Kenneth Bruce McGregor (2 June 1929 – 1 December 2007) was an Australian

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 from Adelaide who won the Men's Singles title at the Australian Championships in 1952. He and his longtime doubles partner,

Frank Sedgman Francis "Frank" Arthur Sedgman (born 29 October 1927) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Over the course of a three-decade career, Sedgman won five Grand Slam singles tournaments as an amateur as well as 22 Grand Slam doubles ...

, are generally considered one of the greatest men's doubles teams of all time and won the doubles

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

in 1951. McGregor was also a member of three Australian Davis Cup winning teams in 1950–1952. In 1953, Jack Kramer induced both Sedgman and McGregor to turn professional. He was ranked as high as World No. 3 in 1952.

Career

In 1951 and 1952 McGregor and

won seven consecutive

doubles titles – a feat that is unmatched to this day. McGregor was also a good singles player. At the Australian Championships in 1950, McGregor beat top seed

Jaroslav Drobný Jaroslav Drobný (; 12 October 1921 – 13 September 2001) was a World No. 1 amateur tennis and ice hockey champion. He left Czechoslovakia in 1949 and travelled as an Egyptian citizen before becoming a citizen of the United Kingdom in 1959, w ...

in an early round before losing the final against Sedgman. At the 1951 Australian Championships, McGregor beat

Adrian Quist Adrian Karl Quist (23 January 191317 November 1991) was an Australian tennis player. Biography Adrian Quist was born in Medindie, South Australia. His father was Karl Quist, who had been a noted interstate cricketer, and owned a sporting goods ...

and Arthur Larsen before losing the final to

Dick Savitt Richard Savitt (March 4, 1927 – January 6, 2023) was an American tennis player. In 1951, at the age of 24, he won both the Australian and Wimbledon men's singles championships. Savitt was mostly ranked world No. 2 the same year behind fellow ...

. Savitt also beat him in the Wimbledon final. McGregor won the 1952 Australian Championships, beating Savitt and Sedgman in the last two rounds. McGregor was a fine all-round athlete, excelling in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

, Australian rules football, and

. He also played lacrosse. At , he had a powerful serve and overhead. The great tennis player Ellsworth Vines said of McGregor: "He was the same height as

Pancho Gonzales Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 15 major singles titles, including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949, and 13 P ...

, faster, moved as well and could jump higher, and once he got to the net he was difficult to pass because of his prehensile reach. The handsome Aussie had the most extraordinary overhead of all time." In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself who brought McGregor into professional tennis, wrote that "McGregor was one of the weakest players but one of the nicest guys who ever played for me in the pros. As nearly as I could tell, all he wanted to do was save up some money, go back Down Under and play Australian-rules football, which in fact, he played better than he did tennis. And that's what he did." In early January 1953 McGregor and Sedgman signed a contract to join Jack Kramer's professional tour. This made them ineligible to compete in the amateur Grand Slam tournaments and Davis Cup. In his 1952–1953 tour against

Pancho Segura Francisco Olegario Segura (June 20, 1921 – November 18, 2017), better known as Pancho "Segoo" Segura, was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but m ...

, McGregor was beaten by 71 matches to 25. In a subsequent 1953–1954 tour against Pancho Gonzales, he was beaten 15 matches to 0. After his retirement from tennis at the age of 25 he returned to Australian rules football and played five seasons for West Adelaide in the SANFL.

Honours

In 1999, McGregor was inducted into the

International Tennis Hall of Fame The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

followed in 2000 by induction into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame. The Ken McGregor Foundation was established by Tennis SA, the governing body of tennis in South Australia, with the aim of assisting the next generation of international tennis players.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 title, 3 runners-up)

Doubles (7 titles, 1 runner-up)

Mixed doubles (1 title)

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

Singles

Personal life

Ken McGregor was the son of

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

and Winnifred McGregor. Bruce was the winner of the 1926 and 1927

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Will ...

s and was the

West Adelaide Football Club West Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Commonly known as The Bloods and Westies, the club's home base is Richmond Oval (currently known as Hisense Stadium und ...

's premiership captain-coach in 1927 as well as the

Glenelg Football Club Glenelg Football Club is an Australian rules football team, which plays in the South Australian National Football League. The club is known as the "Tigers" (or the "Bays"), and their home ground is ACH Group Stadium (formerly Glenelg Oval), lo ...

's inaugural premiership coach in 1934. Ken had one sister (Betty) who was born in 1927, the day their father Bruce was awarded his second Magarey Medal. In 1953 he married Winifred Caro. McGregor had a history of heart problems, but was diagnosed with stomach cancer ten days prior to his death on 1 December 2007. He was survived by his wife, two children, and five grandchildren.

References

Sources

* ''The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis'' (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford () * ''The History of Professional Tennis'' (2003) Joe McCauley

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGregor, Ken 1929 births 2007 deaths Australian Championships (tennis) champions Australian Championships (tennis) junior champions Australian male tennis players Deaths from cancer in South Australia Deaths from stomach cancer French Championships (tennis) champions International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees United States National champions (tennis) West Adelaide Football Club players Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Tennis players from Adelaide Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles Professional tennis players before the Open Era Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees