On the 3 July 1909, British tennis player, Arthur William Charles Wentworth Gore (1868- 1928), won his third Grand Slam Wimbledon Men’s Singles Championship. Beating Major Josiah Ritchie, 6-8, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, scoring a rare back-to back title triumph. Gore also won the Grand Slam Doubles Championship at Wimbledon in the same year.

Gore’s Wimbledon win in 1909, at the ripe old-age of 41, made him the oldest player at the time to hold the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title.

In 1901, Gore was ranked joint World No. 1, after winning the first of his three Wimbledon singles titles, a distinction he shared with Karoly Mazak. In the 1901 final he defeated the defending four-time champion R.F. Doherty 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. And in 1908, Arthur claimed his second Wimbledon Singles Championship, after he beat Herbert Roper-Barrett, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4.

Gore also held the record for the most number of times finishing as runner-up, five in all, which he shred with Herbert Lawford.

He also won Gold medals at the 1908 Summer Olympics held in London, winning the men’s indoor singles and the men’s indoor doubles paired with Herbert Barrett. Gore also competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Gore played his first tennis tournament at the London Athletic Club in 1887, and turned professional in 1888. His first title came at a grass court tournament in Stevenage in August of that year. Gore also won the singles title at the Scottish Championship in 1892, and successfully defended the title in the Challenge Round in the following year.

In 1894 he won the North London Championships on grass, an event that he won five times (1894, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1906).

And in 1900 and 1908 he won the singles title at the British Covered Court Championships, at the Queen’s Club in London, defeating New Zealander Anthony Wilding in the Challenge Round in four sets.

Gore’s run in the Wimbledon men’s singles spanned 34 years, from 1888-1922, during which he entered the Singles Championship 30 times.

Arthur Gore tennis career spanned 30 years and 11 months, during which he amassed a total of 51 singles titles, and reaching the finals of 26 other tournaments on clay, grass and hard asphalt & wood courts.

Gore was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2006.

Born in Lyndhurst, and died in Kensington, aged 60.

3 July, 2019