Paul McNamee

Paul McNamee

McNamee playing tennis in 2011
Country (sports)	Australia
Born	(1954-11-12) 12 November 1954 (age 70) Melbourne, Australia
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Turned pro	1973
Retired	1988
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand) *single-handed until 1979[1]
College	Monash University
Prize money	$1,233,615
Singles
Career record	247–231
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 24 (12 May 1986)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF (1982)
French Open	4R (1980)
Wimbledon	4R (1982)
US Open	2R (1979, 1983, 1984, 1986)
Other tournaments
WCT Finals	1R (1983)
Doubles
Career record	306–163
Career titles	24[a]
Highest ranking	No. 1 (8 June 1981)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	W (1979, 1983)
French Open	SF (1986)
Wimbledon	W (1980, 1982)
US Open	SF (1980)
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	F (1980)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon	W (1985)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (1983, 1986)

Paul McNamee (born 12 November 1954) is an Australian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player and prominent sports administrator.

Junior career

In his hometown, McNamee won the boys' singles tournament at the 1973 Australian Open.

Professional career

McNamee is the only player to switch a grip as a professional, changing from a one-handed backhand to two-handed in 1979.^[2] He won two singles and twenty-three doubles titles during his professional career. A right-hander, he reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 12 May 1986 when he became the world No. 24. McNamee reached his highest doubles ATP-ranking on 8 June 1981 when he became the world No. 1. McNamee won 24 men's doubles titles including four Grand Slam doubles titles in his career. He won the 1979 Australian Open and the 1980 and 1982 Wimbledon Championships with Peter McNamara and the 1983 Australian Open with Mark Edmondson. He won the mixed-doubles title in Wimbledon with Martina Navratilova in 1985.

When John McEnroe won Wimbledon in 1984, McNamee was the only player to take a set off McEnroe throughout the entire championship when he won the third set of their first-round match.

McNamee was also a member of the Australian Davis Cup Team which won the Davis Cup in 1983 and 1986.

In 1987, McNamee became Melbourne's last officially crowned King of Moomba, subsequently a Moomba Monarch was selected (male Monarchs were popularly, but unofficially, still called King of Moomba).^[3]

Sports administrator

McNamee played a key role in the founding of the Hopman Cup international tennis tournament in 1988. He served as tournament director of the Hopman Cup and CEO of the Australian Open until 2006.

From 2006 to 2008 he was the tournament director for Golf Australia of the Australian Golf Open.^[4] He also served as the CEO of the Melbourne Football Club from March to July 2008.^[5]

In late 2008, it was revealed that McNamee has joined the push for Australia to field a cycling team at the Tour de France – with support from Cadel Evans as a consultant for Australian Road Cycling, a Melbourne-based consortium.^[6]

Career finals

Singles (2 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1.	1980	Palm Harbor, U.S.	Hard	Stan Smith	6–4, 6–3
Loss	1.	1980	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Guillermo Vilas	4–6, 0–6, 0–6
Win	2.	1982	Baltimore WCT, U.S.	Carpet	Guillermo Vilas	4–6, 7–5, 7–5, 2–6, 6–3
Loss	2.	1983	Houston, U.S.	Clay	Ivan Lendl	2–6, 0–6, 3–6
Loss	3.	1983	Brisbane, Australia	Carpet	Pat Cash	6–4, 4–6, 3–6
Loss	4.	1986	Nice, France	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	1–6, 3–6
Loss	5.	1986	St. Vincent, Italy	Clay	Simone Colombo	6–2, 3–6, 6–7

Doubles (23 titles, 15 runner-ups)

Result	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1.	1977	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Henry Bunis	Patricio Cornejo Jaime Fillol	7–5, 1–6, 1–6
Win	1.	1979	Nice, France	Clay	Peter McNamara	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	6–1, 3–6, 6–2
Win	2.	1979	Cairo, Egypt	Clay	Peter McNamara	Anand Amritraj Vijay Amritraj	7–5, 6–4
Win	3.	1979	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Peter McNamara	Ismail El Shafei John Feaver	7–5, 7–6
Win	4.	1979	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Peter McNamara	Steve Docherty Christopher Lewis	7–6, 6–3
Win	5.	1979	Australian Open, Melbourne	Grass	Peter McNamara	Cliff Letcher Paul Kronk	7–6, 6–2
Win	6	Feb 1980	San Juan, U.S.[a]	Hard	Paul Kronk	Robert Trogolo Mark Turpin	7–6, 6–3
Win	7.	1980	Palm Harbor, U.S.	Hard	Paul Kronk	Steve Docherty John James	6–4, 7–5
Win	8.	1980	Houston, U.S.	Clay	Peter McNamara	Marty Riessen Sherwood Stewart	6–4, 6–4
Loss	2.	1980	Forest Hills WCT, U.S.	Clay	Peter McNamara	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	2–6, 7–5, 2–6
Loss	3.	1980	London/Queen's Club, England	Grass	Sherwood Stewart	Rod Frawley Geoff Masters	2–6, 6–4, 9–11
Win	9.	1980	Wimbledon, London	Grass	Peter McNamara	Robert Lutz Stan Smith	7–6, 6–3, 6–7, 6–4
Win	10.	1980	Stockholm, Sweden	Carpet	Heinz Günthardt	Robert Lutz Stan Smith	6–7, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	4.	1980	Bologna, Italy	Carpet	Steve Denton	Balázs Taróczy Butch Walts	6–2, 3–6, 0–6
Loss	5.	1980	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	Heinz Günthardt	Robert Lutz Stan Smith	7–6, 3–6, 4–6
Win	11.	1980	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Peter McNamara	Vitas Gerulaitis Brian Gottfried	6–2, 6–4
Loss	6.	1980	Australian Open, Melbourne	Grass	Peter McNamara	Mark Edmondson Kim Warwick	5–7, 4–6
Win	12.	1981	Masters Doubles WCT, London	Carpet	Peter McNamara	Victor Amaya Hank Pfister	6–3, 2–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	7.	1981	Hamburg, West Germany	Clay	Peter McNamara	Hans Gildemeister Andrés Gómez	4–6, 6–3, 4–6
Win	13.	1981	Stuttgart Outdoor, West Germany	Clay	Peter McNamara	Mark Edmondson Mike Estep	2–6, 6–4, 7–6
Win	14.	1981	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Peter McNamara	Hank Pfister John Sadri	6–7, 7–6, 7–6
Loss	8.	1982	Nice, France	Clay	Balázs Taróczy	Henri Leconte Yannick Noah	7–5, 4–6, 3–6
Win	15.	1982	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Peter McNamara	Mark Edmondson Sherwood Stewart	6–7, 7–6, 6–3
Win	16.	1982	Bournemouth, England	Clay	Buster Mottram	Henri Leconte Ilie Năstase	3–6, 7–6, 6–3
Win	17.	1982	Wimbledon, London	Grass	Peter McNamara	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	6–3, 6–2
Win	18.	1983	Memphis, U.S.	Carpet	Peter McNamara	Tim Gullikson Tom Gullikson	6–3, 5–7, 6–4
Win	19.	1983	London/Queen's Club, England	Grass	Brian Gottfried	Kevin Curren Steve Denton	6–4, 6–3
Loss	9.	1983	Washington D.C., U.S.	Clay	Ferdi Taygan	Mark Dickson Cássio Motta	2–6, 6–1, 4–6
Win	20.	1983	Brisbane, Australia	Carpet	Pat Cash	Mark Edmondson Kim Warwick	7–6, 7–6
Win	21.	1983	Australian Open, Melbourne	Grass	Mark Edmondson	Steve Denton Sherwood Stewart	6–3, 7–6
Win	22.	1984	Houston, U.S.	Clay	Pat Cash	David Dowlen Nduka Odizor	7–5, 4–6, 6–3
Win	23.	1984	Aix-en-Provence, France	Clay	Pat Cash	Chris Lewis Wally Masur	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Win	24.	1984	London/Queen's Club, England	Grass	Pat Cash	Bernard Mitton Butch Walts	6–4, 6–3
Loss	10.	1984	Wimbledon, London	Grass	Pat Cash	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	2–6, 7–5, 2–6, 6–3, 3–6
Loss	11.	1984	Hong Kong	Hard	Mark Edmondson	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	7–6, 3–6, 5–7
Loss	12.	1985	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Vitas Gerulaitis	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	4–6, 4–6
Loss	13.	1985	Boston, U.S.	Clay	Peter McNamara	Libor Pimek Slobodan Živojinović	6–2, 4–6, 6–7
Loss	14.	1986	Fort Myers, U.S.	Hard	Peter Doohan	Andrés Gómez Ivan Lendl	5–7, 4–6
Loss	15.	1986	Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	Peter McNamara	Boris Becker John Fitzgerald	4–6, 6–7

Notes

1. 1980 San Juan tournament was part of Grand Prix circuit but doubles event not officially listed by the ATP.

References

1. Chang, Michael and Yorkey, Mike. "Holding Serve: Persevering on and Off the Court", Thomas Nelson Inc, 1 May 2002.
2. Steinberger, Michael (24 August 2014). "The Death of the One-Handed Backhand". The New York Times Magazine. p. MM40. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
3. Craig Bellamy, Gordon Chisholm, Hilary Eriksen (17 February 2006) Moomba: A festival for the people.: "History of Moomba" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 27 December 2008. PDF pp 17–22
4. "Sydney to keep Open until 2009", Martin Blake, The Age, 11 February 2007
5. AAP (2008). McNamee dumped as Demons CEO. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
6. Cadel, McNamee support push for Australian Tour de France team Article.

External links

• Paul McNamee at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Paul McNamee at the International Tennis Federation
• Paul McNamee at the Davis Cup

1. ATP Doubles Ranking