Anthony Wilding
Anthony Frederick Wilding, also known as Tony Wilding, was a New Zealand world No. 1 tennis player and soldier who was killed in action during World War I. Considered the world's first tennis superstar, Wilding was the son of wealthy English immigrants to Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand and enjoyed the use of private tennis courts at their home. Wilding obtained a legal education at Trinity College, Cambridge and briefly joined his father's law firm. Wilding was a first-class cricketer and a keen motorcycle enthusiast. His tennis career started with him winning the Canterbury Championships aged 17.
Wilding developed into a leading tennis player in the world during 1909–1914 and is considered to be a former world No. 1. He won 11 Grand 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. In addition to Wimbledon, he also won three other ILTF World Championships : In singles, two World Hard Court Championships and one World Covered Court Championships . With his eleven Grand Slam tournaments, two WHCC and one WCCC titles, he has a total of fourteen Major tournament titles. His sweep of the three ILTF World Championships in 1913 was accomplished on three different surfaces being the first time this has been achieved in Major tournaments.
Wilding won the Davis Cup four times playing for Australasia, and won a bronze medal at the indoor singles tennis event of the 1912 Olympics, 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 until Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus won the bronze medal in the men's doubles competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in July, 2021. He still holds several all time singles tennis records, namely 23 titles won in a single season and 114 career outdoor titles. In his ranking list of greatest tennis players compiled in 1950, Norman Brookes, winner of three Majors and president of the Lawn 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 the Battle of Aubers Ridge at Neuve-Chapelle, France. In 1978 Wilding was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Early life
Wilding was the second of five children of Frederick Wilding and Julia Anthony and was named after both parents. Cora Wilding was a younger sister. Wilding's parents emigrated from Herefordshire, England to Christchurch, 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 of Alderman Charles Anthony, mayor of Hereford. Wilding was born in the suburb of Opawa on 31 October 1883.At their farmlet, situated on the banks of the Ōpāwaho / 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. Wilding started playing tennis in 1889, at age six, after receiving a racquet from manufacturer Ralph Slazenger. He was first educated at William Wilson's private school for boys in Cranmer Square, where he was captain of the school football team at age 12. Wilding passed his matriculation in 1901 after failing at his first attempt in 1900. He attended a term at the Canterbury University College for six months prior to departing on his seven-week sea voyage to England in July 1902 where he first stayed at a cramming school at Hunstanton before passing his entrance examination for Trinity College, Cambridge, to study law. There he developed his tennis game as a member of the Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club. In March 1904, during his second year, he became honorary secretary of the club and managed to popularize the game. He visited the 1903 Wimbledon Championships to see former champion Harold Mahony play. Although Wilding did not excel academically he passed the law examination and graduated B.A. in June 1905 after which he returned to New Zealand to join his father's law practice. Finishing his education, he was called to the English Bar at the Inner Temple in June 1906.
Tennis career
British tournaments and Wimbledon debut
In October 1901 at the age of 17 Wilding won his first singles title at the Canterbury Championships. In July 1903, during his first summer vacation at Trinity College, Wilding entered his first English public tournament at Sheffield and Hallamshire Championships. He reached the semifinal of the singles event, defeating English top-10 player F.W. Payn in the second round, before losing to G.C. Allen. At the 1903 Brighton tournament he won the mixed doubles partnering Dorothea Douglass, the reigning Wimbledon ladies champion. Wilding worked diligently on improving his backhand during the winter of 1903–04.He made his first appearance at the Wimbledon Championships in June 1904, defeating Albert Prebble in the first round of the singles event before losing to Harold Mahony in four sets. 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". Shortly afterwards, at the Welsh Championships, he reached his first singles final which he lost in straight sets to S.H. Smith. 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. In August 1904 Wilding won the Scottish Championships in Moffat, defeating C.J. Glenny in the final. At his second Wimbledon appearance he came back from two-sets down to defeat William Clothier in the fourth round but lost in the quarterfinal against the experienced Arthur Gore.
Davis Cup debut and first European tour
In July 1905 he made his first Davis Cup appearance as part of the Australasia team in the semifinal against Austria, played at the Queen's Club, London. Australasia won 5–0 and Wilding won both his singles matches but in the final they were defeated 5–0 by the United States and Wilding admitted to have been outclassed in his straight-sets defeats by William Larned and Beals Wright. After two tournament victories at minor events in New Barnet and Redhill 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. In August he won the Pöseldorf Cup in Hamburg followed by a title win at the Championship of Europe in Homburg which were both, as almost all tournaments on the European mainland, played on clay.Riviera circuit and Wimbledon semifinal
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 the French 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. Together they won the doubles title at the Sheffield and Hallamshire tournament in June 1906. Wilding's run at the 1906 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. After winning the singles title at the London Covered Court Championships in October, beating George Caridia in the final, he travelled by boat to New Zealand and in late December in his native Christchurch won the singles title at the Australasian Championships, defeating Francis Fisher in the final, and doubles title, partnering compatriot Rodney Heath. A week later he also won the New Zealand Championships against Harry Parker in the final. At the 1907 Wimbledon Championships Wilding had the misfortune to be drawn in the same section as tournament favourite and eventual champion Norman Brookes who defeated him in their second-round match in five sets. 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 in Bohemia and Hungary. In March 1908 he partnered Major Ritchie to win the doubles title at the South of France Championships against multiple Wimbledon champions Lawrence and Reginald Doherty. Wilding won the 1908 Victorian Championships singles title after defeating Fred Alexander.Between 1907 and 1909 he helped the Australasian team win three consecutive Davis Cups, the first against the British Isles at Wimbledon and the last two against the United States. He won his second Australasian Championships in 1909, with his remorseless drives proving too much for Ernie Parker to handle in the final. The same year he qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor at the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Focusing on his tennis game, he won the Wimbledon singles title for four straight years between 1910 and 1913. He was the last player to win four successive championships until 1979; when Björn Borg won his fourth successive championship. He attained the first of three No. 1 rankings in 1911. In 1910 and 1912 he defeated Arthur Gore in the final, both times in four sets. In 1911 his opponent Herbert Roper Barrett retired in the final at two sets all. In 1913 at Wimbledon tennis player and author A. Wallis Myers says that he played "the best game of his life", beating American Maurice McLoughlin, the 1912 U.S. National Championships winner, in three straight sets. In 1914 he narrowly missed winning his fifth title in a row, losing in the final to Norman 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 with Major Ritchie.
He missed the 1908 Olympics in London because of an administrative error in which the Australasia Olympic committee forgot to officially nominate any tennis players, but at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm won a bronze medal in the men's indoor singles for Australasia.
During the 1911 Riviera season Wilding defeated Max Decugis in the final of three tournaments in Monte Carlo, Menton and Nice.