The early years
France · born Paris, 1882 · died 1978 · Wimbledon doubles champion 1911 with André Gobert
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1911
Wimbledon doubles title with André Gobert, beating the holders Wilding and Ritchie in five sets
2
Wimbledon singles semi-finals, 1911 and 1912
8
French singles titles, 1903 to 1914, when the event was closed to French players
6
Olympic medals between 1900 and 1920, counting the 1906 Games
95
His age when he died at Biot in 1978
Maxime Decugis was born in Paris on 24 September 1882, the son of a merchant at Les Halles. He went to school in England and at 15 won the Renshaw Cup for boys at Queen's Club, under the eye of the Irish champion Harold Mahony. Back in France he won the national singles title eight times between 1903 and 1914, at a time when the championship was open only to members of French clubs, and added 14 doubles and seven mixed titles.
He won Olympic medals in 1900, at the 1906 Games in Athens (where he took the singles, the doubles and the mixed with his wife, Marie) and in 1920, when he won the mixed doubles with Suzanne Lenglen. Olympedia counts six medals in all, four of them gold.
On grass his great year was 1911. With André Gobert he won the Wimbledon doubles, beating Tony Wilding and Major Ritchie in the Challenge Round, and he reached the singles semi-finals in 1911 and again in 1912. The pair lost their title to Herbert Roper Barrett and Charles Dixon in 1912. A. Wallis Myers ranked him world No. 10 in 1913 and 1914. He died at Biot, in the Alpes-Maritimes, on 6 September 1978.
| Wimbledon doubles 1911 | With André Gobert, won the All-Comers final against Samuel Hardy and Cecil Parke 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, then beat the holders Major Ritchie and Tony Wilding in the Challenge Round 9-7, 5-7, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon doubles 1912 | Defending with Gobert, lost the Challenge Round to Herbert Roper Barrett and Charles Dixon 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 |
| Wimbledon singles | Semi-finalist in 1911 and 1912 |
| Wimbledon mixed 1919 | With L.M. Addison, lost the semi-final to A.D. Prebble and Dorothea Lambert Chambers 6-1, 6-0; at 13 games it is the shortest mixed semi-final by games in the Wimbledon record |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1911 | Men's doubles | with André Gobert |
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.
Queen's Club, about 1897
Decugis was at school in England, and at 15 he won the Renshaw Cup for boys at Queen's Club, "thereby gladdening the heart of his mentor, H. S. Mahony". Myers adds that Cowdrey, later the professional at Queen's, was a ball boy that day.
Source: A. Wallis Myers, Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis (1921)Paris, 1903
For years a group of British players, Mahony and Ritchie among them, made an Easter pilgrimage to the Paris tournaments and carried off the titles. Myers remembered "the great joy of the French" when Decugis first broke through "this English ring" and won both the singles and the doubles.
Source: A. Wallis Myers, Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis (1921)Monte Carlo, 1912
In a final against Wilding, Wilding fell and cut his playing hand, and blood dripped on the court. Decugis, "who was superstitious", bent down and touched one of the spots as he crossed over, and a line judge who supported him jumped up shouting "Bravo! Bravo! Decugis wins!" Wilding played on calmly and won.
Source: A. Wallis Myers, Twenty Years of Lawn Tennis (1921)Wiesbaden, May 1910
A year before their Wimbledon doubles meeting, Decugis beat Anthony Wilding twice in a week at Wiesbaden, in four sets in the final of the Wiesbaden Cup and in straight sets in the final of the Wiesbaden Championship.
Source: Max Decugis, WikipediaAthens, 1906
At the 1906 Games he won the singles, the doubles with Maurice Germot and the mixed doubles with his wife, Marie, whom he had married in 1905. She was the daughter of the painter François Flameng.
Source: Grasso, Historical Dictionary of Tennis (2011); Max Decugis, WikipediaFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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