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Gordon Forbes

South African tennis player and author (1934–2020)

Summary

South African tennis player and author (1934–2020)

Field	Value
name	Gordon Forbes
country	RSA South Africa
birth_date
birth_place	Burgersdorp, Cape Province, South Africa
death_date
death_place	Plettenberg Bay, Cape Province, South Africa
plays	Right-handed
tennishofyear
tennishofid
singlesrecord	342-217 (72%)
singlestitles	16
AustralianOpenresult	1R (1971)
FrenchOpenresult	3R (1955, 1956, 1957, 1959)
Wimbledonresult	4R (1956)
USOpenresult	QF (1962)
Othertournaments
grandslamsdoublesresults
AustralianOpenDoublesresult	2R (1962)
FrenchOpenDoublesresult	F (1963)
WimbledonDoublesresult	SF (1963)
Mixed
FrenchOpenMixedresult	W (1955)
WimbledonMixedresult	QF (1962)
Team	yes
DavisCupresult	SFEu (1962, 1963)

**Gordon Forbes ** (21 February 1934 – 9 December 2020) was a South African professional tennis player and author. Forbes won the singles title of the South African Championships in 1959 and 1961 and was runner-up in 1955, 1962, 1963 and 1964. He won the Tuscaloosa Grass Court Invitational in 1962, defeating Rod Laver in the final. During the 1950s and 1960s, he was the doubles partner of countryman Abe Segal. They were considered one of the best doubles teams in the world.

Career

Forbes learnt to play tennis in his childhood on the family farm. At age 12, he played and won his first junior tournament in East London.

Forbes won the singles title of the South African Championships in 1959 and 1961 and was runner-up in 1955, 1962, 1963 and 1964. He won the Tuscaloosa Grass Court Invitational in 1962, defeating reigning U.S. No. 1 Whitney Reed in a marathon semifinal, and World No. 1 Rod Laver in a close four set final. He played for the South African Davis Cup team in 14 ties in the period 1955 to 1963 and compiled a record of 20 wins and 11 losses.

Later life

After retiring from tennis, Forbes wrote three books about his experiences as a player, his contemporaries in the sport and other tennis topics. He died from COVID-19 on 9 December 2020, at age 86, during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1963	French Championships	Clay	RSA Abe Segal	AUS Roy Emerson
ESP Manuel Santana	2–6, 4–6, 4–6

Mixed doubles (1 title)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1955	French Championships	Clay	USA Darlene Hard	AUS Jenny Staley
CHI Luis Ayala	5–7, 6–1, 6–2

Bibliography

References

Plimpton, George. (1992). "The Norton Book of Sports". W. W. Norton & Company.
Forbes, Gordon. (1997). "A Handful of Summers". HarperCollins.
Allen, Brook. (8 June 1997). "Sports Books in Brief". The New York Times.
Brent Shearer. (6 September 2011). "New York Tennis Magazine's Literary Corner: A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes". New York Tennis Magazine.
David Southey. (7 November 2017). "SA's raconteur racquet man aces another memoir". Business Day.
"Tennis legend and author Gordon Forbes passes away aged 86".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

south-african-male-tennis-players french-championships-(tennis)-champions tennis-players-from-cape-town 1934-births 2020-deaths grand-slam-(tennis)-champions-in-mixed-doubles tennis-writers white-south-african-people deaths-from-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-south-africa people-from-burgersdorp 20th-century-south-african-sportsmen tennis-players-from-the-eastern-cape

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