Paul McNamee (born 12 November 1954) is an Australian former doubles world No. 1

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 and prominent sports administrator.

Tennis career

Juniors

In his hometown, McNamee won the boys' singles tournament at the 1973 Australian Open.

Pro tour

McNamee is the only player to switch a grip as a professional, changing from a one-handed

backhand The backhand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis and pickleball, where the back of the hand precedes the palm when swinging the racket. Except in the phrase ''backhand volley'', the term refers to a groundstroke (where the ...

to two-handed in 1979. He won two singles and twenty-three doubles titles during his professional career. A right-hander, he reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 12 May 1986 when he became the world No. 24. McNamee reached his highest doubles ATP-ranking on 8 June 1981 when he became the world No. 1. McNamee won 24 men's doubles titles including four Grand Slam doubles titles in his career. He won the 1979

Australian Open 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 Ope ...

and the 1980 and 1982

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pla ...

with

Peter McNamara Peter McNamara (5 July 1955 – 20 July 2019) was an Australian tennis player and coach. McNamara won five singles titles and nineteen doubles titles in his career. A right-hander, McNamara reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 14 March ...

and the 1983 Australian Open with

Mark Edmondson Mark Edmondson (born 28 June 1954 in Gosford, New South Wales) is a retired Australian professional tennis player. Edmondson won the 1976 Australian Open while ranked 212th in the world, and remains the lowest-ranked winner of a Grand Slam ...

. He won the mixed-doubles title in Wimbledon with

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

in 1985. When

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beh ...

won Wimbledon in 1984, McNamee was the only player to take a set off McEnroe throughout the entire championship when he won the third set of their first-round match. McNamee was also a member of the Australian Davis Cup Team which won the

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 ...

in 1983 and 1986. In 1987, McNamee became Melbourne's last officially crowned '' King of Moomba'', subsequently a ''Moomba Monarch'' was selected (male Monarchs were popularly, but unofficially, still called ''King of Moomba'').

Sports administrator

McNamee played a key role in the founding of the

Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...

international tennis tournament in 1988. He served as tournament director of the Hopman Cup and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

until 2006. From 2006 to 2008 he was the tournament director for

Golf Australia Golf Australia is the governing body for the sport of golf in Australia, formed in 2006 after the Australian Golf Union (AGU) and Women's Golf Australia (WGA) agreed to merge.

of the Australian Golf Open."Sydney to keep Open until 2009"
Martin Blake, ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'', 11 February 2007 He also served as the CEO of the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria, and plays its home g ...

from March to July 2008. In late 2008, it was revealed that McNamee has joined the push for Australia to field a cycling team at the Tour de France – with support from Cadel Evans as a consultant for Australian Road Cycling, a Melbourne-based consortium.Cadel, McNamee support push for Australian Tour de France team Article

Career finals

Singles (2 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Doubles (23 titles, 15 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNamee, Paul 1954 births Living people Australian male tennis players Australian Open (tennis) champions Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Melbourne Football Club CEOs People educated at St. Bernard's College, Melbourne Tennis players from Melbourne Wimbledon champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players