Biography
He began playing tennis at age 11 and attended St Kevin's College, Melbourne (Class of 1950) where he became Captain of Tennis at the school.
Fraser won the Wimbledon singles in 1960 and the US Championships singles in 1959 and 1960. Fraser failed to win the Australian Championships, finishing as runner-up on three occasions (1957, 1959 and 1960) and held a championship point in the 1960 final. Team play – doubles and Davis Cup – proved nearest to Fraser's heart. In doubles, Fraser took three Australian (1957, 1958, and 1962), French (1958, 1960, and 1962) and US (1957, 1959, and 1960) titles, and two Wimbledon (1959, and 1961) with three different partners, Ashley Cooper, Lew Hoad, and Roy Emerson.
Fraser was also successful in the mixed doubles, winning the Australian in 1956 with Beryl Penrose, Wimbledon in 1962, and the US from 1958 to 1960 with Margaret Osborne duPont. He holds the distinction of having won the US National (now Open) singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles in 1959 and then successfully defending those titles a year later. Since that time, no one has equalled that feat in a single year, let alone successively.
Fraser was ranked World No. 1 amateur in 1959 and 1960 and was in the top ten every year between 1956 and 1962.
Fraser became Davis Cup Captain for the Australian team in 1970, holding the position for a record 24 years and piloting Australia to four wins in 1973, 1977, 1983 and 1986, and recording 55 wins from 75 ties played.
Fraser is one of the twenty men to win all four majors in doubles and in 1984 he was elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Fraser was honoured with an MBE in 1974 and an AO in 1988. He was Chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame from 1997 until 2005. In 2008 he received the International Tennis Federation’s highest honour, the Phillippe Chartier Award for outstanding achievements in tennis.
Fraser was also the Centenary Ambassador for Davis Cup, and was the first recipient of the ITF and International Hall of Fame’s Davis Cup Award of Excellence.
Neale Fraser is married with children and grandchildren. He was voted Victorian Father of the Year in 1974.
Read more about this topic: Neale Fraser
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