Wayne Reid

Reid, a right-handed player,[3] played his whole career as an amateur. Reid's most notable display as a player came when he defeated tennis legend Rod Laver at the South Australian Open in 1960.[4] Reid played in the Australian Open five times, in 1958, 1959, 1961, 1965 and 1967; his best performance was reaching the third round in 1961, when he was seeded ninth.[1] That year he also entered the doubles with Christian Kuhnke; they reached the semi-finals before being defeated by the eventual champions, Laver and Bob Mark.[5] He travelled overseas only twice in his playing career,[4] both times to play at Wimbledon. He reached the second round in both 1958 and 1962, losing to the eventual runner-up, Martin Mulligan, in the latter.[1] While he was in Europe in 1958 to play at Wimbledon he also played in Spain, at the Torneo Godó, where he was knocked out in the third round by the eventual champion, Sven Davidson.[1] Reid retired from championship tennis shortly after his 22nd birthday in order to focus on his business interests.[4] He did, however, play in two more Australian Opens after his retirement.

Reid became president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA) in 1969,[6] at the age of just 31. Because of his youth, Reid was able to bridge the generational gap between the officials and the players, which was considered especially important at the time, as 1969 was the first year of Open tennis.[4] He successfully negotiated the transition from amateur to professional tennis and has been praised for his forward and progressive thinking, an example of which was the introduction of sponsorship to Australian tennis.[4] His tenure as president is considered to be successful; he founded the Australian Davis Cup Tennis Foundation and the Asian Tennis Circuit, of which he was the inaugural chairman, and left the LTAA $367,000 better off than when he took on the presidency.[4] Reid resigned as president in 1977.[6]