Bill Bowrey

Bill Bowrey

Bill Bowrey won the last Grand Slam tournament ever restricted to amateurs, the January 1968 Australian Championships, beating Juan Gisbert 7-5, 2-6, 9-7, 6-4 in the Kooyong final. Three months later tennis went open, which leaves the title sitting oddly in the books: it counts on this page, because these records begin in 1968, yet it belongs entirely to the amateur era he closed. A month after the final the Sydneysider married Lesley Turner, twice a French champion and his partner when they won the Italian mixed doubles title in 1967.

That December brought one more last: the final amateur Davis Cup Challenge Round, in Adelaide, where Bowrey lost a five-set opener to Clark Graebner and then beat Arthur Ashe for Australia's only point as the United States took the cup. The open era added two tour-level titles, but by 1972, at 28, he had eased into semi-retirement, and the decades since have gone to coaching.