{"id":30803,"date":"2023-05-15T04:37:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T18:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=30803"},"modified":"2023-05-15T05:57:17","modified_gmt":"2023-05-14T19:57:17","slug":"tribute-remembering-owen-davidson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2023\/05\/15\/tribute-remembering-owen-davidson","title":{"rendered":"Tribute: Remembering Owen Davidson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owen Davidson, fondly known as ‘Davo’, is being remembered for his Grand Slam-winning career following his passing in Melbourne at age 79.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australian tennis is mourning the passing of Grand Slam champion Owen Davidson, who has passed away at age 79.<\/p>\n

Known simply as \u2018Davo\u2019 his career spanned the amateur and open eras of tennis, during which he won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles and was a member of five Davis Cup squads. His most productive partnership was with Billie Jean King and together they won eight mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, including four at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

It was his accurate volleys that King admired most, with the American legend once commenting that \u201cOwen seemed to make 99 per cent of his first volleys after serving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved playing in a team, and I loved Owen Davidson because of that, because he was my best partner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Owen Davidson (far left) with fellow International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees in 2018.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1967 Davidson completed the Grand Slam of mixed doubles by winning the four major titles in one calendar year.<\/p>\n

He once nominated his career highlight as winning the 1973 US doubles crown with his close friend John Newcombe when they defeated Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were our childhood idols and to beat them was very special,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although known for his doubles, Davidson was a successful singles player and reached the quarterfinals at all four majors.<\/p>\n

In 1966 he made the semifinal at Wimbledon where he lost 7-5 in the fifth set to eventual champion Manuel Santana.<\/p>\n

Born in Melbourne, Davidson played in an era when Australian men\u2019s tennis was filled with champions. The left-hander\u2019s game was based around accuracy and court knowledge.<\/p>\n

His bright personality made him popular with other players who often teased him about his occasionally sloppy personal habits, which contrasted with his neat play on the court.<\/p>\n

Davidson continued to be involved in the sport he loved and its people, often guest coaching at John Newcombe\u2019s tennis camps.<\/p>\n

He was inducted into the both the\u00a0International<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Australian Tennis Hall of Fames.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Owen Davidson, fondly known as ‘Davo’, is being remembered for his Grand Slam-winning career following his passing in Melbourne at age 79.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6373,"featured_media":30804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}