Ashley Cooper

Ashley John Cooper was a male Australian tennis player who became World No. 1 in the latter part of the 1950s. He was born in September 15, 1936 in Melbourne, Australia.

In 1957, he won the Australian Championships against Neale Fraser. He reached the finals in the Wimbledon and the U.S. Championships in the same year but lost to Lew Hoad and Malcolm Anderson, respectively. He was also a semifinalist that year in the French Championships.

The right-handed Cooper performed better a year later in 1858, where he not only defended his title in the Australian Championships against Malcolm Anderson but also won the singles at the Wimbledon and U.S. Championships against Neale Fraser and Malcolm Anderson, respectively. He belongs to the nine elite male tennis players who were able to win three out of four Grand Slam titles in the same year (as of 1997). In that same year, he could have won the French Championships but lost to Luis Ayala in a close fight.

Cooper also participated in the Davis Cup, which the Australian team won in 1956 and 1957 and was a finalist in 1958. He was always included in the World Top Ten tennis players from 1956-1958 and was World No. 1 in the last two years. In 1959, he turned professional.

When he retired from playing tennis, Cooper served as an administrator for the development of tennis players in Tennis Queensland for 40 years. He had also been a member of the Board of Directors for Tennis Australian.

He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991 and in 2007, he was appointed in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his years of dedication and service to Australian tennis.