Norman Brookes
Full name | Norman Everard Brookes |
---|---|
Country | Australia |
Born |
St Kilda, Victoria, Australia | 14 November 1877
Died |
28 September 1968 90) South Yarra, Victoria, Australia | (aged
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
Retired | 1928 |
Plays | Left-handed (1-handed backhand)[1] |
Int. Tennis HOF | 1977 (member page) |
Singles | |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (1907, Karoly Mazak)[2] |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | W (1911) |
French Open | 2R (1928) |
Wimbledon | W (1907, 1914) |
US Open | QF (1919) |
Doubles | |
Grand Slam Doubles results | |
Australian Open | W (1924) |
Wimbledon | W (1907, 1914) |
US Open | W (1919) |
Team competitions | |
Davis Cup | W (1907, 1908, 1909,1911, 1914, 1919) |
Sir Norman Everard Brookes (14 November 1877 – 28 September 1968) was an Australian World No. 1 tennis champion and later president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia.
Biography
Brookes was born in Melbourne, to a father, William Brookes, who had become rich from gold mining in the Bendigo area. He received a private education at Melbourne Grammar School. On leaving school, he went to work as a clerk at the Australian Paper Mills Co. Ltd where his father was managing director, and was on the board himself within eight years.
Brookes married 20-year-old Mabel Balcombe Emmerton, the daughter of Harry Emmerton, a solicitor, on 19 April 1911 at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. They had three daughters.
During World War I he served as commissioner of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross in Egypt.
He died in South Yarra in 1968.
Tennis career
As a youth Brookes played regularly on the court of the family mansion in Queens Road, Melbourne and nearby, at the Lorne St courts, he studied the strokes and tactics of leading players and was coached by Wilberforce Eaves.[3]
Brookes was the first non-Briton and the first left-hander to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon.[4] He won the men's singles twice, first in 1907 and again in 1914. He also won the doubles in each of those years with New Zealander Anthony Wilding, whom he beat in the 1914 singles Final. He was a major figure in establishing the Australian Open (known as the Australasian Championship until 1927), which he won in 1911. Brookes is considered to have been a World No. 1 player in the 1900s.
Brookes played 39 Davis Cup matches for Australia/New Zealand and the Australian Davis Cup Team between 1905 and 1920.
In May 1914 he won the singles title at the Surrey Lawn Championships in Surbiton, defeating Gordon Lowe in the final in five sets.[5]
Brookes was instrumental in the development of Kooyong as a tennis centre. In 1926 he became the first president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia, a post he held for the next 29 years until his retirement in June 1955.[6]
Australian rules football career
Brookes was also an Australian rules footballer in his youth, playing two matches for Victorian Football League club St Kilda Football Club in 1898, kicking two goals.[7]
Honours
Norman Brookes was knighted "in recognition of service to public service" in 1939.[8] Lady Brookes (C.B.E. in 1933) became Dame Mabel Brookes in 1955 for her work in charities and social causes.
The trophy for men's singles at the Australian Open, the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, is named in his honour.[9]
He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1977.
In 1981 he was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post depicting a cartoon image by Tony Rafty.[10]
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up)
Result | Year | Tournament | Opponent in final | score |
Runner-up | 1905 | Wimbledon | Laurence Doherty | 6–8, 2–6, 4–6 |
Winner | 1907 | Wimbledon | Arthur Gore | 6–4, 6–2, 6–2 |
Winner | 1911 | Australian Championships | Horace Rice | 6–1, 6–2, 6–3 |
Winner | 1914 | Wimbledon | Anthony Wilding | 6–4, 6–4, 7–5 |
Runner-up | 1919 | Wimbledon | Gerald Patterson | 3–6, 5–7, 2–6 |
Doubles: 4 (4 titles, 0 runners-up)
Result | Year | Tournament | Partner | Opponents in final | Score |
Winner | 1907 | Wimbledon | Tony Wilding | Karl Behr Beals Wright | 6–4, 6–4, 6–2 |
Winner | 1914 | Wimbledon | Tony Wilding | Herbert Roper Barrett Charles Dixon | 6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 8–6 |
Winner | 1919 | US National Championships | Gerald Patterson | Vincent Richards Bill Tilden | 8–6, 6–3, 4–6, 4–6, 6–2 |
Winner | 1924 | Australian Championships | James Anderson | Pat O'Hara Wood Gerald Patterson | 6–2, 6–4, 6–3 |
Notes
- ↑ Norman Brookes at Australian Open Tennis. Quote: "Brookes was the first left-handed player ever to claim the coveted grass court title."
- ↑ Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Concise History of Tennis, p. 35.
- ↑ W. H. Frederick. "Brookes, Sir Norman Everard (1877–1968)". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
- ↑ "Norman Brookes - Tennis - Athlete & Administration". Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
- ↑ "Surrey County Championships – Brookes Wins Singles". The Age. 25 May 1914.
- ↑ "Sir Norman's Good-bye to Big Tennis". The Sydney Morning Herald. Jun 30, 1955.
- ↑ "Saints – True Sportsmen Pt. 1 – Sir Norman Brookes". St Kilda Football Club. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
- ↑ "It's an Honour". Australian Government. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
- ↑ "Australian Open – Trophy Tour". Tennis Australia.
- ↑ "Caricature of Sir Norman Brookes, tennis player". Australian Stamp.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norman Brookes. |
- Dame Mabel Brookes, Memoires (Macmillan, 1974)
- International Tennis Hall of Fame
- Norman Brookes at the Davis Cup
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