Hopman, Harry

Harry Christian Hopman “Hop, Fox”
Born: August 12, 1906
Died: December 27, 1985
Hometown: Glebe, N.S.W., Australia
Citizenship: Australia
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1978

Grand Slam Record
Australian Singles finalist 1930-32
Doubles 1929-30
Doubles finalist 1931-32
Mixed 1930, 36-37, 39
Mixed finalist 1940

French Doubles finalist 1930, 48

Wimbledon Mixed finalist 1935

U.S. Doubles finalist 1939
Mixed 1939

Tournament Record
Davis Cup Team Member 1928, 1930, 1932
Captain 1938-39, 1950-69

Italian Mixed 1934

A fine player, particularly in doubles, at which he won seven major titles, Henry Christian Hopman made his name as the most successful of all Davis Cup captains, piloting Australia to 16 Cups between l939 and 1967. His was the era of perhaps the greatest Cup players of all, the Hall of Fame Aussies from Frank Sedgman through Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Ashley Cooper, Mervyn Rose, Rex Hartwig, Mal Anderson, Neale Fraser, Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Fred Stolle, Tony Roche.

Emphasizing super fitness, he drove and inspired them, and built pride in their underpopulated country’s beating the rest of the world. The first of his 22 teams, 1938, the challenge round final, losing to the U.S. But he was back with the same pair, Adrian Quist and Jack Bromwich, to win a singular victory the U.S. in l939, from 0-2 down after the first day in Philadelphia.

Hop concentrated on his job as a newspaperman after World War II. But after the Aussies lost the Cup to the U.S. in 1946, and three more finales through l949, there was a clamor for him to return to the captain’s chair. With two youngsters Sedgman and Ken McGregor, he won the Cup in New York in 1950, and the Down Under-takers were in business for a glorious near-quarter century. His teams compiled a 38-6 record.

As a player–a trim 5-foot-7, 133 pounds–he won the Australian doubles with Jack Crawford in 1929 and 1930 and four mixed titles his first wife, the former Nell Hall, a record for married couples. In singles his high point was the U.S. Championships of 1938 when he beat fifth-seeded Elwood Cooke 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8,and future U.S. and French champ Don McNeill, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5, to reach the quarters, where he was an historic footnote in Don Budge’s original Grand Slam, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.

Following his last Davis Cup match as captain, a loss to Mexico at Mexico City in 1969, he emigrated to the U.S. to become a highly successful teaching pro, counseling such champions-to-be as Vitas Gerulaitis and John McEnroe at the Port Washington (NY) Tennis Academy. He later opened his own Hopman Tennis Academy with his wife, Lucy, at Largo, FL. Hop was born August l2, l906, in Sydney and died December 27, 1985 in Largo, FL. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1978.

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