Wilberforce Eaves

Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves MBE (10 December 1867 – 10 February 1920) was an Australian-born tennis player from the United Kingdom.[2] At the 1908 London Olympics he won a bronze medal in the Men's Singles tournament.[3]

Wilberforce Eaves
MBE
Full nameWilberforce Vaughan Eaves
Country (sports)Great Britain
Born(1867-12-10)10 December 1867
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Died10 February 1920(1920-02-10) (aged 52)
London, England
PlaysRight-handed (one-handed backhand)
Singles
Career record341–96 (78.3%)[1]
Career titles39[1]
Grand Slam singles results
WimbledonF (1895AC, 1896AC, 1897AC)
US OpenF (1897Ch)
Medal record
Representing  United Kingdom
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1908 London Singles

Biography

Eaves was born in Melbourne, Australia, son of William and Eunice Eaves of St Kilda, Victoria.[4]

He reached the Men's Singles All-Comers' final at the Wimbledon Championships in 1895 and lost against Wilfred Baddeley despite having had a match point in the third set. In 1897 he became the first non-American to reach the final in the U.S. National Singles Championships. He lost the final in five sets to American Robert Wrenn.[5] He was particularly successful on clay courts at the Dinard International tournament in Brittany, France organized by the Dinard Lawn Tennis Club where he won that title ten times between (1894-1896) and (1902-1909).[6][7]

Eaves won the Welsh Championships in 1895 and the Irish Championships in 1897, defeating Wilfred Baddeley in a five-set final. He became the Scottish singles champion in 1901 and won the British Covered Court Championships, played on wooden courts at Queen's Club in London three consecutive times from 1897 until 1899.[8] He won against seven-time tournament champion Ernest Lewis and Wimbledon champions Laurence Doherty and Harold Mahony in the respective finals.

Qualified as a doctor of medicine, he served as a civil surgeon in the Boer War, and took a temporary commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps in the first week of World War I, on 10 August 1914, being promoted to Captain after a year's service.[9] He was later awarded a MBE for his services and died in London, where he is buried in Greenwich Cemetery.[4]

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 runner-up)
Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss1897U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Robert Wrenn6–4, 6–8, 3–6, 6–2, 2–6

See also

References
  1. "Wilberforce Eaves: Career match record". thetennisbase.com. Tennis Base. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  2. "Wilberforce Eaves". Olympedia. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  3. "Wilberforce Eaves Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  4. Captain Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves CWGC casualty record.
  5. Collins, Bud (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis (2nd ed.). [New York]: New Chapter Press. pp. 415, 455, 688. ISBN 978-0942257700.
  6. Baily's Magazine of Sports & Pastimes. London: Baily bros. 1920. p. 139.
  7. Nieuwland, Alex. "Tournament – Dinard". www.tennisarchives.com. Tennis Archives. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  8. "Obituary". British Medical Journal. 1 (3086): 276. 21 February 1920. PMC 2337269.
  9. "Commemorative Roll - Wilberforce Vaughan Eaves". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
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