Douglas "Hank" Irvine (born September 1, 1943) is a

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

n born American former professional tennis player.

Biography

Born in Bulawayo, Irvine was a student of

Prince Edward School , streetaddress = , city = Harare , country = Zimbabwe , coordinates = , type = State school, boarding and day school , established = , headmaster = Dr. Aggrippa G. Sora , gender = Boys , lower_age = 13 , upper_age = 19 ...

in Salisbury and played a variety of sports early in life. He was a world ranked squash player and also represented Rhodesia in field hockey. A school teacher by profession, he played in two

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

ties for Rhodesia, against Sweden in 1968 and Spain in 1969. While competing on the professional tour in the early 1970s he made several appearances at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

and the US Open. He was a mixed doubles semi-finalist at the

1970 Wimbledon Championships The 1970 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament was held from Monday 22 June until Saturday ...

, partnering Helen Gourlay of Australia. As a singles player he made the Wimbledon third round in 1971 and played a center court match at Wimbledon the following year against top seed and eventual champion

Stan Smith Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. Smith is best known to non-tennis players as the namesake of a popular brand of tennis shoes. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles cham ...

. In 1974 he won the singles title at the

Rothmans Connaught Hard Court Championships The Rothmans Connaught Hard Court Championships also known simply as the Connaught Hard Courts was a combined men's and women's clay court tennis tournament founded in 1951. The championships were organised by the Connaught Lawn Tennis Club, Ching ...

played on clay at

Chingford, Essex Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to ...

, England against John Clifton. Irvine, who became an American citizen, had a noted career in

platform tennis Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

after leaving the professional tour and is a member of the sport's

hall of fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Irvine, Hank 1943 births Living people Rhodesian male tennis players Rhodesian male field hockey players Rhodesian emigrants to the United States Sportspeople from Bulawayo

Biography

See also

References

External links