Between the wars
Australia · born Geelong, 1899 · died 1990 · left-handed · Australasian champion 1926, when he won all three men's titles
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9
Major titles: one singles, three men's doubles and five mixed
33 of 36
Sets won in 12 matches at the 1926 Australasian Championships, where he took all three titles
5
Championship points held and lost in the 1927 Australian final
3
Davis Cup campaigns, 1921, 1923 and 1925
10
World ranking in 1928
John Bailey Hawkes, always known as Jack, was born in Geelong on 7 June 1899 and lived his whole life in and around the town. He learned the game on a backyard court overlooking Corio Bay, often coached by Norman Brookes, a family friend, and at The Geelong College he captained the cricket eleven and won the Victorian schoolboys' under-19 tennis title five times. He was picked for the Davis Cup at 22 and played in 1921, 1923 and 1925.
His best week came at the 1926 Australasian Championships in Adelaide, where he won the singles, the doubles with Gerald Patterson and the mixed with Esna Boyd, losing three sets in 12 matches. A year later at Kooyong he held five championship points against Patterson in the fourth set of the final and lost 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16, 6-3. In all he won three Australian doubles titles with Patterson and three Australian mixed titles with Boyd.
He also did well abroad. He won the US mixed doubles in 1925 with Kitty McKane, and in 1928 he reached the semi-finals of the French Championships, the Wimbledon doubles final with Patterson and the US doubles final, then won the US mixed with Helen Wills, the last of his nine major titles. After he retired he ran the family hardware business, Hawkes Brothers, in Geelong, served as president of the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club and stayed in tennis administration. He died in Geelong on 31 March 1990, aged 90.
| Australian singles finals | 1926 in Adelaide: beat Jim Willard 6-1, 6-3, 6-1. 1927 at Kooyong: lost to Gerald Patterson 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16, 6-3 in almost three and a half hours, after holding five championship points in the fourth set |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon doubles final 1928 | With Gerald Patterson, lost to Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet 13-11, 6-4, 6-4 |
| US doubles finals | Runner-up twice with Patterson: 1925, lost to Dick Williams and Vincent Richards 6-2, 8-10, 6-4, 11-9; 1928, lost to George Lott and John Hennessey 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 |
| US mixed doubles | 1923 runner-up with Kitty McKane to Molla Mallory and Bill Tilden. 1925 champion with McKane, beating Ermyntrude Harvey and Vincent Richards 6-2, 6-4. 1928 champion with Helen Wills, beating Edith Cross and Edgar Moon 6-1, 6-3 |
| Davis Cup 1923 | In the Inter-Zonal Final against France in Boston he beat Jacques Brugnon and, with James Anderson, won the doubles against Brugnon and René Lacoste 9-7 in the fifth set |
| Australian Championships | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1922 | Men's doubles Australasian Championships | with Gerald Patterson |
| 1922 | Mixed doubles Australasian Championships | with Esna Boyd Robertson |
| 1926 | Men's doubles Australasian Championships | with Gerald Patterson |
| 1926 | Mixed doubles Australasian Championships | with Esna Boyd Robertson |
| 1926 | Men's singles Australasian Championships | |
| 1927 | Men's doubles | with Gerald Patterson |
| 1927 | Mixed doubles | with Esna Boyd Robertson |
| US Championships | ||
| 1925 | Mixed doubles | with Kathleen McKane Godfree |
| 1928 | Mixed doubles | with Helen Wills Moody |
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
"had a curving and kicking left-handed American Twist service and quick volleying reflexes; he played half his groundstrokes from square-on to the net, and from that stance he could hit the ball down the line or crosscourt with complete impartiality"
The person behind the player.
Corio Bay, 1900s
He learned on the family's backyard lawn court at Corio Bay and was often tutored by Norman Brookes, a family friend. Like Brookes he was a left-hander who twisted his arm round to play forehand and backhand with the same face of the racquet.
Source: Australian OpenGeelong College, 1916
He was a day boy at The Geelong College from 1909 to 1919, head prefect in 1918 and 1919 and captain of the cricket first eleven for his last four years. In 1916 he took ten wickets in a match against Wesley College, and he won the College's open tennis championship three times.
Source: The Geelong College heritage wikiAdelaide, 1926
In the 1926 final The News reported that he played "with such wonderful accuracy and judgement" that he broke up Jim Willard's game: Willard "appeared to be playing very poor tennis because Hawkes did not give him a chance to bring off any of his pet shots".
Source: Australian OpenGeelong
The family firm, the Hawkes Bros hardware business, had been trading in Geelong since 1854. He ran it until his retirement in the early 1970s, was president of the Geelong Lawn Tennis Club, and in 2016 was inducted into the Old Geelong Collegians' Gallery of Notable Collegians, which called him "Australia's earliest and best tennis champion".
Source: The Geelong College heritage wiki; WikipediaMelbourne, 2026
A century after the 1926 triple crown his son, John, watched at the Australian Open and spoke of his father with great pride: "Tennis was an amateur sport when he played and international travel was difficult, but he made his family very proud."
Source: Australian OpenFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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