Vivian McGrath

Playing career

Vivian Erzerum Bede McGrath was born on 17 February 1916 at Merrendee, near Mudgee in New South Wales, the fourth child of a hotelkeeper. He won the special singles at the New South Wales championships in 1931, the Australian junior singles in 1932 and the French junior singles in 1933. He hit his backhand with both hands, a stroke opponents took for a weakness, and made it his trademark. The press called him the Wonder Boy.

He was in the Australian Davis Cup squad from 1933 to 1937, without playing in a Challenge Round, and beat Fred Perry, Christian Boussus and Ellsworth Vines in his career. With Jack Crawford he won five New South Wales doubles titles in a row from 1933 to 1937 and the Australian doubles in 1935, beating Perry and Pat Hughes in the final. In January 1937, aged 20, he won the Australian singles at White City, Sydney, beating John Bromwich in five sets. He reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1935 and 1937, and A. Wallis Myers ranked him eighth in the world in 1935.

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in November 1941 and served in transport units, mainly in the Northern Territory, until his discharge as a sergeant in May 1946. He never recovered his earlier form. He worked for the sporting goods firm A. G. Spalding and Bros until the late 1950s, then coached in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. He died at Burradoo on 9 April 1978, aged 62.

On grass

Every grass title: 5

Show every title, tournament by tournament

Australian Championships
1935	Men's doubles	with Jack Crawford
1937	Men's singles
South Australian Championships
1934	Men's singles
New Zealand Championships
1935	Men's singles
Queensland Championships
1936	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

"being nervous would have meant that I had some hope of winning, and I hadn't any"