Tom Brown (tennis)
| Country (sports) |
 United States
|
|---|---|
| Born |
September 26, 1922 Washington D.C., United States |
| Died | October 27, 2011 (aged 89) Castro Valley, California, USA |
| Turned pro | 1939(amateur tour) |
| Retired | 1969 |
| Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 314–96 |
| Career titles | 34 |
| Highest ranking | No. 7 (1946, Pierre Gillou) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Australian Open | SF (1947) |
| French Open | SF (1946, 1947) |
| Wimbledon | F (1947) |
| US Open | F (1946) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| Australian Open | SF (1947) |
| French Open | F (1947) |
| Wimbledon | W (1946) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| French Open | F (1946) |
| Wimbledon | W (1946) |
| US Open | W (1948) |
Thomas P. "Tom" Brown, Jr. (September 26, 1922 – October 27, 2011), was one of the top amateur tennis players in the world in the 1940s and a consistent winner in veterans' and seniors' competitions. He was the son of Thomas P. Brown, a newspaper correspondent, later public relations director for a railroad, and Hilda Jane Fisher, who became a schoolteacher when Tom was a boy. Though born in Washington, D.C., Tom was considered a San Franciscan all his life, having been brought west by his parents (both native Californians) at the age of two.
Tom Brown, Jr. got his start playing tennis at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park where on weekends his parents would play and Tom would tag along. He quickly became intrigued with the sport, was soon beating his parents and winning citywide children’s championships. Growing up, he was captain of the tennis teams at both Lowell High School and the University of California-Berkeley.
For one for whom tennis was never the main event in life, he had a successful record in the sport, before devoting himself to a law practice and raising a family. At his best he had wins over top players of his era. As Private First Class Tom Brown he won the October 1945 singles title of the prestigious Pacific Coast Championships, the second oldest tennis tournament in the U.S., now known as the SAP Open. Brown won it four times, twice in singles, twice in doubles. Then, fresh out of an Army uniform after WWII, he waltzed easily into the 1946 Wimbledon semifinals, in which he led that year's eventual champion, France's Yvon Petra, by two sets before losing. Brown had his revenge the following year when he unseated reigning champion Petra in straight sets to reach the 1947 Wimbledon singles semi-finals, in which he defeated Budge Patty (who would win the French and Wimbledon singles titles in 1950) in straight sets to reach the final. In the final he lost in straight sets to Jack Kramer.
In demand as a doubles partner amongst the world's best, both men and women, Brown, with Jack Kramer, won the 1946 Wimbledon doubles against Australia's Geoff Brown and Dinny Pails. Tom also won its mixed doubles, teamed with Louise Brough, against Dorothy (Dodo) Bundy and Geoff Brown. That same year, at the French, he played the mixed finals with "Dodo". And at the U.S. Nationals he reached the Men's Singles finals by eliminating Fred Kovaleski, Tom Falkenburg, Bitsy Grant, Herbie Flam, Frank Parker and Gardnar Mulloy, before finally being defeated by Kramer.
In 1947 at Wimbledon, he played the singles finals against Kramer, and at the French was in the Men's Doubles finals with Billy Sidwell of Australia.
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