Peter Doohan (2 May 1961 – 21 July 2017) 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 who won three consecutive

Australian Hard Court Championships The Australian Hard Court Championships was a former professional tennis tournament established in 1938 and held until 2008. The event was played on clay courts until 1977 when it switched to hard courts. The tournament was a combined event for m ...

singles titles (1984, 1985, 1986), which remains an

Open era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...

record for that tournament. He won a further two singles titles at the

South Australian Open South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

in 1984 and San Louis Potosi tournament in Mexico in 1988. He also won five doubles titles during his career. The right-hander reached his highest

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, a ...

(ATP) singles ranking of world No. 43 in August 1987.

Career

At the

1987 Wimbledon Championships The 1987 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 101st edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

, he unexpectedly defeated two-time defending champion and top-seeded Boris Becker in the second round, earning himself the nickname "The Becker Wrecker" at home in Australia. Doohan played collegiately in the United States with the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

where he won the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

doubles title in 1982. Also a successful singles player, he won three

consecutively from (1984–1986). In 1984, he won the South Australian Open singles title. In 1988, he won the San Louis Potosi singles title on clay in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He also coached high school tennis at Donoho High School in

Anniston, Alabama Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Acc ...

, for several years in the mid-1990s. Doohan died on 21 July 2017 from

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ATP career finals

Singles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

Doubles: 14 (5 titles, 9 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed Doubles

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Doohan, Peter 1961 births 2017 deaths Arkansas Razorbacks men's tennis players Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Australian male tennis players People from Newcastle, New South Wales Tennis people from New South Wales Neurological disease deaths in New South Wales Deaths from motor neuron disease 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people Place of death missing Sportsmen from New South Wales