John David Newcombe AO OBE (born 23 May 1944) is an Australian former professional tennis player.
He is one of the few men to have attained a world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles.
At the majors, he won seven singles titles and a former record 17 men's doubles titles.
He also contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when the Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the majors.
Tennis magazine rated him the 10th best male player of the period 1965–2005.
Biography
Newcombe played several sports as a boy before devoting himself to tennis.
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 Australian junior champion from 1961 to 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, which remained the all-time record for a men's doubles team until 2013, when it was surpassed by Bob and Mike Bryan.
Newcombe was the top ranked amateur in the world in 1967 according to Lance Tingay and World Tennis and was the first recipient of the Martini and Rossi award after finishing top of their points system in 1967.
As a professional, Newcombe was ranked world number one in 1970 by Tingay, World TennisMuscles, Ken Rosewall as told to Richard Naughton, 2012, p.208 and Bud Collins.
He was also ranked world number one in 1971 by Tingay,, Rex Bellamy,The Times (London), 31 December 1971, p. 5 Collins and World TennisThe Times (London), 20 November 1971, p. 16 and he and Stan Smith were joint recipients of The 'Martini and Rossi' Award, voted for by 11 journalists.
In 1973 Newcombe was ranked world No. 1 by Tingay and Judith Elian.
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.
In January 1968, Newcombe signed a three-year professional contract with Lamar Hunt's World Championship Tennis (WCT) and became part of the "Handsome Eight", the original eight WCT players.
As a member of the WCT professional tour group and the Players' Union, Newcombe was banned by the International Tennis Federation from competing in the 1972 Wimbledon Championships and he joined the ATP boycott of the event in 1973.
Newcombe was the last of the Australians who dominated tennis in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
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.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.
Newcombe was captain of the Australian Davis Cup team from 1995 until 2000.
He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985 and in 1986 his achievements were recognized with his induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 10 (7 titles, 3 runner-ups)
Grand Slam performance timeline
Singles
Source: ITF Distinctions
Newcombe served as chairman of the International Tennis Players Association which formed in 1969.
He served as president of the Association of Tennis Professionals in 1977 and 1978.
Overall, he won 26 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles (27 if his 1965 mixed doubles shared win is added).
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.
He is an Australian Living Treasure.
The Newcombe Medal, awarded yearly to the most outstanding Australian tennis player, is named in honour of his tennis achievements.
He runs the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch & Tennis Academy in New Braunfels, Texas.
In 2001, he was revealed to be President George W. Bush's drinking companion on the night of 4 September 1976, when Bush was charged with driving under the influence.Fenton, Ben. (9 March 2001)
Newcombe recalls Bush's brush with law.
Telegraph.co.uk.
Retrieved on 2016-07-12.
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.John Newcombe Estate & Country Club.
newcombeestate.com (March 2008)
See also
List of Grand Slam Men's Singles champions
World number one male tennis player rankings
Tennis male players statistics
References
External links
Official Wimbledon website profile
Enough Rope's John Newcombe interview
John Newcombe Estate & Country Club
Sunday Times article 24 January 2010
Category:1944 births Category:Australian Championships (tennis) champions Category:Australian Championships (tennis) junior champions Category:Australian male tennis players Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Australian Open (tennis) champions Category:Australian tennis commentators Category:French Championships (tennis) champions Category:French Championships junior (tennis) champions Category:French Open champions Category:Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Category:Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles Category:Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles Category:Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Category:Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Category:International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Category:Living people Category:People educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School Category:
People from the North Shore, Sydney Category:Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Category:Sportsmen from New South Wales Category:Tennis players from Sydney Category:Sportspeople from New Braunfels, Texas Category:United States National champions (tennis) Category:US Open (tennis) champions Category:Wimbledon champions Category:Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) Category:World No. 1 tennis players
