Lew Hoad

Lewis Alan Hoad (23 November 1934 – 3 July 1994) was an Australian tennis player whose career ran from 1950 to 1973.

Hoad won four Major singles tournaments as an amateur (the Australian Championships, French Championships and two Wimbledons).

Lewis Hoad was born on 23 November 1934, in the working-class Sydney inner suburb of Glebe, the eldest of three sons of tramway electrician Alan Hoad and his wife, Ailsa Lyle Burbury.

Hoad started playing tennis at age five with a racket gifted by a local social club.

As a young child, he would wake up at 5 a.m. and hit tennis balls against a wall and garage door until the neighbours complained, and he was allowed to practice on the courts of the Hereford Tennis Club behind the house.

At age 10 he competed in the seaside tournament at Manly in the under 16 category.

In his youth, Hoad often played Ken Rosewall, and they became known as the Sydney "twins", although they had very different physiques, personalities and playing styles.

Their first match in Sydney in January 1947 (when both were aged 12) was played as an opener of an exhibition match between Australia and America.

Rosewall won 6–0, 6–0.

Hoad built up great physical strength, especially in his hands and arms, by training at a police boys' club, where he made a name as a boxer.

Hoad was about 12 when he was introduced to Adrian Quist, a former Australian tennis champion and then general manager of the Dunlop sports goods company.

Quist played a couple of sets with Hoad and was impressed by his natural ability.

When Hoad was 14 he left school and joined the Dunlop payroll, following the pattern of that 'shamateur' era when most of Australia's brightest tennis prospects were employed by sporting goods companies.

Hoad had just turned 15 when he and Rosewall were selected to play for New South Wales in an interstate contest against Victoria.

Hoad, who had never played a tournament on European red clay courts, received a walkover in the first round of the French Championships and lost in straight sets to sixth-seeded and 1947 and 1951 finalist Eric Sturgess.

In only their second appearance as a doubles team at a Grand Slam event, Hoad and Rosewall reached the French semifinal.

In November 1949, Hoad won the junior title at the New South Wales Championships, and the same weekend, he also competed in the final of the junior table tennis championship in Sydney.

Hoad lost to Dick Savitt in four sets in round one of the New South Wales State championships in November.

In his match report, Adrian Quist said, "Hoad played well, and held a lead of 4-2 in the third set after winning the second. At present he makes too many errors. He will have to learn good control from the ground before his game will reach great heights."

Hoad reached the semi-finals of County of Cumberland championships in Sydney in December, losing to Bill Sidwell.

"It was apparent from the start of play that Sidwell did not intend to take the youngster lightly. He served with pressure and followed the majority of his returns to the net. The first set was very evenly contested. Had Hoad not fallen into easy errors he may well have won the opening set. The experience of Sidwell, however, prevailed during the important exchanges", said Adrian Quist.

Hoad's men's singles tournament victories spanned from 1951 to 1971.

Hoad's first Grand Slam tournament appearance was at the 1951 Australian Championships held in January at the White City Tennis Club in Sydney.

He won his first match against Ronald McKenzie in straight sets but lost in the following round to defending champion and countryman Frank Sedgman.

It was the only Grand Slam tournament he played that year.

Hoad won his first men's singles title, the Brisbane Exhibition tournament at Milton, on grass, on 11 August 1951, defeating Rosewall in the final in four sets.

In September, Hoad won New South Wales hardcourt championships beating George Worthington in the final.

He was a member of the Australian team that won the Davis Cup four times between 1952 and 1956.

In 1952, Hoad reached the third round of the Australian Championships in Adelaide.

In April, he was selected by the Australasian Lawn Tennis Association as member of the team to play in overseas tournaments.

In May, before departing to Europe, he won the singles title at the Australian Hardcourt Championships on clay after a five-set win in the final against Rosewall.

Hoad was ranked the world No. 1 amateur in 1953 by Harry Hopman, by Noel Brown and by the editors of Tennis de France, and also in 1956 by Lance Tingay, by Ned Potter, and by Tennis de France.

Serious back problems plagued Hoad throughout his career, possibly caused by a weight-lifting exercise that he devised in 1954.

The back injury became particularly intense following the 1956 Wimbledon championships, continued periodically, and led to his semi-retirement from tennis in 1967.

Hoad turned professional in July 1957.

He won the Kooyong Tournament of Champions in 1958 and the Forest Hills Tournament of Champions in 1959.

He won the Ampol Open Trophy world series of tournaments in 1959, which included the Kooyong tournament that concluded in early January 1960.

He was ranked the world No. 1 professional for 1959 in Kramer's Ampol point ranking system, and by Robert Barnes (Kramer's Australian manager).

Afterwards, he made sporadic appearances at tournaments, enticed by the advent of the Open Era in 1968 and was seeded No. 7 for the 1968 Wimbledon Championships and seeded No. 12 for the 1970 French Open.

Following his retirement in 1973, Hoad and his wife Jenny Staley Hoad constructed, owned and operated a tennis resort, Lew Hoad's Campo de Tenis and Lew Hoad Tennis Village in Fuengirola, Spain, where he died of leukaemia on 3 July 1994, aged 59.