Ashley Cooper

Who is Ashley Cooper?

Ashley John Cooper AO is a former world champion tennis player from Australia. He was ranked the World No. 1 amateur player for 1957 and 1958 by Lance Tingay.

Cooper played his best year in 1958, becoming one of only eleven men to win three of the four Grand Slam events in the same year. He won singles at the Australian, British, and American championships and was a semi-finalist at the French championship, losing to Luis Ayala 11–9, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 5–7.

The right-handed Cooper was the top ranked player in both 1957—when he was a Wimbledon and Forest Hills finalist, and Paris semi-finalist—and in 1958. Cooper played on the Australian Davis Cup team that won the cup in '56 and '57, and were finalists in '58. In 1959, he married Helen Wood, Miss Australia 1957, and turned professional.

Upon retiring as a player, Cooper has served as a tennis player development administrator with Tennis Queensland, where he has been based for nearly fifty years. He presently also sits on the Board of Directors for Tennis Australia.

Cooper was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 and the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2007, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to tennis.