{"id":19074,"date":"2019-10-09T19:42:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T09:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/?p=19074"},"modified":"2019-10-09T19:42:15","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T09:12:15","slug":"south-australian-tennis-legend-john-fitzgerald-to-join-the-australian-tennis-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/news\/2019\/10\/09\/south-australian-tennis-legend-john-fitzgerald-to-join-the-australian-tennis-hall-of-fame","title":{"rendered":"South Australian tennis legend John Fitzgerald to join the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Fitzgerald<\/strong>, former Davis Cup champion, Davis Cup captain and world No.1 doubles player, will be inducted into the\u00a0Australian Tennis Hall of Fame\u00a0<\/strong>in January 2020.<\/p>\n

The South Australian legend \u2013 one of the most successful Australian players in modern times and a dedicated ambassador for tennis \u2013 will join the ranks of Australia\u2019s greatest tennis sportsmen and women. He will be honoured at a special ceremony at\u00a0Rod Laver Arena\u00a0<\/strong>during the Australian Open, and his bronze bust will join a coterie of Aussie legends in\u00a0Garden Square<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Cockaleechie Kid\u2019, nicknamed after his hometown in South Australia, developed his game on his family\u2019s farm and quickly rose to become one of the most valued competitors in Australian tennis.<\/p>\n

A top-ranked Australian singles player, he amassed six ATP Tour titles and climbed to a career-high world No.25 ranking in 1988. But it was in doubles and team sport that \u2018Fitzy\u2019 excelled \u2013 the Davis Cup was said to act like a special fuel and ignited his fervour in the successful 1983 and 1986 campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cFitzgerald all but sprouts wings when he plays Davis Cup for Australia,\u201d reported\u00a0The Age<\/em>, after 23-year-old Fitzgerald downed Swede\u00a0Joakim Nystrom\u00a0<\/strong>in four sets to win his singles rubber on day one of the competition in 1983 at Kooyong.<\/p>\n

Australia won its 26th<\/sup>Davis Cup title in 1986 \u2013 also against the Swedes on grass at Kooyong \u2013 after Fitzgerald successfully partnered\u00a0Pat Cash\u00a0<\/strong>in the important doubles rubber to give the Australians a 2-1 lead. Overall he held a 19-14 (win-loss) Davis Cup record over 23 ties.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald was selected to captain the Australian side from 2001, steering the team to a dramatic final against France at Melbourne Park in his first year.<\/p>\n

Two years later he guided Australia to a 28th<\/sup>Davis Cup victory, defeating Spain at Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald represented Australia in two\u00a0Olympic Games\u00a0<\/strong>(Seoul and Barcelona) and won 30 ATP doubles titles, including seven Grand Slam men\u2019s doubles and two Grand Slam mixed, both with\u00a0Elizabeth Smylie<\/strong>, at the US Open in 1983 and at Wimbledon in 1991.<\/p>\n

He was ranked world No.1 in doubles in 1991, the year he teamed with Swede\u00a0Anders Jarryd\u00a0<\/strong>to win three majors \u2013 Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.<\/p>\n

Awarded the\u00a0Medal of the Order of Australia\u00a0<\/strong>in 1993, Fitzgerald retired from professional tennis in 1995 and commenced a standout career as a tennis broadcaster after finishing his term as Davis Cup captain in 2010. He has also covered much ground across Australia inspiring school children to play the sport, and giving motivational talks to community groups, aspiring players and sports clubs.<\/p>\n

This year he has toured country New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia as part of Tennis Australia\u2019s Drought Relief initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is great to see so many players come through and represent Australia at an international level,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for me it\u2019s always about the number of people with a racquet in their hand who enjoy the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want kids to get as much enjoyment out of tennis as I have experienced. It\u2019s the best sport I know and I have always wanted to give back to it. I am thrilled to be joining the Australian Tennis Hall of Fame, it\u2019s such an incredible honour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Fitzgerald, former Davis Cup champion, Davis Cup captain and world No.1 doubles player, will be inducted into the\u00a0Australian Tennis Hall of Fame\u00a0in January 2020. The South Australian legend \u2013 one of the most successful Australian players in modern times and a dedicated ambassador for tennis \u2013 will join the ranks of Australia\u2019s greatest tennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5736,"featured_media":19075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}