Ernie Parker
Full name | Ernest Frederick Parker |
---|---|
Country (sports) | Australia |
Born | (1883-11-05)5 November 1883 Perth, Western Australia |
Died | 2 May 1918(1918-05-02) (aged 34) Caëstre, France |
Turned pro | 1903 (amateur tour) |
Retired | 1918 (due to death) |
Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
Singles | |
Career record | 46-21 (68.6%)[1] |
Career titles | 8[1] |
Grand Slam singles results | |
Australian Open | W (1913) |
Doubles | |
Grand Slam doubles results | |
Australian Open | W (1909, 1913) |
Cricket information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Batting | Right-handed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1905/06–1909/10 | Western Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Cricinfo, 17 December 2019 |
Ernest Frederick Parker (5 November 1883 – 2 May 1918) was an Australian tennis player and cricketer.
Career
Ernie Parker was educated at Perth High School and St Peter's College, Adelaide, before joining his father's law firm in Perth.[2]
Tennis
Parker is best remembered for winning the 1913 Australasian Championships men's singles title. In the final against Harry Parker, he made many successful forays to the net and he won in four sets.[3] He also reached the final in 1909 and won the 1909 (partnering J. Keane) and 1913 (partnering Alf Hedeman) doubles titles.[4]
He won the Western Australian Championships six times: 1903, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1911 and 1912. In 1905 he won the Maerenbad Cup in Marienbad Brandenberg, Germany, on clay, beating Kurt von Wessely.[5]
Parker's play was described as "quick, wristy, and always looking for a 'winner'". Slightly built, he was noted for his exceptional net play, but his serve was his weakness, described as "merely a means of putting the ball into play".[2][6]
Cricket
Parker was able to excel at both tennis and cricket because at the time tennis was mostly a winter game in Perth.[7] He played cricket for East Perth (Perth Cricket Club) and Wanderers in the Western Australian Grade Cricket competition. An elegant batsman, he was the first player to score a double-century in senior Perth cricket, and set a long-standing record of 19 centuries in the competition.[7]
He represented Western Australia in first-class cricket between 1905 and 1910 in the years before Western Australia joined the Sheffield Shield competition. He was the first player to score a first-class century for Western Australia, when he made 116 in his second match. He also made 117 in only 82 minutes against Victoria in 1910.[7] He was included in two trial matches to select the Australian team to tour England in 1909, but without success.[2]
War service and death
Despite failing eyesight, which had affected his later sporting career, Parker enlisted in the Australian army in World War I. A gunner in the 102 Howitzer Battery, 2nd Brigade, he was killed by an enemy shell on 2 May 1918 in Caëstre, France.[2][8][9]
Grand Slam finals
Singles 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Runner-up | 1909 | Australasian Championships | Grass | Anthony Wilding | 1–6, 5–7, 2–6 |
Winner | 1913 | Australasian Championships | Grass | Harry Parker | 2–6, 6–1, 6–2, 6–3 |
Doubles: 2 (2 titles)
Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | 1909 | Australasian Championships | Grass | J. P. Keane | Tom Crooks Anthony Wilding | 1–6, 6–1, 6–1, 9–7 |
Winner | 1913 | Australasian Championships | Grass | Alf Hedeman | Harry Parker Roy Taylor | 8–6, 4–6, 6–4, 6–4 |
References
- ^ a b Garcia, Gabriel (2018). "Ernest Frederick Parker: Career match record". thetennisbase.com. Madrid, Spain: Tennismem SAL. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
- ^ a b c d Greg Growden, Cricketers at War, ABC Books, Sydney, 2019, pp. 107–11.
- ^ "Ernie Parker". Grand Slam Tennis Archive. Archived from the original on 2 December 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- ^ "Western Australian Institute of Sport". Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- ^ Garcia, Gabriel (2018). "Ernest Frederick Parker: Tournament activity 1903-1913". app.thetennisbase.com. Madrid, Spain: Tennismem SAL. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
- ^ "Ernest Parker". The West Australian: 5. 24 May 1918.
- ^ a b c The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket, Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 410.
- ^ "Cricketers who died in World War 1 – Part 4 of 5". Cricket Country. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
- ^ "Gunner Ernest Frederick Parker". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
External links
- Ernie Parker at the Association of Tennis Professionals
- Bud Collins: Total Tennis – The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia (2003 Edition, ISBN 0-9731443-4-3). See pages 782 and 814.
- Ernie Parker at ESPNcricinfo
- v
- t
- e
- 1905: Rodney Heath
- 1906: Anthony Wilding
- 1907: Horace Rice
- 1908: Fred Alexander
- 1909: Anthony Wilding
- 1910: Rodney Heath
- 1911: Norman Brookes
- 1912: James Parke
- 1913: Ernie Parker
- 1914: Arthur O'Hara Wood
- 1915: Gordon Lowe
- 1919: Algernon Kingscote
- 1920: Pat O'Hara Wood
- 1921: Rice Gemmell
- 1922: James Anderson
- 1923: Pat O'Hara Wood
- 1924: James Anderson
- 1925: James Anderson
- 1926: John Hawkes
- 1927: Gerald Patterson
- 1928: Jean Borotra
- 1929: John Colin Gregory
- 1930: Edgar Moon
- 1931: Jack Crawford
- 1932: Jack Crawford
- 1933: Jack Crawford
- 1934: Fred Perry
- 1935: Jack Crawford
- 1936: Adrian Quist
- 1937: Vivian McGrath
- 1938: Don Budge
- 1939: John Bromwich
- 1940: Adrian Quist
- 1946: John Bromwich
- 1947: Dinny Pails
- 1948: Adrian Quist
- 1949: Frank Sedgman
- 1950: Frank Sedgman
- 1951: Dick Savitt
- 1952: Ken McGregor
- 1953: Ken Rosewall
- 1954: Mervyn Rose
- 1955: Ken Rosewall
- 1956: Lew Hoad
- 1957: Ashley Cooper
- 1958: Ashley Cooper
- 1959: Alex Olmedo
- 1960: Rod Laver
- 1961: Roy Emerson
- 1962: Rod Laver
- 1963: Roy Emerson
- 1964: Roy Emerson
- 1965: Roy Emerson
- 1966: Roy Emerson
- 1967: Roy Emerson
- 1968: William Bowrey
- 1969: Rod Laver
- 1970: Arthur Ashe
- 1971: Ken Rosewall
- 1972: Ken Rosewall
- 1973: John Newcombe
- 1974: Jimmy Connors
- 1975: John Newcombe
- 1976: Mark Edmondson
- 1977 (Jan): Roscoe Tanner
- 1977 (Dec): Vitas Gerulaitis
- 1978: Guillermo Vilas
- 1979: Guillermo Vilas
- 1980: Brian Teacher
- 1981: Johan Kriek
- 1982: Johan Kriek
- 1983: Mats Wilander
- 1984: Mats Wilander
- 1985: Stefan Edberg
- 1987: Stefan Edberg
- 1988: Mats Wilander
- 1989: Ivan Lendl
- 1990: Ivan Lendl
- 1991: Boris Becker
- 1992: Jim Courier
- 1993: Jim Courier
- 1994: Pete Sampras
- 1995: Andre Agassi
- 1996: Boris Becker
- 1997: Pete Sampras
- 1998: Petr Korda
- 1999: Yevgeny Kafelnikov
- 2000: Andre Agassi
- 2001: Andre Agassi
- 2002: Thomas Johansson
- 2003: Andre Agassi
- 2004: Roger Federer
- 2005: Marat Safin
- 2006: Roger Federer
- 2007: Roger Federer
- 2008: Novak Djokovic
- 2009: Rafael Nadal
- 2010: Roger Federer
- 2011: Novak Djokovic
- 2012: Novak Djokovic
- 2013: Novak Djokovic
- 2014: Stanislas Wawrinka
- 2015: Novak Djokovic
- 2016: Novak Djokovic
- 2017: Roger Federer
- 2018: Roger Federer
- 2019: Novak Djokovic
- 2020: Novak Djokovic
- 2021: Novak Djokovic
- 2022: Rafael Nadal
- 2023: Novak Djokovic
- 2024: Jannik Sinner