Colin Dowdeswell (born 12 May 1955) is a former professional

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 represented, at different times,

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of So ...

, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and who achieved rank as UK No. 1. During his time on the world tour, he won one singles title and eleven doubles titles. The highlight of his career was reaching the men's doubles final of Wimbledon.

Early life

Dowdeswell was born in London but grew up in Rhodesia. He was educated at

Prince Edward School , streetaddress = , city = Harare , country = Zimbabwe , coordinates = , type = State school, boarding and day school , established = , headmaster = Dr. Aggrippa G. Sora , gender = Boys , lower_age = 13 , upper_age = 1 ...

and The

University of the Witswatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

.Official website: Biography
. Accessed 11 July 2014

Tennis career highlights

Partnering Australian

Allan Stone Allan Stone (born 14 October 1945) is a former tennis player from Australia. He played amateur and professional tennis in the 1960s and 1970s. He was ranked as high as world No. 36 in singles and world No. 12 in doubles on the ATP rankings. S ...

, Dowdeswell finished runner-up in doubles at Wimbledon in 1975. Unseeded, after two straight sets wins, they defeated the No. 7 seeds

Tom Okker Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

and

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 ...

in the round of 16 in four sets. They did likewise in eliminating the No. 3 seeds,

Bob Hewitt Robert Anthony John Hewitt (born 12 January 1940) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. In 1967, after marrying a South African, he became a South African citizen. He has won 15 major titles and a career Grand Slam in both men' ...

and Frew McMillan, in the quarterfinals. It took Dowdeswell and Stone then five sets to overcome the unseeded team of Dick Crealy and

Niki Pilic __NOTOC__ Niki may refer to: People * Niki (given name) * NIKI (singer), Indonesian singer and songwriter * Niki DeMar, American singer * Niki Etsuko (1928–1986), Japanese author of mystery fiction Places * Niki, Hokkaido, a town in Japan * Ni ...

in the semifinals. They lost the final to another unseeded tandem,

Vitas Gerulaitis Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player, known as Vitas Gerulaitis. In 1975, he won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon, partnering with Sandy Mayer. He won the men's singles ...

and

Sandy Mayer Alexander "Sandy" Mayer (born April 5, 1952) is a former tennis player from the United States. He won twelve titles in singles and twenty-four titles in doubles in his professional career, and was part of the winning tennis squad at Stanford Uni ...

, 5–7, 6–8, 4–6. Dowdeswell achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 31 in 1983 and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 24 in 1980.

Career finals

Grand Prix and WCT finals (4)

Singles: 4 (1 title)

Grand Slam, Grand Prix, and WCT finals

Doubles: 28 (11 titles)

Davis Cup

Dowdeswell participated in one

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 ...

tie for

in 1976, posting a 2–0 record in singles and an 0–1 record in doubles. He participated in six Davis Cup ties for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

from 1984 to 1986, posting an 0–2 record in singles and a 5–1 record in doubles.

Life outside tennis

Dowdeswell completed his tennis career in 1986 and began a successful career in financial services and private banking with

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment ba ...

. Married with three children, he currently resides in Monaco. He has also resided in Wimbledon.

References

External links

* * *
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowdeswell, Colin British emigrants to Rhodesia English expatriates in Monaco English male tennis players Sportspeople from Wimbledon Rhodesian male tennis players Tennis people from Greater London Swiss male tennis players Swiss people of English descent Zimbabwean male tennis players Zimbabwean people of English descent British male tennis players 1955 births Living people