Ashley John Cooper AO (15 September 193622 May 2020) was an Australian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player who played between 1953 and 1968. He was ranked as the world's No. 1 amateur player during the years of 1957 and 1958. Cooper won four singles and four doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments. He won three of the four Grand Slam events in 1958. He turned professional in 1959. Cooper won the Slazenger Professional Championships tournament in 1959. He won the Grand Prix de Europe professional tour of Europe in 1960. Cooper won the European Cup professional tour of Europe in 1962. He retired from tennis play at the end of 1962 due to injury.

Playing career

Amateur

Cooper won his first Grand Slam singles title at the

1957 Australian Championships The 1957 Australian Championships was a tennis tournament that took place on outdoor Grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, Melbourne, Australia from 17 January to 27 January. It was the 45th edition of the Australian Championships (now kno ...

where he defeated compatriot

Neale Fraser Neale Andrew Fraser (born 3 October 1933) is a former number one amateur male tennis-player from Australia, born in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of a Victorian judge. Fraser is the last man to have completed the triple crown, i.e. having won ...

in the final in four sets. He was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1957, losing the final to

Lew Hoad Lewis Alan Hoad (23 November 1934 – 3 July 1994) was an Australian tennis player whose career ran from 1950 to 1973. Hoad won four Major singles tournaments as an amateur (the Australian Championships, French Championships and two Wimbledon ...

. He reached the 1957 U.S. Open final where he lost to Mal Anderson. Cooper was ranked amateur world number one in 1957 by Ned Potter, Lance Tingay, Adrian Quist and

Yvon Petra Yvon Petra (; 8 March 1916 – 12 September 1984) was a French male tennis player. He was born in Cholon, French Indochina. Petra is best remembered as the last Frenchman to win the Wimbledon Championships men's singles title (in 1946), beatin ...

. Cooper played his best year in 1958, becoming one of only eleven men to win three of the four Grand Slam events in the same year. He successfully defended his

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

singles title after a straight-sets victory in the final against

Malcolm Anderson Malcolm James Anderson (born 3 March 1935) is a former tennis player from Australia who was active from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. He won the singles title at the 1957 U.S. National Championships and achieved his highest amateur rankin ...

. In July, he won his first and only Wimbledon title after beating Fraser in the final. The pair were roommates at that year's tournament and ate breakfast together on the morning of their match. He followed up with a first singles title at the U.S. Championships, again defeating Anderson in the final. Additionally, Cooper was a semifinalist at the French Championship, losing to Luis Ayala in five sets after leading by 2 sets to love. The defeat prevented him from achieving the Grand Slam that year. It remained the only Major that Cooper did not win in his career. Cooper was ranked world number one amateur in 1958 by Ned Potter and Lance Tingay. The right-handed Cooper played on the Australian

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

team that won the cup in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

, and were finalists in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

Professional

In January 1959, Cooper turned professional after signing a contract with

Jack Kramer John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. He won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U.S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis ...

for a $100,000 guarantee. Cooper won his first professional match against

Pancho Gonzales Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 15 major singles titles, including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949, and 13 P ...

at Perth on grass in the Ampol world series of tournaments, and defeated Sedgman in the semifinal, but lost the final to Hoad. He finished third on the 1959 World Championship 4-man tour, behind Gonzales and Hoad. Cooper was 18–9 against Mal Anderson on the 4-man tour. In the fall of 1959, he won the Slazenger Professional tournament at Eastbourne, England on grass, defeating Trabert in the semifinal and Hoad in the final in best-of-five set matches. Cooper won a professional tour of Europe in 1960, the Grand Prix de Europe series. Cooper finished in first place ahead of (2) Gimeno (3) Segura (4) Anderson (5) Olmedo. Cooper won the European Cup professional tour of Europe in 1962, with Gimeno again finishing in second place. Cooper experienced severe nerve damage in his right arm and was forced to retire at the end of 1962. After retiring as a player, Cooper went on to serve as a tennis player development administrator with Tennis

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, where he was based for nearly fifty years. He also sat on the board of directors for Tennis Australia.

Honours

Cooper was inducted into the

Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and Dawn Fraser t ...

in 1987 and the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...

in 1991. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2007, he was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...

(AO) for his service to tennis. In 2009 Cooper was inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame.

Grand Slam finals

Source:

Singles: (4 titles, 2 runners-up)

Doubles: (4 titles, 3 runners-up)

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

Source:

Singles

Personal life

Cooper married Helen Wood,

Miss Australia Miss Australia was the title for the winner of the Miss Australia Quest or the Miss Australia Awards, which ran from 1954 until 2000, when the last Miss Australia was named. From 2002, the Miss World Australia contest has been held, and the Miss ...

1957, on 2 January 1959. An estimated crowd of five thousand unruly people surrounded St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

to try to catch a glimpse of the couple. Cooper died on 22 May 2020 at the age of 83 following a long illness.* * *

Notes

References

Sources

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Ashley 1936 births 2020 deaths Australian Championships (tennis) champions Australian male tennis players French Championships (tennis) champions Officers of the Order of Australia International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Tennis players from Melbourne United States National champions (tennis) Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles

Cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ...

Queensland Greats World number 1 ranked male tennis players