The amateur years
Australia · born Adelaide, 1929 · died 2007 · Australian champion 1952 · doubles Grand Slam 1951
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7
Consecutive major doubles titles with Frank Sedgman
1951
Doubles Grand Slam, all four majors
3
Davis Cup wins, 1950 to 1952
58
SANFL games for West Adelaide, 1954 to 1958
Born in Adelaide on 2 June 1929, the son of the twice Magarey Medallist footballer Bruce McGregor, he was a tall serve-and-volleyer with a heavy serve and overhead. A surprise pick for the 1950 Davis Cup team, he reached three successive Australian finals and won the 1952 title. With Frank Sedgman he won seven major doubles titles in a row from the 1951 Australian Championships, including the only men's doubles Grand Slam, and he reached No. 3 in the world in 1952. In January 1953 he and Sedgman signed for Jack Kramer's professional tour, which ended his amateur career. He left tennis at 25 and played five seasons of Australian rules football for West Adelaide. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in Adelaide in 2007.
| Major singles titles | 1: Australian (1952) |
|---|---|
| Major singles finals lost | 3: Wimbledon 1951, Australian 1950, Australian 1951 |
| Other grass singles titles | 3: Eastern Grass Court Championships (1952); Tasmanian Championships (1952); WA Championships (1951) |
| Major doubles titles | 5 doubles (Wimbledon 2, Australian 2, US 1), 1 mixed (US 1) |
| Wimbledon doubles | 1951 and 1952 with Frank Sedgman. The 1952 final beat Vic Seixas and Eric Sturgess 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 |
| Finals to remember | Wimbledon 1951: lost to Dick Savitt 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Australian 1952, Memorial Drive, Adelaide: beat Sedgman 7-5, 12-10, 2-6, 6-2 |
| US mixed | 1950 with Margaret Osborne duPont, beating Doris Hart and Sedgman 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 |
| Davis Cup on grass | Champions three times: Forest Hills 1950, White City, Sydney 1951, and Memorial Drive, Adelaide 1952, where he beat Tony Trabert and won the doubles with Sedgman 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Men's doubles | with Frank Sedgman |
| 1952 | Men's doubles | with Frank Sedgman |
| Australian Championships | ||
| 1951 | Men's doubles | with Frank Sedgman |
| 1952 | Men's doubles | with Frank Sedgman |
| 1952 | Men's singles | |
| US Championships | ||
| 1950 | Mixed doubles | with Margaret Osborne duPont |
| 1951 | Men's doubles | with Frank Sedgman |
| Western Australian Championships | ||
| 1951 | Men's singles | |
| Eastern Grass Court Championships (South Orange) | ||
| 1952 | Men's singles | |
| Tasmanian Championships | ||
| 1952 | 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 handsome Aussie had the most extraordinary overhead of all time."
The person behind the player.
Forest Hills 1950
His place in the 1950 Davis Cup team was a surprise. He justified it in the opening rubber of the Challenge Round at the West Side Tennis Club, beating Ted Schroeder in an upset, and Australia went on to win 4-1 and end four years of American possession of the Cup.
Source: Sport Australia Hall of FameAdelaide 1952
At his third attempt he won the Australian singles title, on grass at Memorial Drive in his home city, and the man he beat in the final was his friend and doubles partner Frank Sedgman, 7-5, 12-10, 2-6, 6-2. The pair also won the doubles there, beating Don Candy and Mervyn Rose.
Source: Sport Australia Hall of FameMemorial Drive 1952
Adelaide staged its first Davis Cup Challenge Round in December 1952, with three temporary stands of tubular steel scaffolding taking the seating to 15,625. McGregor, the local player, beat Tony Trabert in singles and won the doubles with Sedgman against Trabert and Vic Seixas as Australia won 4-1.
Source: The Drive, AdelaideKramer's tour 1953
Jack Kramer signed McGregor and Sedgman for his professional tour in January 1953. Kramer later wrote that McGregor "was one of the weakest players but one of the nicest guys who ever played for me in the pros", and that his main aim was to save money, go home and play football.
Source: WikipediaWest Adelaide 1954 to 1958
He played 58 league games and kicked 84 goals for West Adelaide, played four times for South Australia, won the Advertiser and News-Ampol trophies in 1958 and was close to best on ground in that year's Grand Final defeat by Port Adelaide. The writer Jeff Pash called his kicking "perfection itself".
Source: Australian FootballWimbledon 1951
In 1951 McGregor reached the final of the Australian Championships and of Wimbledon, and lost both to the same American, Dick Savitt. The Wimbledon final went 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. He won the Wimbledon doubles with Sedgman the same fortnight, the third leg of their Grand Slam year.
Source: WikipediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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