William Bowrey (born 25 December 1943) is a former 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.
Bowrey was born in
Sydney, New South Wales
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...
, Australia and is best remembered as the last amateur to win the
Australian Championships
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. ...
in
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* J ...
before the tournament opened itself to professional tennis players in 1969.
At the age of 16 Bowrey was a member of the schoolboys' NSW state PSAAA tennis team. In the process of qualifying he overcame promising Newcastle junior Ross Flanagan who had match point against Bowrey. Bowrey held on to win and Ross Flanagan decided to pursue a less spectacular career as a Physics and Sports Biomechanics Lecturer at The University of Newcastle.
Biography
Bowrey reached the quarters of the Australian (international amateur) Championships in 1965 (losing to
John Newcombe
John David Newcombe AO OBE (born 23 May 1944) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He is one of the few men to have attained a world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. At the majors, he won seven singles titles, a fo ...
), 1966 (losing to
Roy Emerson
Roy Stanley Emerson (born 3 November 1936) is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam titles. He is the only male player to have completed a car ...
) and 1967 (losing to Emerson) and the US Open quarters in 1966 (losing to
Manuel Santana
Manuel Santana Martínez (10 May 1938 – 11 December 2021), also known as Manolo Santana, was a Spanish tennis player. He was ranked as amateur world No. 1 in 1965 by Ned Potter and in 1966 by Lance TingayOwen Davidson lost the final to Newcombe and Roche in four sets. At the end of 1967, John Newcombe, Roy Emerson and
Tony Roche
Anthony Dalton Roche AO MBE (born 17 May 1945) is an Australian former professional tennis player.
A native of Tarcutta, Roche played junior tennis in the New South Wales regional city of Wagga Wagga. He won one Grand Slam singles title, t ...
had all signed professional contracts, which left the amateur game devoid of talent. A poor quality field lined up for the 1968 Australian championships, which were held at Melbourne's historic
Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club
Kooyong Stadium, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, is an Australian tennis venue, located in the Melbourne suburb of Kooyong. The stadium, was built in 1927, and has undergone several renovations.
It has a seating capacity of slightly more t ...
. Bowrey was the top seed. In the final Bowrey met the Spaniard
Juan Gisbert
Juan Gisbert Sr. (born 5 April 1942) is a retired amateur and professional tennis player from the 1960s and 1970s.
He won one ATP singles title (plus at least three others before the Open era) and reached the finals at the Australian Champion ...
, which he won in four sets. A month after his Australian triumph Bowrey married the women's player Lesley Turner. The game went open in April that year and at the first Open Wimbledon Bowrey lost in the second round to Andrés Gimeno. Defending his Australian title the following year Bowrey blew a two sets to love lead in the quarters against Ray Ruffels. Bowrey represented Australia in two
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 ...
rounds, the first against the U.S in the World Group Final in December 1968, where he lost to Clark Graebner in five sets and beat
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...
in four sets. The second in the North & Central America draw in May 1969 versus Mexico, where he won against Joaquin Loyo-Mayo and lost to Rafael Osuna.
Bowrey was also involved in one of the longest matches in tennis history at Wimbledon in 1970 against
Patricio Cornejo
Patricio Cornejo Seckel (; born 6 June 1944) is a retired Chilean professional tennis player of the 1970s. He competed at the 1975 Davis Cup with Jaime Fillol and played the longest Davis Cup rubber in terms of games, eventually losing to Stan ...
that consumed nearly four hours and took 84 games. In January 1970 Bowrey turned professional which meant he was no longer eligible to play in the Davis Cup. Later that year Bowrey with partner
Marty Riessen
Marty Riessen (born December 4, 1941) is an American former amateur and professional tennis player active from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was ranked as high as No. 11 in the world in singles on the ATP rankings in September 1974, though was rank ...
won the
Rogers Cup
The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...
(formerly Canadian Open) in two sets against Fred Stolle and
Cliff Drysdale
Eric Clifford Drysdale (born 26 May 1941) is a South African former tennis player. After a career as a highly ranked professional player in the 1960s and early 1970s, he became a well-known tennis announcer.
Drysdale won the singles title at ...
6–3, 6–2. He also won the Rome ATP World Tour Masters – Doubles that year with Owen Davidson.
Bowrey married fellow tennis professional Lesley Turner in 1968 and went into semi-retirement in 1972 at the age of just 28, becoming a coach. After their playing careers were over, Bowrey and his wife Lesley became the lead match-play commentators at Wimbledon on the All-England Club's radio station and Internet Web site "Radio Wimbledon."