Tom Brown

Playing career

Thomas Pollock Brown was born in Washington, D.C., on 26 September 1922 and taken to San Francisco as a small child; he learned the game on the public courts of Golden Gate Park, where his parents played at weekends. He captained the teams at Lowell High School and the University of California, Berkeley, enlisted in the Army in 1943 and served in Europe as a mortar gunner until 1946.

Fresh out of uniform, he had his best year in 1946. Unseeded at Wimbledon, he reached the singles semi-finals and won the men's doubles with Jack Kramer and the mixed with Louise Brough; at Forest Hills he beat the holder Frank Parker on the way to the US final, where Kramer beat him 9-7, 6-3, 6-0. In 1947 he beat the defending champion Yvon Petra and lost the Wimbledon final to Kramer. In 1948 he was runner-up in the Wimbledon men's doubles with Gardnar Mulloy and won the US mixed with Brough. He played Davis Cup for the United States and in the 1950 Challenge Round won the only American point, against Ken McGregor.

He then took a law degree at Berkeley and practised in San Francisco until 1987, while still winning tournaments: ten San Francisco city titles, the last at 48. In retirement he became one of the most successful senior players in the country, winning national titles until 1998. He published a memoir, As Tom Goes By, in 2007 and died in Castro Valley, California, on 27 October 2011, aged 89.

On grass

Every grass title: 3

Show every title, tournament by tournament

Wimbledon
1946	Men's doubles	with Jack Kramer
1946	Mixed doubles	with Louise Brough
US Championships
1948	Mixed doubles	with Louise Brough

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

"He practiced for every match as if it were a Wimbledon final."