December 13, 2024 • 34 mins
Australian tennis has lost one of its most celebrated champions, Neale Fraser. Known for his unmatched left-handed serve, unwavering sportsmanship, and remarkable achievements on and off the court, 'Frase' left an indelible mark on the sport. A dominant force in the 1950s and early 1960s, he won 19 Grand Slam titles—including the US triple crown twice—captained Australia's Davis Cup team to four historic victories, and remained a steadfast ambassador for tennis throughout the latter years of his life. Four of his protégés John Fitzgerald, John Newcombe, Darren Cahill and Todd Woodbridge reflect on Fraser's influence on their lives and on the sport.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I had served the country well. I left with no stories,
no agro, no arguments. I just quietly disappeared. I could
have written a book, but I would have had to
tell the truth and I would have upset a lot
of people. Who was best that I walked away from
the game, having had a wonderful twenty four years as
(00:23):
captain of the Davis, captain them nine years as a player.
I'm still looked upon as a father figured a lot
of players, and good friends with all of them.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And I'm very happy with life.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hello everyone, John Fitzgerald here, Welcome to this bonus episode
of the AO Show. Recently Australian tennis lost one of
its most celebrated champions, Neil Fraser. Known for his unmatched
left handed serve, unwavering sportsmanship and remarkable achievements on and
off the court, Frase left an indelible mark on the sport.
(01:11):
A dominant force in the nineteen fifties and early sixties,
he won nineteen Grand Slam titles, three men's singles, eleven
men's doubles and five mixed doubles championships. In nineteen fifty nine,
he went to the US Championships, as it was known
then prior to being named the US Open, he won
the singles, doubles and mixed and in nineteen sixty he
(01:32):
went back and repeated the feat. He won four titles
as a Davis Cup player under the great Harry Hopman,
and then he went on to captain the Australian Davis
Cup team for an unprecedented twenty four years. He took
his team to four historic victories and for the rest
(01:52):
of his life remained a steadfast ambassador for tennis.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
He just loved this sport.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I'm here with my friends John Ywkeom, Darren Cahill and
Todd Woodbridge to remember our great mate.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Welcome, gentlemen. I would love to start with.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Nuke for anything you have in your memory bank about
the great Neil Fraser if you see.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Well, Unlike Todd and Darren and yourself, I got a
chance to play against Neil and that was a great
thrill because as a young teenager growing up he was
one of my heroes with along with Rod Laver and
Roy Emerson, we had these guys that were number one
in the world. So when I got to travel overseas
(02:39):
for the first time, I was playing doubles with Ken
Fletcher from Queensland, and we're doing pretty well. I just
turned seventeen and we got to the semi final of
the Wimbledon doubles and I had to play Fraser and
Roy Emerson and I heard a lot about Fraser serve
and how great it was. First point of the match
(03:01):
he served to me and it was a fault. The
second server sorry, he served a second serve to my
forehand and I thought, oh you beauty, I'll take care
of this. I came in and swung at air, it
moved around.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I'd never seen a.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Left handed serve that could kick that far out away
from you, so I had to be wary of that
for the rest of the match.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
But that was great.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
And then of course we went on and Neil became
Davis Cup captain and we played underneath him in nineteen
seventy three because we hadn't been allowed to play Davis
Cup for five years from sixty eight through to seventy three,
(03:45):
and then seventy three asked me if i'd come back
and play because we were allowed to play again, and
I said, yeah, count me in for the whole year.
So I pulled out of the regular tournaments and played
and so we had a terrific time. We've played in Japan,
and then we played in India, and then we played
Czechoslovakia at home and we won all of those and
(04:07):
then we went to the States and that was our ambition.
And by now Rod Laver and Ken Rosewell had joined
the team along with Melanis and myself, and our ambition
was to destroy the United States because we're pretty hacked
off that we hadn't been allowed to play for five
(04:29):
years and they'd been dominating for five years. So we
went to Cleveland and we beat them five zip, which
was pretty exciting.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Now you've heard me say this before Nuke, but that
particular tie, it was the first time Davis Cup had
been telecast live by satellite back to Australia.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
It was live.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I grew up in a little town on the west
coast of South Australia called Cocolechi. We had a brand
new black and white TV set because we took a
few years to get them over there. And that particular
tie against the US and seventy three was what inspired
me to I.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Play Davis Cup. I watched every ball.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I can almost remember what happened in each match, Frase
took over the captaincy in nineteen seventy. Three years later
he won it for the first time. So that was
a monumental time I think for Australian tennis to win
the Davis Cup again.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, we did.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
You stay up the whole time listed I was allowed
to because my.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
First match was five sets of Bert Smith, and then
Rod played against Tom Gorman and he came from two
sister one down to win in five sets. I think
there was about eight and a half hours of tennis,
and then we had the doubles the next day and
Frase came around to everybody and asked them what they
(05:41):
thought individually, and I said, well, phrase, I think you
should play Rod and myself because Kennon and Rod were
a great pair, but neither of them had a big serve.
And I said, I've only played two tournaments with Rod
ever lost. Anyway, we had to play Smith and Van
(06:03):
Dillon and I think they got five games since resets.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I'm not sure you had to be that honest, but
I think it was.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
I told you we wanted to destroy them.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
That was true.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
All four of us played under Neil Fraser Killer. Tell
us about your memories playing under him.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
What about some of the names, and Nuke just rattled
off exactly, just some legends, and Prase was the legend
of legends in my eyes. And I have a couple
of stories about him. I'll tell the stories later. But
for me, Frase was a leader of Australian tennis and
he was an icon, a great player, great captain, a mentor,
(06:45):
a friend, a great coach. Know that he was a
great technical coach, but you don't have to be. You
just have to find ways to inspire your players and
to get the best out of them. And he saw
the game incredibly well. But the big thing for me
was that it didn't matter you're a great doubles player.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Todd.
Speaker 6 (07:01):
We were similar in singles, FITZI, you and I are
bit the same. It didn't matter how good or bad
you were. He took an interest and it showed the
path is what it meant to be a Davis Cup
player and how you would get there and how hard
you had to work. And he told you about the
stories of the former greats and you got inspired by those.
So for me becoming friends with Frase, firstly, I had
(07:24):
two fathers in tennis. One was Bob Carmichael. The other
was Neil Fraser. So for me, I'm pretty sure I
would never have been the player I became to be,
which was an average player compared to the legends of
the game. But I got the best out of my career,
and I certainly wouldn't be the coach I am today
without people like Neil Fraser. So for me, he played
a monumental part in my career.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I think it's interesting to hear that the great
John you come sitting here, Haddi Mesi's hero when he
was sixteen.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Or many years of age, thirteen years of age.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, the other three of us here, he was also
our hero, I think, yeah, and then he became a
mentor and a friend.
Speaker 7 (07:58):
I come here as the youngest in the group, and
I mean for me, watching all of the things that
you were talking about nuke and then coming into the
eighties with Davis cup successes and him sitting in the
leather couch at Kuyon, he was quite an intimidating figure
for somebody like me coming along, because you got to remember,
in those days we only saw a little bit on television.
You read articles, and you had a magazine that you
(08:20):
would look out to find all the stuff about tennis
and books. So it's far more accessible now to feel
like you know somebody, and it takes a while. And
he was very interesting in that he would watch you
and you weren't sure what he was thinking about you,
and you're trying to impress. And I think at the
end of it all, what I learned from him was
his expectation about discipline and about working hard and discipline,
(08:45):
and that was the first things you got to see
when you're a young player and you got around him.
That I remember vividly was that you know, you turn up,
you work hard, and then you do it again tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
It's well said.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I think for all of us he was inspiration
that one. We all played underneath him knew What were
your favorite memories.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
I think one of the best, the best awful times
we had was playing in India, Yeah, because we had
a terrorist threat against us and we were living in
this hotel for ten days as we're training, and we
(09:24):
had a big suite and when we had to, you know,
just stay in the suite and played played charades or
whatever whatever game we played all night. And and how
how it happened was that we'd only been there two
days and Frase called us into his room and said
(09:48):
he's just or. He introduced this guy who was a big,
tall guy, looked like Sydney Portier, and he said, this
is Colonel so and so from the Indian Security Forces
and he has something.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
To tell you.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
And the guy said, well, there's been a report from
Edtopol that there's a threat against the Australian Davis Cup
team and you all have to make a decision whether
you stay and play or they arrange it to play
at a neutral tie somewhere. But I can guarantee you
(10:22):
that if a bullet comes or a knife comes for you,
I will be.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
There to protect you.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Did you believe him?
Speaker 5 (10:31):
No, So we had a decision to make and we
all decided that we'd stay.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
But it was.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Pretty hairy because it was about one hundred and twenty
humidity at one hundred and twenty temperature, and you knew
if a bullet hit you, they weren't going to stop
the bleeding real quickly. So Bob, Bob Gildon, who was
in the squad, he had a mustash like mine, and
I went around everywhere calling him nuke.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Nice guy, get killer, you, and I had something similar
in common with you.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
We went to Peru.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
We went to Peru and the Shining Path was on
the path.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Yeah, we had the armed gunman standing up in the
stadium protecting us from from an invasion. So we got
through that one. Hey, you're from New South Wales, right, Nuke. Yeah,
Phrase had his favorites. Phrase absolutely had his favorites, and
his favorites were Victorians. He bloody loved Victorians.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Cash how Victorians do that exactly?
Speaker 6 (11:35):
Cashi was his love childs And my story is a
little bit around Cashi, and he deservedly so because Cashi
single handedly in eighty six won the Davis Cup and
part of the team in eighty three. But my story
dates back. And also, you've got to work hard if
you're not in the family of Neil Phrases. So I'm
from Adelaide and I was just a pain in the
ass to Phrase to try to get into that family.
FITZI here is a little smarter than me. The guy
(11:57):
from cocker Leachi is a long way from Melbourne. He
goes and marries a Victorian lady and he moves to Victoria.
Of course does he moved Nuke? He moves about one
killer meter from where Neil Fraser.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Of course I wanted to play Davis Caup.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Then Golden reached over here in Golden Balls here. Yes,
from Sydney, also marries a Victorian. Yeah, moves to Victoria.
How far away from the Columba do you live?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Columba?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
The other diction. These are the love children of Neil Fraser.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
So for somebody like myself from Adelaide to be in
the family, so I was a pain in the backside.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
It's a phrase.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
And eventually I was Orange Boy in eighty six and
I saw the way these guys practiced and played, and
Phrase had this thing about he wouldn't pick the bloody team.
He made you play for your spot, so you turned
up early and the matches are really competitive and you
probably have.
Speaker 7 (12:44):
Made everybody feel like they had a chance even when
they did it. So my story goes to eighty I remember.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
In an eighty eight Cashi just made the Australian Open
final and was playing amazingly well. And I've been around
Frase and heard all these great stories about these practice matches.
But anyway, this particular day he finishes on Sunday in
the final, he jumps on a plane Monday. He gets
to Mexico City on Tuesday night. Practice Wednesday, Thursday, we
throw Cashi out to play on Friday. On Thursday, the
(13:12):
day right before the tie, Phrase walks up to me
and he says to me, here goes Killer, can you
go and play? Cashi is set and can you bloody
keep a couple of balls in and give him a
bit of rhythm. I didn't understand him to say that.
I thought he said to me in my mind, Killer,
this is your chance, this is your chance to.
Speaker 8 (13:27):
Play Davis Cup for Australia.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
Give me everything you got, Son, because I'll be watching
and I want to play you in the next upcoming
tires to show me what you're worth.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
So that's the way I approached You read it that way.
I read it that way.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
He didn't see it that way.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
No, but this is a Davis Cup practice match, and
I was used to watching you play Cashi and McNamee
and Edmondson and all these guys. So I've walked out.
I never stretched. I stretched before my practice match with Cashi.
I went on to the court run a back court phraser,
standing about two courts away. Barker's Ian Barclay, who's the
longtime coach of Cashi's standing behind Cashi, and we start
up playing this practice set and I'm pumped and I
(14:02):
get off to a good start, and cash he doesn't
like playing me anyway because I've got a bullshit kind
of game and he hates it. Where you had the
world's best word, serve exactly, so he never he never
got a hold of it. So anyway, I'm up to
one a break and Barker's has this thing where he
normally comes around. I love Barker's and he would come
around whenever I'm hitting with cash He'd say, hey, Killer,
can you slide a couple of balls into a fourhands
so he can work on his foehand return or maybe
(14:24):
a little more slice there. So what he's trying to
get Cash into a good place. So Barker's comes around, he.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
Goes killer, Killer, Killer, He's up, He's up.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
And I thought for a second I went piss off Barker's.
He rare around to the back of the court, back
to Cashy's side. So anyway, now I'm a five to
two double break, and I see Frays waddling over towards me,
and I reckon. I'm thinking he's coming over killer. You're
playing unbelievably. Well, keep it up, son, this is good stuff.
(14:54):
He walks over and he whispers in my ear power.
If you win this practice set, you're on the first
flight home.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
That was typical.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Pick the team before you got over that Cashi.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Had just lost to Wilando in the five set. Finally,
the Australian opened three days before, and for some reason
it just didn't register in my head.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
I had no chance.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
That is a great I used to think that way too. Yeah,
there you go. Yeah, but we all so.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Mine has Cashi in it as well, because I got
in as the first Orange boy in Sydney. And whatever
year it was it was in must have been late eighties,
because I played in ninety or ninety one. Anyways, I
get in and I've recently got my license. I'm a
Pea player, I've got the car. I live in Sydney.
I'm staying at home, but all you guys are in
the hotel. My job, young Todd, is to be at
(15:42):
the hotel, get instructions from Phrase that I need to
pick Cashy up and drop him out to Marrickville. Because
it had been raining a lot in Sydney and Marrickfield
had grass courts and they were going out there because
they were playable. Right, what time ten o'clock in the lobby.
Be there, you're picking him up. He'll be down. You
drive him out. We get ready. He was on the
second session. Okay, good face, Yeah, I'm there. Caught it
(16:03):
to ten ten o'clock. No cashi ten passed. I said,
well he must have gone, oh you left. So I
get in the car because I've got to get to practice, right.
So I drive all the way out to Marrith. It
was about thirty five minutes from the city. And I
get there and he goes, where's Cashier said?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Where is he?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I thought he'd be here. I told you you had
to get cashy so I know he's always back in
the city and pick him up. He sends your back.
I sent me back.
Speaker 7 (16:29):
I did then go in.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
He drive a lot of traffic, and so I.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Was already in the books because I hadn't done it.
But he didn't tell me cash he was going to
be thirty minutes late.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
All the time.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
I didn't know.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
But that was my first sort of got I got,
you know, the cane.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
From everybody gets it.
Speaker 7 (16:45):
But at some point again it was Cashi's fault, really,
but he knew how to manage a group of eclectic
people because all of the.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
You guys in eighty six, well eighty three, we had
Paul mcnam Marketminston, myself and Cashi, a young in Cash
who was eighteen years A.
Speaker 6 (17:01):
Couple of orange boys.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
I think Wally was there as an Orange.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
But the four guys in that team were from different planets.
All we were born in different solar systems. So we're
all friends, all good, everything's good, But boy were we different.
Phrase had this ability to bring eclectic people together in
my mind, and that's a good word, by the way, Yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
How do you spell?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I've got time. We've got to wrap in a tick here.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
I've just got one other memory of Phrase and you'll
all remember this fish.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Finished, Okay. He bring those people. That was his strength.
He could bring people together who were very different and
play for that common cause and have success.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
My final thought of him is his absolute love of
the game and tennis and anybody in Australia who looked
like they had the potential to be a good player.
They didn't have to be a great great player or
the champion of champions. He wanted that. But you'll all
remember at Wimbledon he used to go and get the
daily order of play and he'd find all of these
little corners of around stands and things, and he'd stand
there to watch all the Australians play on the outside
(18:02):
courts and he'd have all the scores and he'd know
every single thing. And I was fortunate enough to see
him about six weeks ago before he passed away, and
he still knew every single thing about every young Australian
player that was coming along, which tells you about his
passion for the game.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, he cared for us and for a period of
time at the Australian Open, he would invite a group
of us around to his house at Bolton Avenue in
Brighton to have a barbecue. And so you know, knowing
Killer Cahill and Wally Mussur and Pat Cash and myself
sometimes Cash you'd turn up. It would always be late,
but the three of us were always there and to
(18:36):
get a free feed. You know, sure we'll come around
phrase we'd get there, but there was a penalty we
had to pay. Every year he brought out the Black
and white vision of him beating Rod Laver in the
file of New Company. That was my In the file
of wood, it was nearly named after you, Nick. In
the file of women, he beat Rod Lavery in nineteen
sixty and he made us sit through that every year
(18:57):
and we said, phrase, we've already seen this, and he says,
I know, oh, well, this is where I get a
fourhand just EDGs that one up the line on match point.
But that was the beauty of lucky and that's why
for us he was a legend. He was a mentor,
particularly I think for the younger guys, and he became
our friend. He was our friend and he wanted us
(19:17):
to do well. You know, my record wasn't great, but
I happened to win women in doubles one year and
guess who was in the stand who'd come in And
I'll never forget his face after winning their women in
doubles till I saw him. The joy he had on
his face will stay with me forever.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
That's what he was like.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
So I think all the older generation Australians were like that.
Roy Emerson, New Roachey, fiery, you can go through everyone,
didn't matter where in the world. We were, they would
take the time to come onto the court to give
us advice, to give us some tips, to put their
arms around us. I remember in gads Stard, I was
there by myself the only Australian playing in eighty eight.
Buddy Roy Emerson came out watched every one of my matches.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
So how good is that?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yep?
Speaker 6 (19:57):
And that's what phrase, That's what he n initiated, that's
what he taught, that's what he led. And I feel
like the culture of Australian tennis back in those years
was largely due to the way that Frase handled his
David's cupboards.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, and that's the modern lesson I think we can learn.
The modern players can learn from the way he approached
exactly and how he actually genuinely loved the sport. He
wanted it not just to survive, he wanted it to flourish,
particularly on it from an Australian standpoint. So I think
he will forever be remembered by all of us as
(20:30):
one of the greats. If he's not the pre eminent
Australian tennis personality, there's got to be someone good to
beat him.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
We've had a few over the years but he.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Is certainly there with the greats that this game and
our country has ever ever produced.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
So I want to thank you three. It's been a
it's been a delight well done.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Fishy, thanking you can, Killer and Teddy for sharing all
of your reflections on Neil.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
He'll be forever remembered. We know that. Now. Let's hear
a little bit from Frase himself.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
From an inner he recorded in twenty nineteen with John
Huvenas from the Backstory podcast. This is a Movie and
a Sleeping Pill. Neil Fraser and the Story of the
nineteen to fifty nine Davis Cup.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
When you think of great sporting moments, you probably don't
think of movies and sleeping pills. But that's exactly the
recipe that led to one of Australia's greatest Davis Cup
moments some sixty years ago. While the achievement itself has
been well documented, some of the details have never been
revealed until now. This is the backstory. The year was
(21:45):
nineteen fifty nine and Australian tennis had suffered a setback.
Speaker 9 (21:52):
Raw thing right Janet the last Angelo There Bye alex
Olmno the twenty two year old perrobiums sakanold play member
of the US team upside Australia and the Davas Cup matches.
Members of the team display the famous trophy, which the
offices have held since nineteen fifty four.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
We had lost in fifty eight. We were very disappointed.
Speaker 8 (22:14):
This is Neil Fraser, who was twenty five years old
in nineteen fifty nine and part of one of the
fiercest rivalries in tennis history.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Australian Americans were sort of a routine match. In other words,
there were the two best tennis nations at the time.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
Nowadays Australia and America have a much more storied rivalry,
but what was the climate between the countries at this moment.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
We played most of the Datas Cup finals. This one
was no different, so we were very anxious to get
the Datas Cup back.
Speaker 8 (22:45):
Between nineteen thirty eight and nineteen fifty nine, Australia and
the USA were the only two teams who met in
the Davis Cup Challenge round the final that sixteen consecutive years,
with time off for World War Two, where no other
country even got a look in.
Speaker 9 (23:00):
The Davis Cup, symbol of world supremacy and Man's amateur
tennis is on the line.
Speaker 10 (23:04):
Davis Cup final between Australia and America reaches its climax.
Speaker 9 (23:07):
The US is defending against Australia. The Cup's been out
of Australia since the Americans took it in the last
challenge round, but now it's back again.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
America retained the.
Speaker 8 (23:16):
Davis Cup, but after losing in fifty eight, the Aussies
had some work to do before they could challenge the
Americans to a rematch, and legendary captain Harry Hopman trusted
Fraser to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Well.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I was the oldest member of the team and I
think I was considered by help, not that he ever
told me that. I think I was his number one
man at the time, and I think well he placed
a lot of emphasis on me being the sort of
leader of the team.
Speaker 8 (23:47):
A team that included Roy Emerson who played doubles with Fraser,
and very young Rod Laver.
Speaker 11 (23:53):
That was when I was first getting started into the
Davis Cup. I think Harry Hopman put myself thin of
the singles, which I maybe I thought it was a
little surprised, but I guess he was thinking that he
needed myself to get the experience.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
The Australian team had to play five other countries and
earn the right to challenge the USA for the Cup.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
America was the holder of the Cup and they had
the right to have a buy all the way through
the competition, and they other countries had to play off
in various zones and the only time that American zone
was available to play matches was between July August September
and so between Wimbledon and the American Championships, a period
(24:38):
of about seven or eight weeks. We played six Davis
Cup matches during this time.
Speaker 8 (24:43):
First stop Mexico City, and.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Mexico City is most people know. It was about six
or seven thousand feet above sea level, very hard to
control the ball. A normal shot that you would hit
at Wimbledon would bounce on the service lie was bouncing
on the baseline and so it took a while to
get used to.
Speaker 8 (25:05):
After winning in Mexico, they flew to Canada where they
played the Canadians and then the Cuban team.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Don't ask me the reason why we played Cuba in Canada.
Speaker 8 (25:13):
After winning those matches, it was onto the US where
Hotman and his Chargers won against Italy in Philadelphia, then
took on India in Boston.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
We beat India and so we got through to the
final of the Dovis Cap and we played the USA
in Forest.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Hills at fest Hills, New York.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
On the twenty eighth to thirty first of August. Fitting
in six matches in the period of time between Wimbledon
and the US is unheard of nowadays, and it's hard
for us to imagine that we did do it.
Speaker 8 (25:45):
Despite sailing through most of their matches and the lead
up to the final, the nineteen to fifty nine Australian
team was not the strongest on paper, Sports Illustrated said
at the time, measured against the great Australian teams of
the past, Hartman's in eighteen fifty named him is strictly
second grade, harsh, but not entirely unfair. After some defections
(26:06):
to the rival Pro Tour. The Australian team was young
and lacking in experience. Here's Rod Labor.
Speaker 11 (26:13):
When I came along. That's when Hoden Rosewell moved into
the pro ranks, and so Hopman made Neil Fraser the
main stay in the singles. Yeah, it was a learning curve,
I guess, and I'm at this stage, I'm I don't know,
twenty one somewhere in there, and hadn't been too experienced
in getting a lot of match play.
Speaker 8 (26:34):
In Fraser's words.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
The Americans were very confident of winning.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
But Australia had a secret weapon, Harry Hopman. A well
respected player himself. Hopman had been Davis Cup captain since
nineteen thirty eight and had forged a formidable reputation on
the world stage.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
He was our manager, he was our coach, he was
our captain, he was a travel agent. It was always
comfort in to look at a Davis captain and you
would see Harry Hopman sitting there for us, and you
would look at the captain of the other teams and
you would think, well, you know, we got one up there.
He was a man who did a lot for our lives,
(27:14):
not only in tennis, but also in being a true Australian.
Speaker 8 (27:18):
So Hopman and his number one man, Fraser went in
today one of the final feeling confident.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
Now once more, crowds converged on the West Side Tennis
Club Stadium to see the opening match of the nineteen
fifty nine Davis Cup Challenge Round.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The first day, I played Alex Almado and I played
probably the best tennis I've played, and then Rod played
Barry McKay. Had advantages and had opportunities to win, but
he couldn't have lost to Barry McKay and so were
won match all.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
Then came the doubles Fraser and Emerson against Wimbledon champion
Alex Olmado and Butch Buckholtz.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
We played as good as doubles matches. I think we
could have played a completely dominated the Americans in that regard.
Speaker 8 (28:02):
They won in straight sets, giving Australia a two to
one lead after day two.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And we only had to win one of them. Two
matches of the final day.
Speaker 8 (28:10):
First up on Day three, Rod Labor against Alex Olmado.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
That was a really torrid battle. Rod played us as
well as he'd played on tour up to that stage,
had set points I think in every set, but the
only one one of those sets he lost. The other three.
Speaker 11 (28:29):
Didn't play the way I wanted to play, but mainly
that's because they were a better player.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
So the fifth and final rubber between Fraser and McKay
was sudden death, winner takes all, but because Labor and
Almado had played for so long. There was a problem.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
There was no way we were going to finish our
match if it went past one or two sets, because
of the daylight and the time.
Speaker 8 (28:54):
They played the first two sets. Fraser won the first,
then McKay leveled before the rest of the match was
responed until the next day. What's going through your mind?
At one, said all at the end of Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
The difficulty was, you get a bit uptight. You're representing
your country. It's the final. The Davis cap responsibility of
playing the fifth match wasn't easy to relax. Obviously. Hotman
could see that I was a bit on edge because
he asked me, what do you want to do at
(29:27):
night so that you get a good night's slip? I said,
dear me, I'm not too sure. I suppose we've got
to have a meal and probably if we go to
a movie for a couple of hours, be able to
take my mind off the match.
Speaker 8 (29:40):
The whole team went together, including the captain. Fraser doesn't
remember which movie they saw, but he does remember that
Hopman's mind was never far from the next day's play.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Even before the movie had started, Hopman thought there was
a bit of a draft he could feel and I
remember you asked me. I said, no, I don't.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I can't feel any draft. But he thought it was,
and he was worried that I might get a bit
of a chill and the neck of something sitting in
the theater for two hours. So he went to the
management and askul we moved seats because he didn't want
to be sitting in this draft, and so he Julie
came back and told us all get up and moved
to another part of the theater. First time I've ever
(30:19):
done that in my life and the last time I've.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Ever done it.
Speaker 8 (30:21):
When the team got back to the hotel, the next
question was rest, specifically, how Fraser could get a good
night's sleep. Hopman had a rather surprising suggestion.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
He said, well, there's a doctor friend I know nearby
here that can maybe get you a sleeping tablet. I said, well,
I've never taken a sleeping tablet. If it's going to help,
I'll take it, And so I took the sleeping tablet
for the first time in my life.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
Now, taking your first ever sleeping pill the night before
arguably the biggest moment of your career, may seem risky,
but Luckily.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I woke up keen and fresh and ready to go
the next.
Speaker 8 (30:58):
Day, and if Fraser was still feeling anxious about the
resumption of the match, it wasn't obvious to his teammates.
Speaker 11 (31:04):
I guess he was nervous, but he certainly didn't portray
that way. Maybe the sleeping pills, but maybe we all
he should be taking sleeping pills.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
So you arrive at the venue described to me the atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
The stadium was reasonably packed out in the first three days,
but I remember playing on the Monday it was nowhere
near packed at all, which was I was grateful for
because the support was not as loud as it was
for the Amergage in the home nation.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
Whatever the reason, Fraser got off to a great start
in the first set of the day. The third set
of the final rubber.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I did get an early jump on Barry, got an
early break, and minaged to win. The third set, in
fact gave me the confidence leading to Sister.
Speaker 8 (31:48):
One spoilers Fraser one, and he won convincingly.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I can remember some of the points, but in particular
remember the final point when he was serving and I
had match point and we had a bit of a
rally he came into the net and I got a
lob over his head and I could see he didn't
get back to it well enough and attempting to get
it back and hit it out over.
Speaker 10 (32:12):
The CYX three six six two and Sex four Australia
Regames Davis.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I finished up, I think jumping the net and jumping
with joy.
Speaker 11 (32:23):
Of course, I think we're all pretty happy with ourselves
because we'd lost the year before came back to the
US again, so I'm sure we had a few beers
and enjoyed it.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
It was the first Davis Cup title for Fraser, Labor
and Emerson, and for Fraser it was a special moment
for another reason, and I.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Was also lucky enough that my parents were in the gallery.
It was the only time my father and mother ever
saw me play overseas.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
Why was it that they hadn't seen you play much?
And why did they choose to be there for this time?
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Well, parents in those days didn't travel anywhere there like
they do nowadays, because it was rather expensive. There was
no money in the game for players, and my father
was a judge and he had obligations, but this particular
year he was asked to go overseas we were confident
(33:17):
of getting through to the final and he could plan
to be there in September. I remember rushing over to
my mother and father were sitting in a box, and
hugged my mother and we got congratulations from my father.
And it's one of the prize photos I have at
home of the Woman's Weekly. Was on the cover of
(33:37):
the Women's Weekly, myself hugging my mother at Forest Hills
and it's a memory that sixty years ago, but I
can still vividly recall.
Speaker 8 (33:48):
It was the start of an incredible year for Fraser.
Speaker 10 (33:51):
The top centennais at Forest Hills where Australia won back
to Davis Cup and Neil Fraser the South Paul from
down Under sprang an upset by defeating Alex Armide, America's
probably an Indian Star, and two weeks later repeated the
triumph to win the United States Singles Power as well.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It was the best twelve months of my life tennis
life in playing. I had a great Davis Cup journey,
then I won the United States Championship Singles, doubles mixed.
Speaker 8 (34:19):
That's right. At that year's US Championships, now the US Open,
Fraser won the men's singles The Men's Doubles and the
Mixed Doubles, a feat he repeated again twelve months later
in nineteen sixty. Nobody has done that since
I had served the country well. I left with no stories,
no agro, no arguments. I just quietly disappeared. I could
have written a book, but I would have had to
tell the truth and I would have upset a lot
of people. Who was best that I walked away from
the game, having had a wonderful twenty four years as
(00:23):
captain of the Davis, captain them nine years as a player.
I'm still looked upon as a father figured a lot
of players, and good friends with all of them.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And I'm very happy with life.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Hello everyone, John Fitzgerald here, Welcome to this bonus episode
of the AO Show. Recently Australian tennis lost one of
its most celebrated champions, Neil Fraser. Known for his unmatched
left handed serve, unwavering sportsmanship and remarkable achievements on and
off the court, Frase left an indelible mark on the sport.
(01:11):
A dominant force in the nineteen fifties and early sixties,
he won nineteen Grand Slam titles, three men's singles, eleven
men's doubles and five mixed doubles championships. In nineteen fifty nine,
he went to the US Championships, as it was known
then prior to being named the US Open, he won
the singles, doubles and mixed and in nineteen sixty he
(01:32):
went back and repeated the feat. He won four titles
as a Davis Cup player under the great Harry Hopman,
and then he went on to captain the Australian Davis
Cup team for an unprecedented twenty four years. He took
his team to four historic victories and for the rest
(01:52):
of his life remained a steadfast ambassador for tennis.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
He just loved this sport.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I'm here with my friends John Ywkeom, Darren Cahill and
Todd Woodbridge to remember our great mate.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Welcome, gentlemen. I would love to start with.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Nuke for anything you have in your memory bank about
the great Neil Fraser if you see.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Well, Unlike Todd and Darren and yourself, I got a
chance to play against Neil and that was a great
thrill because as a young teenager growing up he was
one of my heroes with along with Rod Laver and
Roy Emerson, we had these guys that were number one
in the world. So when I got to travel overseas
(02:39):
for the first time, I was playing doubles with Ken
Fletcher from Queensland, and we're doing pretty well. I just
turned seventeen and we got to the semi final of
the Wimbledon doubles and I had to play Fraser and
Roy Emerson and I heard a lot about Fraser serve
and how great it was. First point of the match
(03:01):
he served to me and it was a fault. The
second server sorry, he served a second serve to my
forehand and I thought, oh you beauty, I'll take care
of this. I came in and swung at air, it
moved around.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I'd never seen a.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Left handed serve that could kick that far out away
from you, so I had to be wary of that
for the rest of the match.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
But that was great.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
And then of course we went on and Neil became
Davis Cup captain and we played underneath him in nineteen
seventy three because we hadn't been allowed to play Davis
Cup for five years from sixty eight through to seventy three,
(03:45):
and then seventy three asked me if i'd come back
and play because we were allowed to play again, and
I said, yeah, count me in for the whole year.
So I pulled out of the regular tournaments and played
and so we had a terrific time. We've played in Japan,
and then we played in India, and then we played
Czechoslovakia at home and we won all of those and
(04:07):
then we went to the States and that was our ambition.
And by now Rod Laver and Ken Rosewell had joined
the team along with Melanis and myself, and our ambition
was to destroy the United States because we're pretty hacked
off that we hadn't been allowed to play for five
(04:29):
years and they'd been dominating for five years. So we
went to Cleveland and we beat them five zip, which
was pretty exciting.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Now you've heard me say this before Nuke, but that
particular tie, it was the first time Davis Cup had
been telecast live by satellite back to Australia.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
It was live.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I grew up in a little town on the west
coast of South Australia called Cocolechi. We had a brand
new black and white TV set because we took a
few years to get them over there. And that particular
tie against the US and seventy three was what inspired
me to I.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Play Davis Cup. I watched every ball.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I can almost remember what happened in each match, Frase
took over the captaincy in nineteen seventy. Three years later
he won it for the first time. So that was
a monumental time I think for Australian tennis to win
the Davis Cup again.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, we did.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
You stay up the whole time listed I was allowed
to because my.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
First match was five sets of Bert Smith, and then
Rod played against Tom Gorman and he came from two
sister one down to win in five sets. I think
there was about eight and a half hours of tennis,
and then we had the doubles the next day and
Frase came around to everybody and asked them what they
(05:41):
thought individually, and I said, well, phrase, I think you
should play Rod and myself because Kennon and Rod were
a great pair, but neither of them had a big serve.
And I said, I've only played two tournaments with Rod
ever lost. Anyway, we had to play Smith and Van
(06:03):
Dillon and I think they got five games since resets.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I'm not sure you had to be that honest, but
I think it was.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
I told you we wanted to destroy them.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
That was true.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
All four of us played under Neil Fraser Killer. Tell
us about your memories playing under him.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
What about some of the names, and Nuke just rattled
off exactly, just some legends, and Prase was the legend
of legends in my eyes. And I have a couple
of stories about him. I'll tell the stories later. But
for me, Frase was a leader of Australian tennis and
he was an icon, a great player, great captain, a mentor,
(06:45):
a friend, a great coach. Know that he was a
great technical coach, but you don't have to be. You
just have to find ways to inspire your players and
to get the best out of them. And he saw
the game incredibly well. But the big thing for me
was that it didn't matter you're a great doubles player.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Todd.
Speaker 6 (07:01):
We were similar in singles, FITZI, you and I are
bit the same. It didn't matter how good or bad
you were. He took an interest and it showed the
path is what it meant to be a Davis Cup
player and how you would get there and how hard
you had to work. And he told you about the
stories of the former greats and you got inspired by those.
So for me becoming friends with Frase, firstly, I had
(07:24):
two fathers in tennis. One was Bob Carmichael. The other
was Neil Fraser. So for me, I'm pretty sure I
would never have been the player I became to be,
which was an average player compared to the legends of
the game. But I got the best out of my career,
and I certainly wouldn't be the coach I am today
without people like Neil Fraser. So for me, he played
a monumental part in my career.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, I think it's interesting to hear that the great
John you come sitting here, Haddi Mesi's hero when he
was sixteen.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Or many years of age, thirteen years of age.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, the other three of us here, he was also
our hero, I think, yeah, and then he became a
mentor and a friend.
Speaker 7 (07:58):
I come here as the youngest in the group, and
I mean for me, watching all of the things that
you were talking about nuke and then coming into the
eighties with Davis cup successes and him sitting in the
leather couch at Kuyon, he was quite an intimidating figure
for somebody like me coming along, because you got to remember,
in those days we only saw a little bit on television.
You read articles, and you had a magazine that you
(08:20):
would look out to find all the stuff about tennis
and books. So it's far more accessible now to feel
like you know somebody, and it takes a while. And
he was very interesting in that he would watch you
and you weren't sure what he was thinking about you,
and you're trying to impress. And I think at the
end of it all, what I learned from him was
his expectation about discipline and about working hard and discipline,
(08:45):
and that was the first things you got to see
when you're a young player and you got around him.
That I remember vividly was that you know, you turn up,
you work hard, and then you do it again tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
It's well said.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, I think for all of us he was inspiration
that one. We all played underneath him knew What were
your favorite memories.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
I think one of the best, the best awful times
we had was playing in India, Yeah, because we had
a terrorist threat against us and we were living in
this hotel for ten days as we're training, and we
(09:24):
had a big suite and when we had to, you know,
just stay in the suite and played played charades or
whatever whatever game we played all night. And and how
how it happened was that we'd only been there two
days and Frase called us into his room and said
(09:48):
he's just or. He introduced this guy who was a big,
tall guy, looked like Sydney Portier, and he said, this
is Colonel so and so from the Indian Security Forces
and he has something.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
To tell you.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
And the guy said, well, there's been a report from
Edtopol that there's a threat against the Australian Davis Cup
team and you all have to make a decision whether
you stay and play or they arrange it to play
at a neutral tie somewhere. But I can guarantee you
(10:22):
that if a bullet comes or a knife comes for you,
I will be.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
There to protect you.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Did you believe him?
Speaker 5 (10:31):
No, So we had a decision to make and we
all decided that we'd stay.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
But it was.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Pretty hairy because it was about one hundred and twenty
humidity at one hundred and twenty temperature, and you knew
if a bullet hit you, they weren't going to stop
the bleeding real quickly. So Bob, Bob Gildon, who was
in the squad, he had a mustash like mine, and
I went around everywhere calling him nuke.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Nice guy, get killer, you, and I had something similar
in common with you.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
We went to Peru.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
We went to Peru and the Shining Path was on
the path.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Yeah, we had the armed gunman standing up in the
stadium protecting us from from an invasion. So we got
through that one. Hey, you're from New South Wales, right, Nuke. Yeah,
Phrase had his favorites. Phrase absolutely had his favorites, and
his favorites were Victorians. He bloody loved Victorians.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Cash how Victorians do that exactly?
Speaker 6 (11:35):
Cashi was his love childs And my story is a
little bit around Cashi, and he deservedly so because Cashi
single handedly in eighty six won the Davis Cup and
part of the team in eighty three. But my story
dates back. And also, you've got to work hard if
you're not in the family of Neil Phrases. So I'm
from Adelaide and I was just a pain in the
ass to Phrase to try to get into that family.
FITZI here is a little smarter than me. The guy
(11:57):
from cocker Leachi is a long way from Melbourne. He
goes and marries a Victorian lady and he moves to Victoria.
Of course does he moved Nuke? He moves about one
killer meter from where Neil Fraser.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Of course I wanted to play Davis Caup.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
Then Golden reached over here in Golden Balls here. Yes,
from Sydney, also marries a Victorian. Yeah, moves to Victoria.
How far away from the Columba do you live?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Columba?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
The other diction. These are the love children of Neil Fraser.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
So for somebody like myself from Adelaide to be in
the family, so I was a pain in the backside.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
It's a phrase.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
And eventually I was Orange Boy in eighty six and
I saw the way these guys practiced and played, and
Phrase had this thing about he wouldn't pick the bloody team.
He made you play for your spot, so you turned
up early and the matches are really competitive and you
probably have.
Speaker 7 (12:44):
Made everybody feel like they had a chance even when
they did it. So my story goes to eighty I remember.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
In an eighty eight Cashi just made the Australian Open
final and was playing amazingly well. And I've been around
Frase and heard all these great stories about these practice matches.
But anyway, this particular day he finishes on Sunday in
the final, he jumps on a plane Monday. He gets
to Mexico City on Tuesday night. Practice Wednesday, Thursday, we
throw Cashi out to play on Friday. On Thursday, the
(13:12):
day right before the tie, Phrase walks up to me
and he says to me, here goes Killer, can you
go and play? Cashi is set and can you bloody
keep a couple of balls in and give him a
bit of rhythm. I didn't understand him to say that.
I thought he said to me in my mind, Killer,
this is your chance, this is your chance to.
Speaker 8 (13:27):
Play Davis Cup for Australia.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
Give me everything you got, Son, because I'll be watching
and I want to play you in the next upcoming
tires to show me what you're worth.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
So that's the way I approached You read it that way.
I read it that way.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
He didn't see it that way.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
No, but this is a Davis Cup practice match, and
I was used to watching you play Cashi and McNamee
and Edmondson and all these guys. So I've walked out.
I never stretched. I stretched before my practice match with Cashi.
I went on to the court run a back court phraser,
standing about two courts away. Barker's Ian Barclay, who's the
longtime coach of Cashi's standing behind Cashi, and we start
up playing this practice set and I'm pumped and I
(14:02):
get off to a good start, and cash he doesn't
like playing me anyway because I've got a bullshit kind
of game and he hates it. Where you had the
world's best word, serve exactly, so he never he never
got a hold of it. So anyway, I'm up to
one a break and Barker's has this thing where he
normally comes around. I love Barker's and he would come
around whenever I'm hitting with cash He'd say, hey, Killer,
can you slide a couple of balls into a fourhands
so he can work on his foehand return or maybe
(14:24):
a little more slice there. So what he's trying to
get Cash into a good place. So Barker's comes around, he.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
Goes killer, Killer, Killer, He's up, He's up.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
And I thought for a second I went piss off Barker's.
He rare around to the back of the court, back
to Cashy's side. So anyway, now I'm a five to
two double break, and I see Frays waddling over towards me,
and I reckon. I'm thinking he's coming over killer. You're
playing unbelievably. Well, keep it up, son, this is good stuff.
(14:54):
He walks over and he whispers in my ear power.
If you win this practice set, you're on the first
flight home.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
That was typical.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Pick the team before you got over that Cashi.
Speaker 6 (15:05):
Had just lost to Wilando in the five set. Finally,
the Australian opened three days before, and for some reason
it just didn't register in my head.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
I had no chance.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
That is a great I used to think that way too. Yeah,
there you go. Yeah, but we all so.
Speaker 7 (15:19):
Mine has Cashi in it as well, because I got
in as the first Orange boy in Sydney. And whatever
year it was it was in must have been late eighties,
because I played in ninety or ninety one. Anyways, I
get in and I've recently got my license. I'm a
Pea player, I've got the car. I live in Sydney.
I'm staying at home, but all you guys are in
the hotel. My job, young Todd, is to be at
(15:42):
the hotel, get instructions from Phrase that I need to
pick Cashy up and drop him out to Marrickville. Because
it had been raining a lot in Sydney and Marrickfield
had grass courts and they were going out there because
they were playable. Right, what time ten o'clock in the lobby.
Be there, you're picking him up. He'll be down. You
drive him out. We get ready. He was on the
second session. Okay, good face, Yeah, I'm there. Caught it
(16:03):
to ten ten o'clock. No cashi ten passed. I said,
well he must have gone, oh you left. So I
get in the car because I've got to get to practice, right.
So I drive all the way out to Marrith. It
was about thirty five minutes from the city. And I
get there and he goes, where's Cashier said?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Where is he?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I thought he'd be here. I told you you had
to get cashy so I know he's always back in
the city and pick him up. He sends your back.
I sent me back.
Speaker 7 (16:29):
I did then go in.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
He drive a lot of traffic, and so I.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Was already in the books because I hadn't done it.
But he didn't tell me cash he was going to
be thirty minutes late.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
All the time.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
I didn't know.
Speaker 7 (16:40):
But that was my first sort of got I got,
you know, the cane.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
From everybody gets it.
Speaker 7 (16:45):
But at some point again it was Cashi's fault, really,
but he knew how to manage a group of eclectic
people because all of the.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
You guys in eighty six, well eighty three, we had
Paul mcnam Marketminston, myself and Cashi, a young in Cash
who was eighteen years A.
Speaker 6 (17:01):
Couple of orange boys.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
I think Wally was there as an Orange.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
But the four guys in that team were from different planets.
All we were born in different solar systems. So we're
all friends, all good, everything's good, But boy were we different.
Phrase had this ability to bring eclectic people together in
my mind, and that's a good word, by the way, Yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
How do you spell?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I've got time. We've got to wrap in a tick here.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
I've just got one other memory of Phrase and you'll
all remember this fish.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Finished, Okay. He bring those people. That was his strength.
He could bring people together who were very different and
play for that common cause and have success.
Speaker 7 (17:40):
My final thought of him is his absolute love of
the game and tennis and anybody in Australia who looked
like they had the potential to be a good player.
They didn't have to be a great great player or
the champion of champions. He wanted that. But you'll all
remember at Wimbledon he used to go and get the
daily order of play and he'd find all of these
little corners of around stands and things, and he'd stand
there to watch all the Australians play on the outside
(18:02):
courts and he'd have all the scores and he'd know
every single thing. And I was fortunate enough to see
him about six weeks ago before he passed away, and
he still knew every single thing about every young Australian
player that was coming along, which tells you about his
passion for the game.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, he cared for us and for a period of
time at the Australian Open, he would invite a group
of us around to his house at Bolton Avenue in
Brighton to have a barbecue. And so you know, knowing
Killer Cahill and Wally Mussur and Pat Cash and myself
sometimes Cash you'd turn up. It would always be late,
but the three of us were always there and to
(18:36):
get a free feed. You know, sure we'll come around
phrase we'd get there, but there was a penalty we
had to pay. Every year he brought out the Black
and white vision of him beating Rod Laver in the
file of New Company. That was my In the file
of wood, it was nearly named after you, Nick. In
the file of women, he beat Rod Lavery in nineteen
sixty and he made us sit through that every year
(18:57):
and we said, phrase, we've already seen this, and he says,
I know, oh, well, this is where I get a
fourhand just EDGs that one up the line on match point.
But that was the beauty of lucky and that's why
for us he was a legend. He was a mentor,
particularly I think for the younger guys, and he became
our friend. He was our friend and he wanted us
(19:17):
to do well. You know, my record wasn't great, but
I happened to win women in doubles one year and
guess who was in the stand who'd come in And
I'll never forget his face after winning their women in
doubles till I saw him. The joy he had on
his face will stay with me forever.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
That's what he was like.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
So I think all the older generation Australians were like that.
Roy Emerson, New Roachey, fiery, you can go through everyone,
didn't matter where in the world. We were, they would
take the time to come onto the court to give
us advice, to give us some tips, to put their
arms around us. I remember in gads Stard, I was
there by myself the only Australian playing in eighty eight.
Buddy Roy Emerson came out watched every one of my matches.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
So how good is that?
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yep?
Speaker 6 (19:57):
And that's what phrase, That's what he n initiated, that's
what he taught, that's what he led. And I feel
like the culture of Australian tennis back in those years
was largely due to the way that Frase handled his
David's cupboards.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, and that's the modern lesson I think we can learn.
The modern players can learn from the way he approached
exactly and how he actually genuinely loved the sport. He
wanted it not just to survive, he wanted it to flourish,
particularly on it from an Australian standpoint. So I think
he will forever be remembered by all of us as
(20:30):
one of the greats. If he's not the pre eminent
Australian tennis personality, there's got to be someone good to
beat him.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
We've had a few over the years but he.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Is certainly there with the greats that this game and
our country has ever ever produced.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
So I want to thank you three. It's been a
it's been a delight well done.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Fishy, thanking you can, Killer and Teddy for sharing all
of your reflections on Neil.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
He'll be forever remembered. We know that. Now. Let's hear
a little bit from Frase himself.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
From an inner he recorded in twenty nineteen with John
Huvenas from the Backstory podcast. This is a Movie and
a Sleeping Pill. Neil Fraser and the Story of the
nineteen to fifty nine Davis Cup.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
When you think of great sporting moments, you probably don't
think of movies and sleeping pills. But that's exactly the
recipe that led to one of Australia's greatest Davis Cup
moments some sixty years ago. While the achievement itself has
been well documented, some of the details have never been
revealed until now. This is the backstory. The year was
(21:45):
nineteen fifty nine and Australian tennis had suffered a setback.
Speaker 9 (21:52):
Raw thing right Janet the last Angelo There Bye alex
Olmno the twenty two year old perrobiums sakanold play member
of the US team upside Australia and the Davas Cup matches.
Members of the team display the famous trophy, which the
offices have held since nineteen fifty four.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
We had lost in fifty eight. We were very disappointed.
Speaker 8 (22:14):
This is Neil Fraser, who was twenty five years old
in nineteen fifty nine and part of one of the
fiercest rivalries in tennis history.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Australian Americans were sort of a routine match. In other words,
there were the two best tennis nations at the time.
Speaker 8 (22:28):
Nowadays Australia and America have a much more storied rivalry,
but what was the climate between the countries at this moment.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
We played most of the Datas Cup finals. This one
was no different, so we were very anxious to get
the Datas Cup back.
Speaker 8 (22:45):
Between nineteen thirty eight and nineteen fifty nine, Australia and
the USA were the only two teams who met in
the Davis Cup Challenge round the final that sixteen consecutive years,
with time off for World War Two, where no other
country even got a look in.
Speaker 9 (23:00):
The Davis Cup, symbol of world supremacy and Man's amateur
tennis is on the line.
Speaker 10 (23:04):
Davis Cup final between Australia and America reaches its climax.
Speaker 9 (23:07):
The US is defending against Australia. The Cup's been out
of Australia since the Americans took it in the last
challenge round, but now it's back again.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
America retained the.
Speaker 8 (23:16):
Davis Cup, but after losing in fifty eight, the Aussies
had some work to do before they could challenge the
Americans to a rematch, and legendary captain Harry Hopman trusted
Fraser to get the job done.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Well.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I was the oldest member of the team and I
think I was considered by help, not that he ever
told me that. I think I was his number one
man at the time, and I think well he placed
a lot of emphasis on me being the sort of
leader of the team.
Speaker 8 (23:47):
A team that included Roy Emerson who played doubles with Fraser,
and very young Rod Laver.
Speaker 11 (23:53):
That was when I was first getting started into the
Davis Cup. I think Harry Hopman put myself thin of
the singles, which I maybe I thought it was a
little surprised, but I guess he was thinking that he
needed myself to get the experience.
Speaker 8 (24:08):
The Australian team had to play five other countries and
earn the right to challenge the USA for the Cup.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
America was the holder of the Cup and they had
the right to have a buy all the way through
the competition, and they other countries had to play off
in various zones and the only time that American zone
was available to play matches was between July August September
and so between Wimbledon and the American Championships, a period
(24:38):
of about seven or eight weeks. We played six Davis
Cup matches during this time.
Speaker 8 (24:43):
First stop Mexico City, and.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Mexico City is most people know. It was about six
or seven thousand feet above sea level, very hard to
control the ball. A normal shot that you would hit
at Wimbledon would bounce on the service lie was bouncing
on the baseline and so it took a while to
get used to.
Speaker 8 (25:05):
After winning in Mexico, they flew to Canada where they
played the Canadians and then the Cuban team.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Don't ask me the reason why we played Cuba in Canada.
Speaker 8 (25:13):
After winning those matches, it was onto the US where
Hotman and his Chargers won against Italy in Philadelphia, then
took on India in Boston.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
We beat India and so we got through to the
final of the Dovis Cap and we played the USA
in Forest.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Hills at fest Hills, New York.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
On the twenty eighth to thirty first of August. Fitting
in six matches in the period of time between Wimbledon
and the US is unheard of nowadays, and it's hard
for us to imagine that we did do it.
Speaker 8 (25:45):
Despite sailing through most of their matches and the lead
up to the final, the nineteen to fifty nine Australian
team was not the strongest on paper, Sports Illustrated said
at the time, measured against the great Australian teams of
the past, Hartman's in eighteen fifty named him is strictly
second grade, harsh, but not entirely unfair. After some defections
(26:06):
to the rival Pro Tour. The Australian team was young
and lacking in experience. Here's Rod Labor.
Speaker 11 (26:13):
When I came along. That's when Hoden Rosewell moved into
the pro ranks, and so Hopman made Neil Fraser the
main stay in the singles. Yeah, it was a learning curve,
I guess, and I'm at this stage, I'm I don't know,
twenty one somewhere in there, and hadn't been too experienced
in getting a lot of match play.
Speaker 8 (26:34):
In Fraser's words.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
The Americans were very confident of winning.
Speaker 8 (26:37):
But Australia had a secret weapon, Harry Hopman. A well
respected player himself. Hopman had been Davis Cup captain since
nineteen thirty eight and had forged a formidable reputation on
the world stage.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
He was our manager, he was our coach, he was
our captain, he was a travel agent. It was always
comfort in to look at a Davis captain and you
would see Harry Hopman sitting there for us, and you
would look at the captain of the other teams and
you would think, well, you know, we got one up there.
He was a man who did a lot for our lives,
(27:14):
not only in tennis, but also in being a true Australian.
Speaker 8 (27:18):
So Hopman and his number one man, Fraser went in
today one of the final feeling confident.
Speaker 9 (27:24):
Now once more, crowds converged on the West Side Tennis
Club Stadium to see the opening match of the nineteen
fifty nine Davis Cup Challenge Round.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The first day, I played Alex Almado and I played
probably the best tennis I've played, and then Rod played
Barry McKay. Had advantages and had opportunities to win, but
he couldn't have lost to Barry McKay and so were
won match all.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
Then came the doubles Fraser and Emerson against Wimbledon champion
Alex Olmado and Butch Buckholtz.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
We played as good as doubles matches. I think we
could have played a completely dominated the Americans in that regard.
Speaker 8 (28:02):
They won in straight sets, giving Australia a two to
one lead after day two.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And we only had to win one of them. Two
matches of the final day.
Speaker 8 (28:10):
First up on Day three, Rod Labor against Alex Olmado.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
That was a really torrid battle. Rod played us as
well as he'd played on tour up to that stage,
had set points I think in every set, but the
only one one of those sets he lost. The other three.
Speaker 11 (28:29):
Didn't play the way I wanted to play, but mainly
that's because they were a better player.
Speaker 8 (28:35):
So the fifth and final rubber between Fraser and McKay
was sudden death, winner takes all, but because Labor and
Almado had played for so long. There was a problem.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
There was no way we were going to finish our
match if it went past one or two sets, because
of the daylight and the time.
Speaker 8 (28:54):
They played the first two sets. Fraser won the first,
then McKay leveled before the rest of the match was
responed until the next day. What's going through your mind?
At one, said all at the end of Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
The difficulty was, you get a bit uptight. You're representing
your country. It's the final. The Davis cap responsibility of
playing the fifth match wasn't easy to relax. Obviously. Hotman
could see that I was a bit on edge because
he asked me, what do you want to do at
(29:27):
night so that you get a good night's slip? I said,
dear me, I'm not too sure. I suppose we've got
to have a meal and probably if we go to
a movie for a couple of hours, be able to
take my mind off the match.
Speaker 8 (29:40):
The whole team went together, including the captain. Fraser doesn't
remember which movie they saw, but he does remember that
Hopman's mind was never far from the next day's play.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Even before the movie had started, Hopman thought there was
a bit of a draft he could feel and I
remember you asked me. I said, no, I don't.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I can't feel any draft. But he thought it was,
and he was worried that I might get a bit
of a chill and the neck of something sitting in
the theater for two hours. So he went to the
management and askul we moved seats because he didn't want
to be sitting in this draft, and so he Julie
came back and told us all get up and moved
to another part of the theater. First time I've ever
(30:19):
done that in my life and the last time I've.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Ever done it.
Speaker 8 (30:21):
When the team got back to the hotel, the next
question was rest, specifically, how Fraser could get a good
night's sleep. Hopman had a rather surprising suggestion.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
He said, well, there's a doctor friend I know nearby
here that can maybe get you a sleeping tablet. I said, well,
I've never taken a sleeping tablet. If it's going to help,
I'll take it, And so I took the sleeping tablet
for the first time in my life.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
Now, taking your first ever sleeping pill the night before
arguably the biggest moment of your career, may seem risky,
but Luckily.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
I woke up keen and fresh and ready to go
the next.
Speaker 8 (30:58):
Day, and if Fraser was still feeling anxious about the
resumption of the match, it wasn't obvious to his teammates.
Speaker 11 (31:04):
I guess he was nervous, but he certainly didn't portray
that way. Maybe the sleeping pills, but maybe we all
he should be taking sleeping pills.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
So you arrive at the venue described to me the atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
The stadium was reasonably packed out in the first three days,
but I remember playing on the Monday it was nowhere
near packed at all, which was I was grateful for
because the support was not as loud as it was
for the Amergage in the home nation.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
Whatever the reason, Fraser got off to a great start
in the first set of the day. The third set
of the final rubber.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I did get an early jump on Barry, got an
early break, and minaged to win. The third set, in
fact gave me the confidence leading to Sister.
Speaker 8 (31:48):
One spoilers Fraser one, and he won convincingly.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I can remember some of the points, but in particular
remember the final point when he was serving and I
had match point and we had a bit of a
rally he came into the net and I got a
lob over his head and I could see he didn't
get back to it well enough and attempting to get
it back and hit it out over.
Speaker 10 (32:12):
The CYX three six six two and Sex four Australia
Regames Davis.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I finished up, I think jumping the net and jumping
with joy.
Speaker 11 (32:23):
Of course, I think we're all pretty happy with ourselves
because we'd lost the year before came back to the
US again, so I'm sure we had a few beers
and enjoyed it.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
It was the first Davis Cup title for Fraser, Labor
and Emerson, and for Fraser it was a special moment
for another reason, and I.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Was also lucky enough that my parents were in the gallery.
It was the only time my father and mother ever
saw me play overseas.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
Why was it that they hadn't seen you play much?
And why did they choose to be there for this time?
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Well, parents in those days didn't travel anywhere there like
they do nowadays, because it was rather expensive. There was
no money in the game for players, and my father
was a judge and he had obligations, but this particular
year he was asked to go overseas we were confident
(33:17):
of getting through to the final and he could plan
to be there in September. I remember rushing over to
my mother and father were sitting in a box, and
hugged my mother and we got congratulations from my father.
And it's one of the prize photos I have at
home of the Woman's Weekly. Was on the cover of
(33:37):
the Women's Weekly, myself hugging my mother at Forest Hills
and it's a memory that sixty years ago, but I
can still vividly recall.
Speaker 8 (33:48):
It was the start of an incredible year for Fraser.
Speaker 10 (33:51):
The top centennais at Forest Hills where Australia won back
to Davis Cup and Neil Fraser the South Paul from
down Under sprang an upset by defeating Alex Armide, America's
probably an Indian Star, and two weeks later repeated the
triumph to win the United States Singles Power as well.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
It was the best twelve months of my life tennis
life in playing. I had a great Davis Cup journey,
then I won the United States Championship Singles, doubles mixed.
Speaker 8 (34:19):
That's right. At that year's US Championships, now the US Open,
Fraser won the men's singles The Men's Doubles and the
Mixed Doubles, a feat he repeated again twelve months later
in nineteen sixty. Nobody has done that since
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