| Full name | Daniel Maskell |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |  United Kingdom |
| Born | 11 April 1908 Fulham, England |
| Died | 10 December 1992(1992-12-10) (aged 84) |
| Turned pro | 1926 |
| Int. Tennis HoF | 1996 (member page) |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 126–37 (77.3%)[1] |
| Career titles | 20[2] |
| Professional majors | |
| US Pro | QF (1930) |
| Wembley Pro | QF (1935,1937) |
Daniel MaskellCBE (11 April 1908 – 10 December 1992) was an Englishtennis professional who later became a radio and television commentator on the sport. He was described as theBBC's "voice of tennis", and the "voice ofWimbledon".
Maskell was born inFulham, London, England. His father was an engineer, and Dan was the seventh of his eight children.
His family could not afford him to take up a place atLatymer Upper School, a grammar school inHammersmith, so he was educated at Everington Street School instead. He captained the school football team, and was aballboy atQueen's Club during the school holidays. Maskell soon decided to concentrate on tennis, and left school in 1923 to become a full-time ballboy at Queen's Club.
Maskell became a junior teaching professional at Queen's in 1924, aged 16, and was given a five-year contract in 1926, teachingreal tennis,rackets, andsquash in addition tolawn tennis. The main tennis championships were then open only to amateurs. Maskell arranged the firstWorld Professional Championships, played at Queen's Club in October 1927, which he won by defeatingCharles Read. Maskell became British professional champion in 1928, and won the title another 15 times until 1951.[3][4][5]
He was coach of the winning BritishDavis Cup team of 1933.
He served in theRoyal Air Force in the Second World War. He became a rehabilitation officer in 1940, assisting wounded aircrew to recover their fitness inTorquay and thenLoughborough. He was promoted to the rank ofsquadron leader, and appointedOBE in 1945 for his wartime service. After World War Two he continued playing tournaments he won theSlazenger Pro Championships, (1946–1947) and the Cheltenham Pro Championships in 1946.
After he wasdemobilised, he returned to theAll England Club, and continued as a tennis professional. He coached members of theBritish Royal Family, includingPrincess Alexandra,Prince Charles,Princess Anne andPrince Andrew. He was chairman of the Professional Tennis Coaches Association, and became the first professional to be admitted as an honorary member of the All England Club in 1953. He retired as a tennis professional in 1955, but was then employed by theLawn Tennis Association as its training manager until 1973. He was appointedCBE in 1982 for services to tennis.
Maskell began commentating on theWimbledon Championships in 1949 as an expert summariser for BBC Radio alongsideMax Robertson, before switching to television in 1951 withFreddie Grisewood. He remained the BBC's main tennis commentator until his retirement in 1991. When commenting on a particularly exciting piece of play or an outstanding shot, he often said "Oh, I say!", which came to be regarded as hiscatchphrase.[6]
He was also the BBC commentator when tennis resumed as an Olympic sport, first as a demonstration sport inLos Angeles in 1984, and then as a full-medal sport inSeoul in 1988.
The last Wimbledon match that he commentated on was the 1991 Men's Singles final in whichMichael Stich defeatedBoris Becker. The last tennis match he commentated on for BBC Television was the 1991 Grand Slam Cup final betweenDavid Wheaton andMichael Chang. At Wimbledon in 1992, Maskell was presented with a silver salver by theDuke of Kent. Maskell claimed to have attended every day of play at Wimbledon from 1929 onwards, and that he had first attended Wimbledon in 1924 when he saw the women's singles final.[citation needed]
Maskell married his first wife, Constance Cox, in 1936. They had a daughter, Robin, and a son, Jay. Outside tennis, he enjoyed skiing and golf. His son, an accountant who qualified as a private pilot, was killed when his small aircraft crashed inThe Bahamas in 1970. His wife drowned while swimming atAntigua in 1979. Maskell married his second wife, Kathleen Latto, in 1980. He published an autobiography,From Where I Sit, in 1988.
He suffered fromprostate cancer in later life. On 10 December 1992, he died in his sleep, ofheart failure, atEast Surrey Hospital in Redhill, survived by his second wife and daughter.
He was posthumously inducted as a member of theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996.[7]
The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust was founded in 1997 as a restricted fund of The Tennis Foundation, and became an independent charity in 2010. Its aims are to raise money to help disabled people to play tennis in three main areas:wheelchair tennis, deaf tennis and tennis for people with learning disabilities.[8]