the event in 1973.

Newcombe was the last of the Australians who dominated tennis in the 1950s and 1960s.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Newcombe in his list of the 21 greatest players of all time.[2]

Distinctions[edit]

  • Newcombe served as chairman of the International Tennis Players Association which formed in 1969.[3]
  • He served as President of the Association of Tennis Professionals in 1977 and 1978.
  • Overall, he won 26 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles (27 if his 1965 mixed doubles shared win is added).
  • Newcombe and Rod Laver are the only players to ever win both the US Open and Wimbledon men's singles titles as an amateur and as a professional. The grass surfaces favoured his game, and the French Open's clay surface was the only major singles championship he never won. However, he did take the French doubles title on three occasions.
  • In 1986, his achievements were recognised with his induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
  • Still active in tennis, he was made captain of Australia's Davis Cup team in 1995.
  • He is an Australian Living Treasure.
  • He runs the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch & Tennis Academy in New Braunfels, Texas.
  • Notoriously, he was revealed to be President George W. Bush's drinking companion on the night of 4 September 1976, when Bush was charged with driving under the influence.[4] This controversy surfaced during the 2000 US Presidential Election.
  • He partners with Cliff Drysdale to develop the John Newcombe Estate & Country Club in New Braunfels, Texas.[5]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First Edition), p. 428.
  2. ^ In his 1979 autobiography Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.
  3. ^ "Net Group to Discuss South African Ban". The Milwaukee Journal. Jun 24, 1969. Retrieved 21 September 2012. 
  4. ^ Newcombe recalls Bush's brush with law
  5. ^ John Newcombe Estate & Country Club

See also[edit]

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External links[edit]

Achievements
Preceded by
Ilie Năstase		 World No. 1
3 June 1974 – 28 July 1974		 Succeeded by
Jimmy Connors
  • ATP singles rankings incepted on August 23, 1973
  • (year first held/year last held – number of weeks (w))
  • current No. 1 in bold, as of June 10, 2013
Authority control
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