|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Fox: Harry Hopman Show Harry Hopman a batch of Australian tennis players and within two strikes of a ball he'd be able to recognise the most talented and those with the most potential. In taking on the mantle of Australian Davis Cup manager, turned coach, the man they called 'Hop' would set a trend of Davis Cup management that all before and all previously have failed to live up to.
He was the Matt Busby of his generation, a man dedicated to his country and intent on bringing glory in the form of Dwight's Little Pot to Australian shores. If he wasn't beating the Americans in a Challenge Round he'd be scouting around the cities of Australia, spotting the latest star talent.
Harry Christian Hopman made his name as the most succesful of all Davis Cup captains, but he was a fine player, particularly in doubles as well, winning seven major titles in the 1930s. Hopman was born on the 12th August 1906. As a player he was five feet seven inches in height and 133lbs, small and light for todays players. The Fox won the Australian doubles with Jack Crawford in 1929 and 1930 and four mixed titles his first wife, the former Nell Hall, a record for married couples. In singles his high point was the U.S. Championships of 1938 when he beat fifth-seeded Elwood Cooke 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 and future U.S. and French champion Don McNeill 6-4, 6-3, 7-5, to reach the quarter-finals, where he was a historic footnote in Don Budge´s original Grand Slam losing 6-3, 6-1, 6-3. He piloted Australia to 16 Cups between l939 and 1967. His was the era of perhaps the greatest Cup players of all with an array of talented players from Frank Sedgman through to Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Ashley Cooper, Mervyn Rose, Rex Hartwig, Mal Anderson, Neale Fraser, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Fred Stolle and Tony Roche. Emphasizing super fitness, he drove and inspired them, and built pride in their underpopulated country's beating the rest of the world. The first of his 22 teams was in 1938 and the Challenge Round final losing to the U.S. But he was back with the same pair, Adrian Quist and Jack Bromwich to win a singular victory the U.S. in l939 from 0-2 down after the first day, in Philadelphia.
Hop concentrated on his job as a newspaperman after World War II. But after the Aussies lost the Cup to the United States in 1946, and three more finals through to l949. There was a clamor for him to return to the captain's chair, with two youngsters Sedgman and Ken McGregor, he won the Cup in New York in 1950. Then the Down Under- boys were in business for a glorious near-quarter century. His teams compiled a 38-6 record. Following his last Davis Cup match as captain, a loss to Mexico at Mexico City in 1969, he emigrated to the U.S. to become a highly successful teaching pro, counseling such champions-to-be as Vitas Gerulaitis and John McEnroe at the Port Washington Tennis Academy. He later opened his own Hopman Tennis Academy with his second wife, Lucy, at Largo, Florida. He died on December 27, 1985 in Largo, Florida, leaving his mark as player and captain to a great nation and the world game. Grand Slam Record Australian Singles finalist 1930-1939; Doubles 1929-1930; Doubles finalist 1931-1932; Mixed 1930, 1936-1937, 1939; Mixed finalist 1940 French Doubles finalist 1930, 1948 U.S. Championships Doubles finalist 1939; Mixed 1939 Tournament Record (inc. Davis Cup and Olympics)
Australia Davis Cup team member 1928, 1930, 1932; Captain 1938-1939, 1950-1969; winning captain 1939, 1950-1953, 1955-1957, 1959-1962, 1964-1967; losing captain 1938, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1968 Italian Championships Mixed 1934 |
