Geoffrey Neil Pollard, AM (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian sports administrator and former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in the

1989 Australia Day Honours The 1989 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 1989 by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Ninian Stephen. The Austr ...

list. A left-handed player from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Pollard was active as a player in the 1960s and 1970s. He lost to

John Newcombe John David Newcombe AO OBE (born 23 May 1944) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He is one of the few men to have attained a world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. At the majors, he won seven singles titles, a fo ...

in the junior singles final of the 1961 Australian Championships and earned selection on Australia's

Junior Davis Cup Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup are the international team events in junior tennis (16-and-under age category). History Competitions were launched by the ITF in 1985 as the 16-and-under World Youth Cup, and rebranded in 2002 unde ...

team. In 1962 he was runner-up to

Tony Roche Anthony Dalton Roche Order of Australia, AO Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 17 May 1945) is an Australian former professional tennis player. A native of Tarcutta, Roche played junior tennis in the New South Wales regional city of Wagg ...

in the 18s and under

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

tournament. Pollard, a

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

science graduate, partnered with Kaye Dening to win a mixed doubles gold medal at the

1967 Summer Universiade The 1967 Summer Universiade, also known as the V Summer Universiade, took place in Tokyo, Japan. Eastern Bloc countries including Soviet Union, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Cuba, Czechoslovakia and North Korea boycotted the Games due to th ...

in Tokyo. He won through to the singles third round of the

1968 Australian Championships The 1968 Australian Championships was a tennis tournament that took place in the outdoor Kooyong Stadium in Melbourne, Australia from 19 to 29 January. It was the 56th edition of the Australian Championships (now known as Australian Open), the 16t ...

, where he was eliminated by the fifth-seed

Barry Phillips-Moore Barry Phillips-Moore (born 9 June 1938) is an Australian former tennis player of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. In singles, Phillips-Moore twice reached the semifinals of the Australian Championships, in 1961 and 1968. In doubles, he was a q ...

. During the 1980s, Pollard served as President of the New South Wales Lawn Tennis Association and was on the Board of Directors for the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

. He was also a senior lecturer in statistics at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

. From 1989 to 2010 he was President of

Tennis Australia Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for Tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organises national and international Tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, the Australian Open ...

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Geoff 1944 births Living people Australian male tennis players Australian sports executives and administrators Tennis executives University of Sydney alumni Macquarie University faculty Tennis players from Sydney Members of the Order of Australia Universiade medalists in tennis Universiade gold medalists for Australia Universiade silver medalists for Australia Medalists at the 1967 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1970 Summer Universiade