Norman Brookes

Sir Norman Brookes

Full name	Norman Everard Brookes
Country (sports)	Australia
Born	(1877-11-14)14 November 1877 St Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Died	28 September 1968(1968-09-28) (aged 90) South Yarra, Victoria, Australia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Retired	1928
Plays	Left-handed (1-handed backhand)[1]
Int. Tennis HoF	1977 (member page)
Singles
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1907, Karoly Mazak)[2]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1911)
French Open	2R (1928)
Wimbledon	W (1907, 1914)
US Open	QF (1919)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1924)
Wimbledon	W (1907, 1914)
US Open	W (1919)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (1907, 1908, 1909, 1914, 1919)

Brookes and his wife, Mabel, in 1914

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. During his career he won three Grand Slam singles titles, Wimbledon in 1907 and 1914 and the Australasian Championships in 1911. Brookes was part of the Australasian Davis Cup team that won the title on six occasions. The Australian Open men's singles trophy, the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, is named in his honour.

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.^[3]

Brookes was the first non-British player and the first left-hander to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon.^[4] 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 Anthony 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

Australian rules football career

Brookes was also an Australian rules footballer in his youth, particularly for Melbourne Grammar School.^[7]

Honours

Norman Brookes was knighted "in recognition of service to public service" in 1939.^[8] His wife, Mabel, Lady Brookes (CBE in 1933) became Dame Mabel Brookes (DBE) 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

Grand Slam finals

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

Outcome	Ref.	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	[11]	1905	Wimbledon	Grass	Laurence Doherty	6–8, 2–6, 4–6
Winner	[11]	1907	Wimbledon	Grass	Arthur Gore	6–4, 6–2, 6–2
Winner	[12]	1911	Australasian Championships	Grass	Horace Rice	6–1, 6–2, 6–3
Winner	[11]	1914	Wimbledon	Grass	Anthony Wilding	6–4, 6–4, 7–5
Runner-up	[11]	1919	Wimbledon	Grass	Gerald Patterson	3–6, 5–7, 2–6

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

Outcome	Ref.	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	[13]	1907	Wimbledon	Grass	Anthony Wilding	Karl Behr Beals Wright	6–4, 6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	[14]	1911	Australasian Championships	Grass	John Addison	Rodney Heath Randolph Lycett	2–6, 5–7, 0–6
Winner	[13]	1914	Wimbledon	Grass	Anthony Wilding	Herbert Roper Barrett Charles Dixon	6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 8–6
Winner	[15]	1919	U.S. National Championships	Grass	Gerald Patterson	Vincent Richards Bill Tilden	8–6, 6–3, 4–6, 4–6, 6–2
Winner	[14]	1924	Australasian Championships	Grass	James Anderson	Pat O'Hara Wood Gerald Patterson	6–2, 6–4, 6–3

References

Further reading

• Naughton, Richard (2011). The Wizard : The story of Norman Brookes, Australia's first Wimbledon champion. Docklands, Vic.: The Slattery Media Group. ISBN 978-1921778414. 
• Brookes, Mabel (1974). Memoirs. Melbourne: Macmillan. ISBN 9780333139899. OCLC 1532297. 

External links

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