John Newcombe
John Newcombe
John David Newcombe, AO, OBEis a former tennis player from Australia who won seven Grand Slam singles titles and an all-time record 17 doubles titles. He is one of the few men to have been ranked world No. 1 in both singles and doubles. He also contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the Grand Slams. Tennis Magazine ranked Newcombe the 10th best male player of the period...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth23 May 1944
CountryAustralia
I was not able to play in 1972 because I was under contract to World Championship Tennis and in 1973 there was the player boycott.
I'd also made the first tennis team. I was number two player in the school at 11 years of age and that didn't sit very well with people.
People think this is all about the top players hitting tenins balls and they talk about technique and strategy and how important that is. But they don't understand the essence of competition. This is one-on-one, two players out there fighting each other with everything they have, trying to bring the best out of themselves. And the difference at this level of the game is all in the head and in the heart.
In all honesty, Agassi was a great player before Brad game along. I think Brad probably helped Andre maintain his standard at a high level and they worked well together. The situation with Roddick, it was becoming evident that he wasn't getting to the next level. All of us could see that and there were parts of his game that were immature. Now bringing Brad on board, he's been able to mature that side of the game.
Things will get pretty serious if he (Philippoussis) doesn't get something going by the end of the year.
So he has to overcome this attitude and go out on the court and say: 'Roger, I don't care what I'm going to have to do ... if I have to rip your throat out I'm going to beat you.
Well, he can't be dumb, I mean, because he's been president for four years and he's president again, so you're going to get caught out if you're really bad, aren't you? Unless millions and millions of Americans are dumb.
It's good that he's come back to the roost, everyone's pretty happy (about the decision).
I tried out for the cricket team, then found out I had to play Saturday mornings... or Saturday afternoons and practice twice a week.
He hasn't been doing that well against Roger lately. It will be tough though he's not that far away from the top of his game.
You know, I was a regular on the Friday afternoon drill squad. Um, which... The year after I left school, I went back and thanked the sergeant major because I was so fit.
I was in the main draw from the start, my opening match was on Court One against Jan Eric Lundquist of Sweden who was about eight in the world at the time.
I had started my love affair with Wimbledon.
I was a pretty feisty young kid.