Henri Cochet

Henri Jean Cochet (14 December 1901 – 1 April 1987) was a French tennis player.

Henri Cochet was born on 14 December 1901 in Villeurbanne to Gustave Cochet and Antoinette Gailleton.

His father was a groundkeeper at a Lyonnaise tennis club where Henri worked as a ball boy and thus had a chance to practise for free.

He began playing at the age of eight along with his sister.

The president of the club, a silk-factory owner and French-ranked player Georges Cozon, recognized his talent and volunteered to coach him.

He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Born in Villeurbanne, Rhône, Cochet won a total 22 majors including seven Grand Slam singles, five doubles and three mixed doubles.

In addition he won three singles, two doubles and one mixed doubles ILTF majors.

He also won one professional major in singles.

During his major career, he won singles and doubles titles on three different surfaces: clay, grass and wood.

He entered his first local tournament in 1920 where he met his mentor in the final.

Cochet then moved on to win a series of matches at Aix-les-Bains mostly scratch and handicap matches.

In 1921 he decided to compete in Paris, which was the center of tennis life, and registered for the French Covered Courts tournament second-class draw, in which he reached the final where he beat Jean Borotra in five sets.

That qualified him for entry at the 1921 French Closed Championships where he repeated his victory over Borotra and subsequently broke into the top ten French rankings at the end of the year.

Also in 1921 he won the Military Championship of France.

In February 1922 Cochet traveled to the World Covered Court Championships in Saint Moritz in Switzerland where he defeated Borotra in a five-set final and formed a team with him to gain the doubles trophy against Jacques Brugnon and Marcel Dupont.

He clinched the 1922 World Hard Court Championships in Brussels defeating Count Manuel de Gomar in the singles final and triumphing in the doubles events, partnering Jean Borotra and Suzanne Lenglen respectively.

After his success abroad Cochet claimed the French Closed Championships by defeating defending champion Jean Samazeuilh in the final.

Afterwards Cochet topped the French rankings.

In June 1922 he debuted in the French Davis Cup team against Denmark and won both his singles and the doubles match.

In the next round the team only composed of him and André Gobert and fell to the Australasian team.

Cochet also found moderate success in the minor tournaments; at the South of France Championships he lost to Russian Count Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston.

At the Côte d'Azur Championships Cochet warded off the Englishman Morgan for his first Riviera title.

After winning the Hard and Clay Court World Championships in 1922 Cochet was ranked 6th by A. Wallis Myers's world's best ten list.

In February 1923 Cochet retained his World Covered Court Championships title, defeating John B. Gilbert in the final in straight sets.

On 1 April 1924 he met René Lacoste in the championships match for the Beausite trophy of Cannes and beat his compatriot in straight sets.

At the 1924 Summer Olympics Cochet won the silver medal in both the singles and doubles with his teammate Borotra, while Vincent Richards took the gold for the United States in both events, pairing with Frank Hunter for the latter.

He was ranked the number one player of France alongside Lacoste and Borotra at the end of the year and was ranked 9th in A. Wallis Myers' world ranking list for 1924.

Due to his business affairs and injuries Cochet missed most of the 1925 season, while he kept his French first place shared with Borotra.

The French International Championships of that year marked the first instance of an all-Four Musketeers final in the doubles of the Championships where Brugnon and Lacoste were victorious against Cochet and Borotra.

In January 1926, Cochet defeated Henry Mayes for the New Courts of Cannes Championships and repeated this feat on the first day of February in the final of the Gallia L.T.C. of Cannes tournament.

In March for his first Menton crown he engaged in a five set battle against Hungarian champion Béla von Kehrling and prevailed.

Cochet again came short to win a triple crown the following week at the Parc Impérial where despite winning both doubles with Julie Vlasto and Italian champion Umberto de Morpurgo he dropped the singles to his latter doubles partner.

A week later at the Côte d'Azur Championships he overcame Swiss champion Charles Aeschlimann in straights finishing the match with a love set.

Cochet also won the mixed title with Helen Wills.

He was ranked as world No. 1 player for four consecutive years, 1928 through 1931 by A. Wallis Myers.

Meanwhile, his sister Aimée (Charpenel) Cochet also became a tennis player and competed in the main draw of the 1930 Wimbledon Championships.

Cochet turned professional in 1933, but after a less than stellar pro career, he was reinstated as an amateur in 1945 after the end of World War II.

The Four Musketeers were inducted simultaneously into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 1976.

Cochet died in 1987 in Paris at age 85.