Farewell Neale Fraser, 3-time major champion & Australian Davis Cup hero

  • Posted: Dec 03, 2024

Neale Fraser, an estimable Australian left-hander who owned one of the craftiest serves in tennis during his prime years in the late 1950’s and early sixties, securing no fewer than 19 major championships altogether in singles, doubles and mixed doubles between 1956 and 1962 despite frequently living in the shadows of countrymen including Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Ashley Cooper and Mal Anderson, and establishing himself as an outstanding Davis Cup player and captain—died on 2 December, 2024. He was 91.

Exploiting his versatile serve to the hilt and turning it into the cornerstone of his game, Fraser was a formidable player who thrived in an era when three of the four majors were held on grass. Fraser’s southpaw mastery of spins on serve set him apart in his time and made him especially formidable on grass courts. His serve was deceptive and often unstoppable. He could release it flat into the corners, carve it with slice out wide or stifle right-handed opponents with his devilish deuce court kick serve to the forehand.

Fraser was a tried and true serve-and-volleyer, backing up his excellent delivery with soundness on the volley, attacking relentlessly, smothering opponents with his capacity to come forward at all the right times. He was a product of his era on fast courts, unrelentingly aggressive as a match player, weighing the percentages assiduously to give himself the best possible chance to succeed.

Neale Andrew Fraser was born on 3 October, 1933 in Melbourne where he grew up and lived as an adult, starting to play tennis at the age of eleven on a neighbour’s court with his brother John, a physician later in life and a decent player in his own right who once made the semi-finals of Wimbledon in doubles alongside Rod Laver. The son of a lawyer who became a judge, Neale Fraser won his first tournament — a 13-and-under event — at 12. At 17 he won the Australian National Junior Championships. By 1954, when he turned 21, Fraser was included on the Australian overseas team, touring with the likes of Hoad and Rosewall under the tutelage of the revered coach and Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman, making crucial strides in that period.

Ranked among the Top 10 in the world every year from 1956-62 by most leading authorities, rising to No. 1 twice at the start of the sixties, Fraser was prominent in an era when all of the top players were expected to enter the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events at the sport’s showcase tournaments.

Hence his achievement in sweeping all three events at the 1959 and 1960 U.S. Championships was among his highest honors. In 1959, he defeated the charismatic Peruvian Alex Olmedo in the singles final, joined Emerson to topple Olmedo and the American Butch Buchholz in the doubles final, and secured the mixed doubles crown with Margaret Osborne duPont of the U.S. over the American Janet Hopps and the Australian Bob Mark.

A year later, he replicated that feat, claiming the singles title in straight sets over Laver, and defending his men’s and mixed doubles titles with Emerson and Osborne duPont. That was no mean feat against staunch opposition. Fraser demonstrated that he was the tennis player’s tennis player by virtue of those successes, putting forth the same inexhaustible effort into his doubles pursuits as he did on his own in singles.

He reaffirmed that fact by excelling in Davis Cup competition for his country, winning 18 of 21 matches in singles and doubles combined, losing only once in singles, playing a central role in leading Australia to four consecutive Davis Cup triumphs from 1959-62. The first of those triumphs featured Fraser in full flight. In the Challenge Round against the United States at Forest Hills, Fraser stopped Alex Olmedo in four sets on opening day, teamed with Roy Emerson to win the doubles over Olmedo and Butch Buchholz, and sealed victory for his nation in the fifth and final match by ousting Barry MacKay in four sets. That was an extraordinary three-day feat and a singular achievement for the industrious Fraser.

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Only three of his 19 majors were secured in singles, but they represented his proudest moments as a player. The groundbreaking singles triumph was in 1959 at Forest Hills when he was 26. But perhaps his victory at Wimbledon the following year was even more psychically rewarding.

On that occasion in 1960, he took on Laver, a dazzling shotmaker who would win two Grand Slams over the course of that decade. Never before had two left-handers clashed in a title round meeting on those hallowed grounds. Fraser, who reached match point at the start of that season before losing a classic Australian Championships final with Laver in five sets, overcame his gifted countryman and rival by playing a better brand of sustained percentage tennis when they dueled again in Great Britain, succeeding 6-4, 3-6, 9-7, 7-5. In many ways, it was his finest hour in a storied career.

But Fraser was somewhat fortunate to even be in the final. Confronting Buchholz in the quarter-finals, Fraser saved five match points and barely survived. Buchholz retired with cramps when Fraser trailed two sets to one and the game score was locked at 15-15 in the fourth set. Thus Fraser established himself as one of only nine men in Wimbledon history to take the singles title after being down at least one match point during the course of the tournament. He returned to Forest Hills later in that summer of 1960 and retained his title commandingly, coming through without losing a set in seven matches, moving past Laver with sweeping efficiency 6-4, 6-4, 9-7 in the final.

That was a defining moment for Fraser, who was inducted at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984. It was arguably the best tennis he ever played on an auspicious occasion. He retired in 1963 but remained in the forefront of tennis for decades to come. Always a cagey student of the game and an outstanding teacher as well, he took over from Hopman as Davis Cup captain in 1970 and remained in that post for 23 years. Four times in that span, the Australians were victorious, taking the coveted Cup in 1973, 1977, 1983 and 1986. Fraser provided valuable council to Laver and John Newcombe in the first of those triumphs and advised Pat Cash in the latter. His 1983 squad was strikingly inexperienced, but Fraser brought out the best in his contingent. Never was there a generation gap when Neale Fraser was interacting with those players. He commanded respect as a strict disciplinarian who proved his equanimity and empathy with a wide range of players.

Fraser is survived by his wife Thea, brother John, children, grandchildren and many family members.

Story reproduced with permission from International Tennis Hall of Fame.

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