The amateur years
Australia and South Africa · born New South Wales, 1940 · right-handed · five times Wimbledon men's doubles champion
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5
Wimbledon men's doubles titles, 1962 to 1978
15
Major titles: 9 in men's doubles, 6 in mixed doubles
185
Matches played at Wimbledon, second only to Jean Borotra among men
18-0
Sets won and lost by Hewitt and Frew McMillan at Wimbledon in 1967
Robert Hewitt was born in New South Wales in 1940 and played as an amateur from 1958. In singles he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Championships three times and the quarter-finals of Wimbledon three times, and Lance Tingay of the Daily Telegraph ranked him No. 6 in the world in 1967. His success came in doubles. With Fred Stolle he won Wimbledon in 1962 and 1964 and the Australian Championships in 1963 and 1964, all as an Australian.
He married a South African, Delaille Nicholas, settled in South Africa in the mid-1960s and played Davis Cup for South Africa from 1967 to 1978. With Frew McMillan he won Wimbledon in 1967, 1972 and 1978, the French Open in 1972 and the US Open in 1977; with Greer Stevens he won the Wimbledon mixed in 1977 and 1979. He finished with 15 major titles, 9 in men's doubles and 6 in mixed, and won all four majors in both events. He was part of the South African team that won the Davis Cup in 1974, when India refused to play the final. He retired in 1983.
In March 2015 a South African court found him guilty of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault against girls who were minors at the time, offences committed in the 1980s and 1990s, and in May 2015 the High Court in Pretoria sentenced him to six years in prison. The International Tennis Hall of Fame, which had inducted him in 1992, suspended him in 2012 and expelled him in April 2016, the first member to be expelled.
| Wimbledon men's doubles finals | 1961: lost with Fred Stolle to Roy Emerson and Neale Fraser 6-4, 6-8, 6-4, 6-8, 8-6. 1962: beat Boro Jovanović and Nikola Pilić 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. 1964: beat Emerson and Ken Fletcher 7-5, 11-9, 6-4. 1965: lost with Fletcher to John Newcombe and Tony Roche 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. 1967: beat Emerson and Fletcher 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. 1972: beat Stan Smith and Erik van Dillen 6-2, 6-2, 9-7. 1978: beat Peter Fleming and John McEnroe 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 1967 | Hewitt and McMillan won the title without losing a set, 18 sets to 0 and 120 games to 61. They were the second pair to do so since the Challenge Round was abolished in 1922, after Bob Falkenburg and Jack Kramer in 1947 |
| Wimbledon mixed | 1963: lost the final with Darlene Hard to Ken Fletcher and Margaret Smith 11-9, 6-4. 1977: won as an unseeded pair with Greer Stevens, beating McMillan and Betty Stöve 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. 1979: beat the same pair 7-5, 7-6 |
| Australian doubles finals | 1963: with Stolle beat Fletcher and Newcombe 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. 1964: with Stolle beat Emerson and Fletcher 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 14-12 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1962 | Men's doubles | with Fred Stolle |
| 1964 | Men's doubles | with Fred Stolle |
| 1967 | Men's doubles | with Frew McMillan |
| 1972 | Men's doubles | with Frew McMillan |
| 1977 | Mixed doubles | with Greer Stevens |
| 1978 | Men's doubles | with Frew McMillan |
| 1979 | Mixed doubles | with Greer Stevens |
| Australian Championships | ||
| 1961 | Mixed doubles | with Jan Lehane |
| 1963 | Men's doubles | with Fred Stolle |
| 1964 | Men's doubles | with Fred Stolle |
| Queen's Club | ||
| 1961 | Men's singles | |
| 1978 | Men's doubles | with Frew McMillan |
| Welsh Championships | ||
| 1964 | Men's singles | |
| 1966 | Men's singles | |
| Irish Championships | ||
| 1969 | Men's singles Irish Open | |
| 1972 | Men's singles Irish Open | |
| Bristol (West of England) | ||
| 1972 | Men's doubles Bristol Open | with Frew McMillan |
| 1972 | Men's singles Bristol Open | |
| Queensland Championships | ||
| 1962 | Men's singles | |
| Western Australian Championships | ||
| 1962 | Men's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
The person behind the player.
Australia to South Africa
Hewitt won his first five major titles as an Australian. He married the South African model Delaille Nicholas, moved to South Africa and played Davis Cup for his new country from 1967 to 1978, winning 22 of 25 singles and 16 of 17 doubles rubbers in 17 ties.
Source: John Grasso, Historical Dictionary of Tennis (2011)Davis Cup, 1974
South Africa reached the 1974 Davis Cup final and won the Cup by default when India, on the orders of its government, refused to play in protest at apartheid. It remains South Africa's only Davis Cup title.
Source: WikipediaWimbledon, 1971
By tradition the defending men's champion opens play on Centre Court. In 1971 John Newcombe's opening match was against Hewitt, then listed as South African.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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