John Newcombe

John Newcombe

Country	Australia
Residence	Sydney
Born	23 May 1944 (1944-05-23) (age 67) Sydney
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
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, 1969, 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) is a former World No. 1 tennis player.

Biography

He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, 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

• He served as President of the Association of Tennis Professionals in 1977 and 1978.
• Overall, he won 26 Grand Slam major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
• 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 he was charged with driving under the influence.^[2] 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.^[3]

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
3. ^ John Newcombe Estate & Country Club

See also

Tennis portal

• World number one male tennis player rankings
• Tennis male players statistics

External links

• John Newcombe at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• John Newcombe at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Official Wimbledon website profile
• Enough Rope's John Newcombe interview
• John Newcombe Estate & Country Club
• Sunday Times article 24 January 2010

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

Persondata
Name	Newcombe, John
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	23 May 1944
Place of birth	Sydney
Date of death
Place of death