Bunny Austin

Bunny Austin
Bunny Austin with his wife Phyllis Konstam in 1936
Full name Henry Wilfred Austin
Country (sports)  Great Britain
Born (1906-08-20)20 August 1906
London, England
Died 20 August 2000(2000-08-20) (aged 94)
Coulsdon, London, England
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro 1926 (amateur tour)
Retired 1939
Plays Right-handed (1-handed backhand)[1]
Int. Tennis HoF 1997 (member page)
Singles
Career record 455-108 (80.8%) [2]
Career titles 30 [3]
Highest ranking No. 2 (1931, A. Wallis Myers)[4]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open QF (1929)
French Open F (1937)
Wimbledon F (1932, 1938)
US Open QF (1929)
Doubles
Grand Slam Doubles results
Wimbledon SF (1926)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
French Open F (1931)
Wimbledon F (1934)
US Open F (1929)

Henry Wilfred "Bunny" Austin (20 August 1906 – 20 August 2000) was a British tennis player from England. For 74 years, he was the last Briton to reach the final of the gentlemen's singles at Wimbledon, until Andy Murray did so in 2012. He was also a finalist at the 1937 French Championships and a championship winner at Queen's Club. Along with Fred Perry, he was a vital part of the British team that won the Davis Cup in three consecutive years (1933–35). He is also remembered as the first tennis player to wear shorts.[1]

Austin was brought up in South Norwood, London. The nickname "Bunny" came from a comic strip Pip, Squeak and Wilfred (Wilfred was a rabbit or bunny). Encouraged by his father, who was determined that he become a sportsman, he joined Norhurst Tennis Club aged six.

Tennis career

Austin was educated at Repton School,[5] and studied history at Pembroke College, Cambridge.[6]

While still an undergraduate at Cambridge University, he reached the semi-finals of the men's doubles at Wimbledon in 1926.[1] In 1931, A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph ranked Austin as the World No. 2.[4][7] In his first Wimbledon men's singles final in 1932, he was beaten by Ellsworth Vines of the United States in three sets.

In 1932, he decided that the traditional tennis attire, cricket flannels, weighed him down too much. He bought a pair of shorts to use at Forest Hills and subsequently became the first player to wear them at Wimbledon.[8]

Austin reached the quarter finals or better at Wimbledon 10 times. At Wimbledon 1932 Austin beat Frank Shields and Jiro Satoh before losing the final in straight sets to Ellsworth Vines.[9] At the French championships in 1937, Austin beat Yvon Petra before losing to Henner Henkel in the final.[10] At Wimbledon 1938 Austin beat Henkel but won just four games in the final against Don Budge, who was at the peak of his form and went on to win the Grand Slam. He would be the last British man to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament until Andy Murray in 2012. At Wimbledon 1939 Austin was top seed, but lost early. It was his last appearance at Wimbledon.

In the years 1933-6, he and Fred Perry helped win the Davis Cup for Britain.

Austin also pioneered the design of the modern tennis racquet by inventing the 'Streamline' – a racquet with a shaft that splits into three segments – allowing for aerodynamic movement.[11] The design was manufactured by Hazells and at the time was mocked in the press for looking like a snow shoe. After Austin's retirement, the design was virtually forgotten until the reintroduction of the split shaft in the late 1960s.

Personal

He married actress Phyllis Konstam in 1931, after meeting her on a transatlantic liner while travelling for the US Open, and together they were one of the celebrity couples of the age.[1] Austin played tennis with Charlie Chaplin, was a friend of Daphne du Maurier, Ronald Colman, and Harold Lloyd, and met both Queen Mary and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Austin and his wife worked for the cause of the Oxford Group and Moral Re-Armament.[12] According to Austin's friend Peter Ustinov, Austin was "disgracefully ostracised by the All-England Club because he was a conscientious objector". In fact, he served as a private in the US Army Air Force, 1943–45. A voting member of the Membership Committee of the All-England Club had been removed from the Cambridge tennis team during Austin's captaincy, and used the excuse of Austin's alleged proselytism for the Oxford Group as an excuse for denying him reinstatement in the All-England Club after a lapse of dues payment. His membership of the club was restored in 1984, the year the obstructing member died.

Only during Austin's tenure in the Air Force did he discover that he suffered from Gilbert's syndrome, which explained his occasional and sudden fatigue on the court.[13]

Austin's autobiography, written with his wife, A Mixed Double, was published in 1969.

After a serious fall in 1995, Austin moved to a nursing home at Coulsdon, London. He died in 2000 on his 94th birthday. Just a few months earlier, he had joined other past Wimbledon champions and finalists on Wimbledon's Centre Court for a millennium-year parade of champions.[14][15]

Austin was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1997. A biographical novel was published about Austin in October 2012, by Gregory Wilkin, entitled The Rabbit's Suffering Changes: Based on the True Story of Bunny Austin, the Last British Man—Until Murray—to Play in the Finals of Wimbledon.

His sister Joan Austin was also a tennis player.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (3 runners-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up1932Wimbledon ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Ellsworth Vines4–6, 2–6, 0–6
Runner-up1937French ChampionshipsClayGermany Henner Henkel1–6, 4–6, 3–6
Runner-up1938Wimbledon ChampionshipsGrassUnited States Don Budge1–6, 0–6, 3–6

Mixed doubles (3 runners-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up1929U.S. ChampionshipsGrassUnited Kingdom Phyllis CovellUnited Kingdom Betty Nuthall
United States George Lott		3–6, 3–6
Runner-up1931French ChampionshipsClayUnited Kingdom Dorothy Shepherd-BarronUnited Kingdom Betty Nuthall
South Africa Patrick Spence		3–6, 7–5, 3–6
Runner-up1934WimbledonGrassUnited Kingdom Dorothy Shepherd-BarronUnited Kingdom Dorothy Round
Japan Tatsuyoshi Miki		6–3, 4–6, 0–6

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Peter Jackson (6 July 2012). "Andy Murray v Bunny Austin: Can Scot emulate 30s British great?". BBC News. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  2. ↑ "Bunny Austin: Career match record". thetennisbase.com. Tennis Base. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  3. ↑ "Bunny Austin: Career match record". thetennisbase.com. Tennis Base. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First Edition), p. 424.
  5. ↑ Repton school website, last accessed on 24 January 2017
  6. ↑ Pembroke College, Cambridge, Staff Handbook, 2 October 2014, 34 pages, History of the College, p.5 .
  7. ↑ Gregory Wilkin, "Catching Up With the Rabbit," in Tennis, July 1996, p. 69
  8. ↑ Litsky, Bob (28 August 2000). "Bunny Austin, 94, a Pioneer in Tennis Shorts" (in Spanish). The New York Times. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  9. ↑ "Wimbledon 1932". www.tennis.co.nf.
  10. ↑ "French Open 1937". www.tennis.co.nf.
  11. ↑ "Henry William "Bunny" Austin (UK) (1906–2000)". Archived from the original on 23 May 2016. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  12. ↑ Garth Lean, Frank Buchman - a life, Constable 1985, p.278.
  13. ↑ Austin, H.W.; Konstam, Phyllis (1969). A Mixed Double, p. 134. London: Chatto and Windus.
  14. ↑ "Bunny Austin dies aged 94", article by Derrick Whyte, The Independent, 28 August 2000
  15. ↑ "Bunny Austin, 94, a Pioneer in Tennis Shorts", obituary by Frank Litsky, The New York Times, 28 August 2000
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