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Adrian Quist The right-handed left-court player of the great Australian doubles team John Bromwich and Adrian Karl Quist, who also won three major singles titles at the Australian Kooyong arena in 1936, 1940 and 1948, becoming the only man to win a major before and after World War II.
Quist had an all-court game, a short (5-foot-6 ½-inches) player who bounced around the court with telling volleys, holds the record for the most major doubles titles with ten, accompanying his three singles at the Australian Championships. He won eight titles there alongside Bromwich, successively between 1938-1950, winning in 1936 and 1937 with Don Turnbull for a personal record ten. He won the French and Wimbledon doubles with Jack Crawford in 1935; winning Wimbledon with Bromwich in 1950; accompanied by a single U.S. Championship victory, well-beyond expectation in 1939, beating Billy Sidwell and Geoff Brown 6-2 in the fifth set. Before going off to join the Australian Army, Quist and Bromwich lifted the Davis Cup, beating the Americans in Philadelphia, in 1939. Having lost the singles on the first day, together, they were staring down the barrel of a 3-0 whitewash at one set and 1-3 down against youngsters Jack Kramer and Joe Hunt. Hunt led 3-2 serving at 30-15 in the third set, when the turnabout began. Wimbledon champion was Quist challenge in the reverse singles and losing the third and fourth sets, the southern Australian hang on to win 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, even though Riggs saved a match point at 5-2, eventually reaching 4-5. Bromwich then beat Frank Parker in the crucial fifth rubber, to win in a groundstroke battle. Quist was within a month of his 37th birthday when he, with Bromwich, aged 31, won the Wimbledon doubles in 1950 as their swan-song together. Quist finished with 17 major's altogether, one of 11 players to win the Big Four doubles. He first appeared in the Top Ten at number four in 1936, number six in 1938 and a career high number three in 1939. It seemed fitting that the two old doubles comrades should face each other in the 1948 Australian Championship final, before the likes of Frank Sedgman and other young-guns took over. On a swelteringly hot day at Kooyong, the match went to the wire, with Quist beating Bromwich 6-3 in the fifth set. He died in Sydney, Australia, on November 17th 1991, aged 78. Grand Slam Record Australian Singles winner 1936, 1940, 1948; Singles finalist 1939; Doubles winner 1936-40, 1946-50; Doubles finalist 1934, 1951 French Doubles winner 1935; Doubles finalist 1933; Mixed finalist 1934 Wimbledon Doubles winner 1939 U.S. Championships Doubles winner 1939; Doubles finalist 1938 Tournament Record (inc. Davis Cup and Olympics) Italian Championships Mixed winner 1950 Australian Davis Cup team member 1933-1939,
1946, 1948; winning team 1939, 1946; losing team 1936, 1938, 1948
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