On the 2 July 1904, the French tennis player and businessman Jean René Lacoste was born in Paris [1904 –1996).

Nicknamed ‘the Crocodile’ because of how he dealt with his opponents, he was an outstanding baseline player and tactician of the pre-war period. He is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929.

Lacoste was one of four French tennis stars, along with Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet, known as the Four Musketeers, who dominated the game in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Lacoste  won seven Grand Slam singles titles at the French, American, and British championships, and was a member of the French team which won the Davis Cup Cup in 1927 and 1928, ending the USA’s six-year title run in 1927 at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia.  When Lacoste won both his singles matches against Bill Johnston and Bill Tilden. Lacoste was ranked as World No. 1 player for both 1926 and 1927. 

Lacoste started playing tennis at age 15 when he accompanied his father on a trip to England. He played in his first Grand Slam tournament in 1922 Wimbledon Championship, losing in the first round to Pat O’Hara Wood. The following year he competed for the first time in the US Championships. 

His breakthrough came in 1925 when he won the singles title at the French Championships [7-5,6-1,6-4] and at Wimbledon [6-3,6-3, 4-6, 8-6], in both cases with victory in the final against compatriot Jean Borotra. In 1926 he defeated Borotra again to win the US National Championship [6-4,6-0,6-4], and again the following year, beating Bill Tilden [11-9,6-3,11-9].

His final two Grand Slam wins were at Wimbledon in 1928 against Henri Cochet [3-1], and the French Championship in Paris the following year in five sets against his old rival Borotra.

In 1976, the ‘Four Musketeers’ were inducted simultaneously into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. 

In 1928 Lacoste wrote a book which he titled ‘Lacoste on Tennis.’  

In 1933, Lacoste founded La Société Chemise Lacoste with André Gillier. The company produced the tennis shirt which had a crocodile embroidered on the chest, also known as a ‘polo shirt’, which Lacoste often wore when he playing,

2 July 2019