Kenneth Norman Fletcher (15 June 1940 – 11 February 2006) 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 cov ...

player who won numerous doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles.

Biography

He was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, Queensland, Australia to parents Norm and Ethel Fletcher. He was educated at St Laurence's College and showed early promise as a championship tennis player there. His greatest success as a tennis player came in 1963, when he became the only man to win a calendar year Grand Slam in mixed doubles, partnering fellow Australian

Margaret Court Margaret Court (''née'' Smith; born 16 July 1942), also known as Margaret Smith Court, is an Australian retired former world No. 1 tennis player and a Christian minister. Considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, her 24 maj ...

. He reached the final of the Australian Open in 1963, losing to

Roy Emerson Roy Stanley Emerson (born 3 November 1936) is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam titles. He is the only male player to have completed a car ...

. After this achievement, he went on to record mixed doubles championships in the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Ope ...

in 1964,

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

in 1964 and 1965, and Wimbledon in 1965, 1966, and 1968. All of his mixed doubles

Grand Slam title The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam p ...

s were in partnership with Smith Court. He also achieved a Grand Slam title in men's doubles in the 1964 French Open, playing with Emerson. At the Wimbledon men's doubles championship, he was a finalist with Robert Hewitt in 1965, the champion in 1966 partnering

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 ...

, and a finalist again in 1967 with Emerson. In total, Fletcher won 27 international tennis titles. He was ranked World No. 10 in 1966 by Lance Tingay of ''The Daily Telegraph''. Ken was a

larrikin Larrikin is an Australian English term meaning "a mischievous young person, an uncultivated, rowdy but good hearted person", or "a person who acts with apparent disregard for social or political conventions". In the 19th and early 20th centurie ...

by nature, and many of his exploits feature in

Hugh Lunn Hugh Duncan Lunn (born 1941 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian journalist and author. Writing career Early journalism Lunn served his journalism cadetship with '' The Courier-Mail''. Upon completing his cadetship, he worked overseas f ...

's books, especially ''Over the Top with Jim'' and ''Head Over Heels''. In later years, he was instrumental in gaining significant funding for medical research in Australia, through his association with

Chuck Feeney Charles Francis Feeney (born April 23, 1931) is an Irish-American businessman and philanthropist who made his fortune as a co-founder of the Hong Kong based Duty Free Shoppers Group. He is the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the ...

. In 2008, Hugh Lunn published ''The Great Fletch'', a book on Ken's life around the globe. Fletcher died of cancer at the age of 65 and was buried at the Mount Gravatt Lawn Cemetery, Brisbane. In January 2012, Ken Fletcher was inducted into the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame. Ken Fletcher Memorial, Tennyson 02

In 2013, the Ken Fletcher memorial was erected in the park, outside the

Queensland Tennis Centre Queensland Tennis Centre, known during its development as the Tennyson Tennis Centre, is a tennis venue in Tennyson, Brisbane, Australia. It is an A$82 million tennis facility opened on 2 January 2009 at the site of the demolished Tennyson P ...

, named in his honour. He is the only player in the history of tennis, to win a grand slam, in mixed doubles in 1963, that is not enshrined in the International Tennis Hall Of Fame.

Biography

Grands Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 9 (2 titles, 7 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: 11 (10 titles, 1 runner-up)

References

External links

Further reading