Henri Jean Cochet “Ball Boy of Lyon”
Born: December 14, 1901
Died: April 01, 1987
Hometown: Lyons, France
Citizenship: France
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1976
Grand Slam Record
French Singles 1926, 1928, 1930, 1932
Singles finalist 1933
Doubles 1927, 1930, 1932
Doubles finalist 1925
Mixed 1928-29
Mixed finalist 1930
Wimbledon Singles 1927, 1929
Singles finalist 1928
Doubles 1926, 1928
Doubles finalist 1927, 31
U.S. Singles 1928
Singles finalist 1932
Mixed 1927
Tournament Record
Italian Singles finalist 1931
Davis Cup Team Member 1922-24, 1926-33
Olympics Silver Medal Singles 1924
Silver Medal Doubles 1924
It could be said that Henri Jean Cochet had as pronounced a gift for playing tennis as anyone who attained world supremacy. A racket in his hand became a wand of magic, doing the impossible, most often in a position on the court considered untenable, and doing it with nonchalant ease and fluency. He took the ball early, volleys and half-volleys rippling off the strings. His overheads invariably scored, though his service seemingly was innocuous.
He developed his skills early in Lyon, France, where he was born December 14, 1901, and where his father was secretary of the tennis club. Henri worked at the club as a ball boy and practiced with his friends and sister when nobody was using the courts. In 1921 he went to Paris where he and Jean Borotra, both unknowns, reached the final of the covered-court championship. Cochet was the winner.
The next year, he and Borotra played on the Davis Cup team, and in 1923 they joined with René Lacoste and Jacques Brugnon in the origin of the Four Musketeers. Cochet won 10 successive Davis Cup challenge round matches from the time the Musketeers wrested the Cup from the U.S. in 1927.
A sensitivity of touch and timing, resulting in moderately hit strokes of genius, accounted for the success the little Frenchman (5-foot-6, 145) had in turning back the forceful hitters of the 1920s and early ’30s. Following a stunning victory over Bill Tilden in the quarterfinals of the 1926 U.S. Championships, ending Tilden’s six year sway, and a triumph over William Johnston in the 1927 challenge round, the right-handed Cochet established himself in 1928 as the world’s foremost player. Winner of the U.S. and French Championships that year, and runner-up at Wimbledon, he became more of a national hero than ever, as he scored three victories in the Cup challenge round.
With Lacoste’s retirement from international play in 1929, Cochet was France’s indispensable man. He led his country to victory over the United States in the challenge round in 1929, 1930 and 1932, and over the British in 1931.
“The Ballboy of Lyon,” as he was called, was champion of France five times (four times after it was opened to non-French citizens in l925), and won two Wimbledons (1927, 1929) and one U.S. (1928). Probably justifiably he felt unfairly treated in trying for a second U.S. in 1932. Darkness shut down his semifinal win over Wilmer Allison at 2-2 in sets. He had to complete that victory, 7-5, the following day, and then, after two hours rest, contest the final in which the weary Frenchman was no match for a fresh Ellsworth Vines, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
But for three matches as he closed out his 1927 Wimbledon championship, fourth seeded, he was a singular Henri Houdini. No one has concluded a major in such spectacular escapes, and all from Hall of Famers. Down two sets, he beat Frank Hunter in the quarters, 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. Trailing the great second-seeded Tilden, three points from defeat at 1-5, 15-all in the third, he reeled off 17 straight points, also survived a service break to 3-2 in the fifth and won the last four games to seize their semi, 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3. For an encore magnifique in the final, he lagged again and had to repel six match points to beat third-seeded Borotra, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5: hurdling a match point at 2-5, and five more with Borotra serving at 5-3! He ranked No. 1 from 1928 through 1931 and was in the World Top Ten 10 times between 1922 and 1933. After France lost the Davis Cup to Great Britain in 1933, Cochet turned professional. He did not have much of a career as a pro, however, and after the war, in 1945, one of the most naturally gifted tennis players in history received reinstatement as an amateur, a role in which he had once ruled the tennis world, and continued playing well. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976, he died April 1, 1987, in St. Ger-main-en-laye, France.
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