Richard Robert Ingham Evans (born February 10, 1939 in Paris, France) is a British sports journalist, author, and historian who is most closely associated with

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. As a teenager he was educated at

Canford School Canford School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18). Situated in 300 acres of parkland near to the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, south west England, it is one of the largest ...

, a boarding school in Dorset. His journalistic career in tennis began at Wimbledon in 1960. He has written 23 books, including biographies of

Ilie Nastase Ilie is a Romanian name. It is both a masculine given name, cognate of Elijah, and a surname. The given name may refer to: * Ilie Antonescu, Romanian general * Ilie Baicu, Romanian football player * Ilie Balaci, Romanian football player * Ilie ...

and

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

, as well as serving the

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

(ATP) in several roles; as its first press officer in 1973, as European Director from 1974 to 1977, and on its Board of Directors from 1977 to 1979. In 1986 he was the third recipient of the ATP's Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award. In 2000 he was one of the founders of the International Tennis Writers' Association (ITWA), and served as its president from 2001 to 2004. In 2016, Evans stated that in his judgment

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 Wimbledons ...

was the greatest player in the world before the emergence of

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

, and "was without question the strongest man who ever played the game."10sballs, 10 August 2016. https://archive.10sballs.com/2016/08/10/ten-fittest-male-players-by-richard-evans/ In 2024 he was elected to 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, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...

for his contributions to the game.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Richard Robert Ingham 1939 births Living people British sportswriters British sports journalists International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees People educated at Canford School