John Newcombe

John Newcombe
Country Australia
Residence Sydney, Australia
Date of birth 23 May 1944 (1944-05-23) (age 66)
Place of birth Sydney, Australia
Height 183 cm
Weight 80 kg
Turned pro 1968
Retired 1981
Plays Right-handed; one-handed backhand
Career prize money US$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 (3 June 1974)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open W (1973, 1975)
French Open QF (1969)
Wimbledon W (1967, 1970, 1971)
US Open W (1967, 1973)
Doubles
Career record 332–113
Career titles 33
Highest ranking No. 1
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open W (1965, 1967,1971, 1973, 1976)
French Open W (1967, 1969, 1973)
Wimbledon W (1965, 1966, 1968-1970, 1974)
US Open W (1967, 1971, 1973)
Last updated on: 22 January 2007.
For additional information on John Newcombe, please see John Newcombe career statistics.

John David Newcombe, AO, OBE (born 23 May 1944 in Sydney, Australia) is a former World No. 1 tennis player.

Contents

Biography

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, more than any other men's team in tennis history.

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,[1] and also considered Newcombe to have the best second serve in tennis history.

Newcombe hosted the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games (Australian broadcast) for Channel 10.

Newcombe lives in a north shore suburb of Sydney, Australia

Distinctions

Notes

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Newcombe recalls Bush's brush with law

See also

External links

Preceded by
Ilie Năstase		 World No. 1
3 June 1974 - 28 July 1974		 Succeeded by
Jimmy Connors