Norman Brookes

Sir Norman Brookes

File:Norman Brookes 1919.jpg
Full name	Norman Everard Brookes
Country (sports)	Australia
Born	(1877-11-14)14 November 1877 St Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Died	South Yarra, Victoria, Australia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Retired	1928
Plays	Left-handed (1-handed backhand)
Int. Tennis HoF	1977 (member page)
Singles
Career record	{{#property:P564}}
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1907, Karoly Mazak)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1911)
French Open	2R (1928)
Wimbledon	W (1907, 1914)
US Open	QF (1919)
Doubles
Career record	{{#property:P555}}
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1924)
Wimbledon	W (1907, 1914)
US Open	W (1919)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (1907, 1908, 1909,1911, 1914, 1919)

File:Brookes 001.jpg

Brookes and his wife, Mabel, in 1914

File:Norman brookes.jpg

Norman Brookes

Sir Norman Everard Brookes (14 November 1877 – 28 September 1968) was an Australian tennis player. Brookes was a world No. 1 ranked player and later president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia.

Biography

Brookes was born in Melbourne, to a father, William Brookes, who had become rich from gold mining in the Bendigo area. He received a private education at Melbourne Grammar School. On leaving school, he went to work as a clerk at the Australian Paper Mills Co. Ltd where his father was managing director, and was on the board himself within eight years.

Brookes married 20-year-old Mabel Balcombe Emmerton, the daughter of Harry Emmerton, a solicitor, on 19 April 1911 at St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne. They had three daughters.

During World War I he served as commissioner of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross in Egypt.

He died in South Yarra, Victoria in 1968.

Tennis career

As a youth Brookes played regularly on the court of the family mansion in Queens Road, Melbourne and nearby, at the Lorne St courts, he studied the strokes and tactics of leading players and was coached by Wilberforce Eaves.

Brookes was the first non-Briton and the first left-hander to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon. He won the men's singles twice, first in 1907 and again in 1914. He also won the doubles in each of those years with New Zealander Tony Wilding, whom he beat in the 1914 singles final. He was a major figure in establishing the Australian Open (known as the Australasian Championship until 1927), which he won in 1911. Brookes is considered to have been a World No. 1 player in the 1900s.

Brookes played 39 Davis Cup matches for Australia/New Zealand and the Australian Davis Cup Team between 1905 and 1920.

In May 1914 he won the singles title at the Surrey Lawn Championships in Surbiton, defeating Gordon Lowe in the final in five sets.

Brookes was instrumental in the development of Kooyong as a tennis centre. In 1926 he became the first president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia, a post he held for the next 29 years until his retirement in June 1955.

Australian rules football career

Brookes was also an Australian rules footballer in his youth, playing two matches for Victorian Football League club St Kilda Football Club in 1898, kicking two goals.

Honours

Norman Brookes was knighted "in recognition of service to public service" in 1939. Lady Brookes (CBE in 1933) became Dame Mabel Brookes in 1955 for her work in charities and social causes.

The trophy for men's singles at the Australian Open, the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, is named in his honour.

He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1977.

In 1981 he was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post depicting a cartoon image by Tony Rafty.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1905	Wimbledon	Grass	Laurence Doherty	6–8, 2–6, 4–6
Winner	1907	Wimbledon	Grass	Arthur Gore	6–4, 6–2, 6–2
Winner	1911	Australasian Championships	Grass	Horace Rice	6–1, 6–2, 6–3
Winner	1914	Wimbledon	Grass	Anthony Wilding	6–4, 6–4, 7–5
Runner-up	1919	Wimbledon	Grass	Gerald Patterson	3–6, 5–7, 2–6

Doubles: 5 (4 titles, 1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1907	Wimbledon	Grass	Anthony Wilding	Karl Behr Beals Wright	6–4, 6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	1911	Australasian Championships	Grass	John Addison	Rodney Heath Randolph Lycett	2–6, 5–7, 0–6
Winner	1914	Wimbledon	Grass	Anthony Wilding	Herbert Roper Barrett Charles Dixon	6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 8–6
Winner	1919	U.S. National Championships	Grass	Gerald Patterson	Vincent Richards Bill Tilden	8–6, 6–3, 4–6, 4–6, 6–2
Winner	1924	Australasian Championships	Grass	James Anderson	Pat O'Hara Wood Gerald Patterson	6–2, 6–4, 6–3

External links

• Norman Brookes at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Norman Brookes at the Davis Cup