Australian tennis has misplaced considered one of its giants with the passing of Neale Fraser, 19-time Grand Slam champion and adorned Davis Cup participant and captain, at age 91.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 3 December 2024 | Tennis Australia
Australian tennis has misplaced considered one of its giants with the passing of Neale Fraser AO, MBE.
Fraser gained 19 Grand Slam titles together with Wimbledon and US singles titles, however his title will perpetually be related to the Davis Cup each as a participant and record-setting run as Australian captain.
“I might by no means consider something higher than representing your nation,” Fraser typically mentioned.
He discovered to play on the clay courts subsequent door to his childhood dwelling in Melbourne and developed a sport constructed round a thunderous left-handed serve.
As a cricket fan he watched how leg-spin bowlers turned the ball in several instructions by cocking their wrists and he tailored this ‘googly’ method to his serve.
Rising through the golden period of Australian males’s tennis, Fraser was initially unable to interrupt into the Davis Cup crew and misplaced 3 times in main singles finals, together with twice to shut buddy Ashley Cooper – first on the 1957 Australian Championships and at Wimbledon in 1958.
His persistence paid off in 1959 when he gained all three US titles – singles, doubles and combined – at Forest Hills and led Australia to victory within the Davis Cup.
Captain Harry Hopman referred to as it ‘Neale Fraser’s Cup’.
In 1960 Fraser defeated Rod Laver to assert the Wimbledon singles crown after which once more swept the three titles in New York.
Certainly one of his doubles companions, Roy Emerson, described Fraser as ‘a Normal’ on the courtroom.
Regardless of profitable presents to show skilled, Fraser remained an beginner within the hope he would succeed Hopman as Australian Davis Cup Captain.
That ambition was fulfilled in 1970 and he remained within the place till 1993, helming 24 Davis Cup campaigns throughout which Australia gained the title 4 instances.
Generations of gamers have been impressed by his management together with John Newcombe, John Fitzgerald and Pat Money.
“He was like a father to me,” Money mirrored. “He simply knew how you can make you are feeling necessary and play your greatest.”
Fraser was inducted into the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame in 1984, and the Australian Tennis Corridor of Fame in 1994. In 2008 Fraser was awarded the ITF’s Philippe Chatrier Award for excellent achievement in tennis.
Fraser, who was 91, shall be missed by his spouse Thea, household and lots of mates world wide.
NEALE FRASER: Profession achievements
Highest world rating: No.1 in 1959
DAVIS CUP
Participant: 1955-1963: 18 wins, 3 losses (11-1 singles, 7-2 doubles)
Captain: 1970-1993: 49 wins, 19 losses (titles in 1973, 1977, 1983, 1986)
GRAND SLAM TITLES (19)
Singles
Wimbledon: 1960
United States: 1959, 1960
Doubles
Australia: 1957, 1958, 1962
Roland Garros: 1958, 1960, 1962
Wimbledon: 1959, 1961
United States: 1957, 1959, 1960
Combined
Australia: 1956
Wimbledon: 1962
United States: 1958, 1959, 1960
