Bunny Austin - Tennis Career

Tennis Career

Austin was educated at Repton School, and studied History at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

While still an undergraduate at Cambridge University he reached the semi-finals of the men's doubles at Wimbledon in 1926. By the 1930s he was ranked in the world's top ten players. In his first Wimbledon men's singles final in 1932 he was beaten by Ellsworth Vines of the United States in three sets.

In 1932 he decided that the traditional tennis attire, cricket flannels, weighed him down too much. He bought a pair of shorts to use at Forest Hills and subsequently became the first player to wear them at Wimbledon.

In the years 1933-6, he and Fred Perry helped win the Davis Cup for Britain.

Austin also pioneered the design of the modern tennis racquet by inventing the Streamline – a racquet with a shaft that splits into three segments – allowing for aerodynamic movement. The design was manufactured by Hazells and at the time was mocked in the press for looking like a snow shoe. After Austin's retirement, the design was virtually forgotten until the reintroduction of the split shaft in the late 1960s.

In his Wimbledon career Austin reached the quarter-finals or better ten times. In 1938 he played Don Budge in the final, but won only four games. The next year he was seeded first but lost in an early round. It was the last time he played at Wimbledon.