 Anthony Wilding,c. 1912 | |
| Full name | Anthony Frederick Wilding |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) | New Zealand |
| Born | (1883-10-31)31 October 1883 Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Died | 9 May 1915(1915-05-09) (aged 31) Aubers Ridge, Neuve-Chapelle, France |
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
| Int. Tennis HoF | 1978(member page) |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 636–57 (91.7%)[1] |
| Career titles | 123[1] |
| Highest ranking | No.1 (1911,ITHF) |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Australian Open | W (1906,1909) |
| Wimbledon | W (1910,1911,1912,1913[a]) |
| Other tournaments | |
| WHCC | W (1913,1914) |
| WCCC | W (1913) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam doubles results | |
| Australian Open | W (1906) |
| Wimbledon | W (1907, 1908, 1910, 1914) |
| Grand Slam mixed doubles results | |
| Wimbledon | F (1914) |
| Team competitions | |
| Davis Cup | W (1907,1908,1909,1914) |
Medal record | |
Anthony Frederick Wilding (31 October 1883 – 9 May 1915), also known asTony Wilding, was a New Zealandworld No. 1 tennis player and soldier who was killed in action during World War I.[2] Considered the world's first tennis superstar,[3] Wilding was the son of wealthy English immigrants toChristchurch,Canterbury, New Zealand and enjoyed the use of private tennis courts at their home. Wilding obtained a legal education atTrinity College, Cambridge and briefly joined his father's law firm. Wilding was afirst-class cricketer and a keenmotorcycle enthusiast. His tennis career started with him winning theCanterbury Championships aged 17.
Wilding developed into a leading tennis player in the world during 1909–1914 and is considered to be a formerworld No. 1. He won 11Grand Slam tournament titles, six in singles and five in doubles, and is the first and to date the only player from New Zealand to have won a Grand Slam singles title.[b] In addition to Wimbledon, he also won three otherILTF World Championships (period 1912–1923): In singles, twoWorld Hard Court Championships (WHCC) (1913–14) and oneWorld Covered Court Championships (WCCC) (1913). With his eleven Grand Slam tournaments, two WHCC and one WCCC titles, he has a total of fourteen Major tournament titles (nine singles, five doubles). His sweep of the three ILTF World Championships in 1913 was accomplished on three different surfaces (grass, clay and wood) being the first time this has been achieved in Major tournaments.[4]
Wilding won theDavis Cup four times playing forAustralasia, and won abronze medal at theindoor singles tennis event of the1912 Olympics,[5] which made him the first and to date only singles player from New Zealand to win a medal in a tennis event in the Summer Olympics and the only New Zealand player to win a medal in any Olympic tennis event untilMarcus Daniell andMichael Venus won the bronze medal in themen's doubles competition at the2020 Summer Olympics inTokyo in July, 2021.[6] He still holds severalall time singles tennis records, namely 23 titles won in a single season (1906) and 114 career outdoor titles (shared withRod Laver). In his ranking list of greatest tennis players compiled in 1950,Norman Brookes, winner of three Majors and president of theLawn Tennis Association of Australia, put Wilding in fourth place. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I he enlisted and was killed on 9 May 1915 during theBattle of Aubers Ridge atNeuve-Chapelle, France. In 1978 Wilding was inducted into theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame.
Wilding was the second of five children ofFrederick Wilding and Julia Anthony and was named after both parents.[7]Cora Wilding was a younger sister.[8] Wilding's parents emigrated from Herefordshire, England toChristchurch, New Zealand, after their marriage in 1879. His father was a well-to-do lawyer in Christchurch who also played tennis and won several doubles championships of New Zealand. His mother was the daughter ofAlderman Charles Anthony, mayor ofHereford.[7] Wilding was born in the suburb ofOpawa on 31 October 1883.[9]
At their farmlet, situated on the banks of theŌpāwaho / Heathcote River to the south of the town in Opawa, they had two tennis courts; one asphalt court for use in the winter and one grass court for summer play.[10][11] Wilding started playing tennis in 1889, at age six, after receiving a racquet from manufacturerRalph Slazenger.[12] He was first educated at William Wilson's private school for boys inCranmer Square, where he was captain of the school football team at age 12.[13][12] Wilding passed hismatriculation in 1901 after failing at his first attempt in 1900.[14][15] He attended a term at theCanterbury University College for six months prior to departing on his seven-week sea voyage to England in July 1902 where he first stayed at acramming school atHunstanton before passing his entrance examination forTrinity College, Cambridge, to study law.[16][17] There he developed his tennis game as a member of theCambridge University Lawn Tennis Club. In March 1904, during his second year, he became honorary secretary of the club and managed to popularize the game.[18][19] He visited the1903 Wimbledon Championships to see former championHarold Mahony play.[20] Although Wilding did not excel academically he passed the law examination and graduatedB.A. in June 1905 after which he returned to New Zealand to join his father's law practice.[21] Finishing his education, he was called to theEnglish Bar at theInner Temple in June 1906.[21]
In October 1901 at the age of 17 Wilding won his first singles title at the Canterbury Championships.[22][23][24] In July 1903, during his first summer vacation at Trinity College, Wilding entered his first English public tournament at Sheffield and Hallamshire. He reached the semifinal of the singles event, defeating English top-10 playerF.W. Payn in the second round, before losing to G.C. Allen.[25][26][27] At the 1903 Brighton tournament he won the mixed doubles partneringDorothea Douglass, the reigning Wimbledon ladies champion.[28] Wilding worked diligently on improving his backhand during the winter of 1903–04.[29]
He made his first appearance at theWimbledon Championships in June 1904, defeatingAlbert Prebble in the first round of thesingles event before losing toHarold Mahony in four sets.[30] He was pleased to take a set from the 1896 champion: "To my great delight I captured a set and made Mahony talk to himself a great deal".[31] Shortly afterwards, at the Welsh Championships, he reached his first singles final which he lost in straight sets toS.H. Smith.[32] He won his first title in England at the Championships of Shropshire followed by a win at the Thompson Challenge Cup in Redhill; both relatively new and minor events on the tennis circuit.[33] In August 1904 Wilding won theScottish Championships inMoffat, defeating C.J. Glenny in the final.[34] At hissecond Wimbledon appearance he came back from two-sets down to defeatWilliam Clothier in the fourth round but lost in the quarterfinal against the experiencedArthur Gore.[35]
In July 1905 he made his firstDavis Cup appearance as part of theAustralasia team[c] in the semifinal againstAustria, played at theQueen's Club, London. Australasia won 5–0 and Wilding won both his singles matches but in the final they were defeated 5–0 by theUnited States and Wilding admitted to have been outclassed in his straight-sets defeats byWilliam Larned andBeals Wright.[36][37] After two tournament victories at minor events inNew Barnet andRedhill Wilding went on his first tour of the European circuit which brought him into contact with the European upper class and aristocracy who frequented these tournaments.[38][39] In August he won the Pöseldorf Cup inHamburg followed by a title win at the Championship of Europe inHomburg which were both, as almost all tournaments on the European mainland, played on clay.[40][41][42]
Starting in February 1906 Wilding toured during almost the entire year across continental Europe and England, sometimes travelling by train but most often on his beloved motorcycle. For the first time he played theFrench Riviera circuit and won tournaments in cities throughout Europe including Cannes, Paris, Lyon, Barcelona, Wiesbaden, Reading, Prague, Bad Homburg and Vienna. At some of the tournaments in England and Europe he was accompanied by his father with whom he played in various doubles competitions.[d] Together they won the doubles title at the Sheffield and Hallamshire tournament in June 1906. Wilding's run at the1906 Wimbledon Championships ended, as it had done the previous year, with a straight-sets defeat against the veteran Arthur Gore, this time in the semifinal.[44] After winning the singles title at the London Covered Courts Championships in October, beatingGeorge Caridia in the final,[45] he travelled by boat to New Zealand[e] and in late December in his nativeChristchurch won the singles title at theAustralasian Championships, defeatingFrancis Fisher in the final, and doubles title, partnering compatriotRodney Heath.[47] A week later he also won the New Zealand Championship againstHarry Parker in the final.[48] At the1907 Wimbledon Championships Wilding had the misfortune to be drawn in the same section[f] as tournament favourite and eventual champion Norman Brookes who defeated him in their second-round match in five sets.[g][50] Reluctant to return to New Zealand to practise law, as he originally intended, Wilding instead decided to play a circuit of European tournaments. During the 1907–08 winter, when tennis activity was at a low, he generated income as an English teacher and tennis trainer for aristocratic families inBohemia and Hungary. In March 1908 he partneredMajor Ritchie to win the doubles title at the South of France tournament against multiple Wimbledon championsLawrence andReginald Doherty.[51] Wilding won the 1908 Victorian Championships singles title after defeatingFred Alexander.[52]
Between 1907 and 1909 he helped the Australasian team win three consecutive Davis Cups, the first against theBritish Isles at Wimbledon and the last two against the United States.[53] He won his second Australasian Championships in 1909, with his remorseless drives proving too much forErnie Parker to handle in the final.[54] The same year he qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor at theSupreme Court of New Zealand. Focusing on his tennis game, he won theWimbledon singles title for four straight years between 1910 and 1913. He was the last player to win four successive championships until 1979; whenBjorn Borg won his fourth successive championship.[31] He attained the first of three No. 1 rankings in 1911.[55] In 1910 and 1912 he defeatedArthur Gore in the final, both times in four sets. In 1911 his opponentHerbert Roper Barrett retired in the final at two sets all. In 1913 at Wimbledon tennis player and authorA. Wallis Myers says that he played "the best game of his life", beating AmericanMaurice McLoughlin, the 1912 U.S. National Championships winner, in three straight sets.[56][57] In 1914 he narrowly missed winning his fifth title in a row, losing in the final toNorman Brookes. In addition, he won four men's doubles titles at Wimbledon, in 1907 and 1914 with Norman Brookes and in 1908 and 1910 partnering withMajor Ritchie.[58][59]
He missed the1908 Olympics in London because of an administrative error in which the Australasia Olympic committee forgot to officially nominate any tennis players, but at the1912 Olympics in Stockholm won a bronze medal in themen's indoor singles forAustralasia.[60][61]
During the 1911 Riviera season Wilding defeatedMax Decugis in the final of three tournaments in Monte Carlo, Menton and Nice.[62]
Wilding won a unique World Championships triple in 1913:[63]
Tony Wilding won all three events in 1913. In a sense, this was the equivalent of achieving what would later become known as the Grand Slam of Tennis because all three of the major tournaments sanctioned by the world governing body were won by one player and all in one calendar year.[64][65][h] In 1914 Wilding retained his World Hard Court Championship title in Paris without losing a single set, defeatingLudwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten in the final.[66]
In 1914, after a five-year absence, he returned to Davis Cup play, and with Norman Brookes, lead the Australasian team to another championship, defeating the United States team in the Challenge round before a home crowd at theWest Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York.[67] This turned out to be his final tournament. Wilding had entered the1914 U.S. Championships which followed later in August but withdrew due to the outbreak of World War I and returned to England.[68][69][70]
Wilding was a leading tennis player in the world during 1909–1914 and is considered a former world No. 1.Norman Brookes in 1950 compiled a ranking list of greatest tennis players and put Wilding fourth behindBill Tilden and the Dohertys, and ahead ofBudge,Kramer,Lacoste andPerry.[71] Over his career, he was popular among fans and players alike, being honest and professional, advising players to "[b]e moderate in all things, especially in eating, smoking and drinking."[31] His style was to play powershots from the baseline.[31]
He also played for theCanterbury cricket team in the early 1900s where he participated in twofirst-class matches as a lower middle-order batsman and medium-pace change bowler.[72][73] During his first summer at Cambridge in 1903 he focused almost exclusively on cricket before switching to tennis.[74] Wilding also playedrugby at Trinity College, mainly to keep fit during the winter months, and was part of the Trinity team that competed againstRacing Club de France.[75][76] He considered that "play must be combined with various other exercises. The prizefighter does not limit his training to sparring" and in doing so advanced the physical requirements for competitive tennis.[31] He was a keen motorcycle (with sidecar) rider with many long trips in Europe, New Zealand and America. In July 1908 he won a gold medal in a 1,437 kilometres (893 mi)reliability trial fromLand's End to John o' Groats on hisBAT-JAP motorcycle.[77] Several "mighty rides" (Myers) in Europe in 1910 included London toLake Geneva and back, some 4,800 kilometres (3,000 mi), including 560 kilometres (350 mi) fromÉvian-les-Bains to Paris in one day. He ventured into places with poor roads like Hungary and Serbia. Wilding frequently used a motorcycle to travel between tennis tournaments on the European continent.[78]
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1906 | Australasian Championships | Grass |  Francis Fisher | 6–0, 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 1909 | Australasian Championships | Grass |  Ernie Parker | 6–1, 7–5, 6–2 |
| Win | 1910 | Wimbledon | Grass |  Arthur Gore | 6–4, 7–5, 4–6, 6–2 |
| Win | 1911 | Wimbledon | Grass | Herbert Roper Barrett | 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 6–2 ret. |
| Win | 1912 | Wimbledon | Grass | Arthur Gore | 6–4, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4 |
| Win | 1913 | Wimbledon[i] | Grass |  Maurice McLoughlin | 8–6, 6–3, 10–8 |
| Loss | 1914 | Wimbledon[j] | Grass | Norman Brookes | 4–6, 4–6, 5–7 |
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1913 | World Hard Court Championships | Clay |  André Gobert | 6–3, 6–3, 1–6, 6–4 |
| Win | 1913 | World Covered Court Championships | Wood | Maurice Germot | 5–7, 6–2, 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 1914 | World Hard Court Championships | Clay |  Ludwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten | 6–0, 6–2, 6–4 |
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
Events with a challenge round: (WC) won; (CR) lost the challenge round; (FA) all comers' finalist
| 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | SR | W–L | Win % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slam tournaments | 6 / 12 | 30–6 | 83.3 | |||||||||||
| French | not held | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – | ||||||||||
| Wimbledon | 2R | QF | SF | 2R | QF | A | WC | WC | WC | WC | CR | 4 / 10 | 23–6 | 79.3 |
| U.S. | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Australian | NH | A | W | A | A | W | A | A | A | A | A | 2 / 2 | 7–0 | 100.0 |
| Win–loss | 1–1 | 3–1 | 7–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 4–0 | 8–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | |||
Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Wilding joined theRoyal Marines on advice ofWinston Churchill who was thenFirst Lord of the Admiralty.[79] He was gazetted a second lieutenant in early October 1914.[80] Wilding remained in the Marines for just a few days and was then attached to the Intelligence Corps due to his intimate knowledge of the continent and his skills as a motorist.[80][81] At the end of October he joined theRoyal Naval Armoured Car Division in the battlefields of northern France where he had thirty men, three guns and armoured cars under his command. After a week's leave in London in February 1915 he returned to France on 16 March 1915 and was posted to a new squadron made up of armoured Rolls-Royce cars under the command of theDuke of Westminster.[80] He was ranked a lieutenant. Before long the squadron was moved near the front and on 2 May Wilding received notice of his promotion to captain. In his last letter dated 8 May he wrote "For really the first time in seven and a half months I have a job on hand which is likely to end in gun, I, and the whole outfit being blown to hell. However if we succeed we will help our infantry no end."[82][83] The next day, 9 May, he was killed in action at 4:45 in the afternoon during theBattle of Aubers Ridge atNeuve-Chapelle, France when a shell exploded on the roof of the dug-out he was sheltering in.[21][71][84]
Wilding was buried the next day at the front but was later re-interred at the Rue-des-Berceaux Military Cemetery inRichebourg-l'Avoué, Pas-de-Calais, France.[85][86] He had been dating, and was rumored to be about to marry, Broadway starMaxine Elliott, 15 years his senior.[87][88][89]
Wilding is remembered on the Waltham Park memorial gates in Christchurch, opened in 1922 to commemorate 43 men from the localWaltham,St Martins, and Opawa communities who died in service during World War I.[90]
In 1978, he was inducted into theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame.[91]Wilding Park, the principal venue for tennis in Christchurch, New Zealand, was named after his father, Frederick, but in the public perception became associated with him.[92] He was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.[93] TheNew Zealand Post issued a stamp of Anthony Wilding in 1992 as part of the Health Stamps series to support children with emotional and behavioural problems.[94] Shortly after Wilding's death the sculptorPaolo Troubetzkoy made a bronzestatuette based on him titledPhysical Energy.[95][96]
| Tournament | Since | Record accomplished | Players matched |
|---|---|---|---|
| All tournaments | 1877 | 114 career outdoor titles won (1900–1915)[97] | Rod Laver |
| 1877 | 23 titles won in a single season (1906)[97] | Stands alone | |
| 1877 | 19 consecutive titles (1913–1914)[98] | Bill Tilden | |
| 1877 | 91.77% (636–57) career match winning percentage[99] | Stands alone | |
| 1877 | 92.46% (564–46) outdoor match winning percentage[99] | Stands alone | |
| 1877 | 96.01% (313–13) clay court match winning percentage[100] | Stands alone | |
| 1877 | 120 consecutive clay court match victories (1910–1914)[99][101] | Stands alone | |
| 1877 | 22 consecutive clay court titles (1912–1914)[99] | Stands alone |
Number 30
