Anthony Frederick WILDING

The son of a New Zealand cricketer and pioneer cricket administrator, Frederick Wilding, Anthony Wilding learned his tennis at the family home in Christchurch and won a series of national titles. He went to Cambridge to study law but the tennis courts seemed to take more of his attention than the law torts. However, he was admitted to the Bar at the Inner Temple in England in 1906 and qualified as a barrister and solicitor at the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 1909.

He won the Wimbledon singles title 1910-13 when the defending champion had to play only a challenge round, helped the combined team of Australasia win the Davis Cup three times, and won a bronze medal at the Stockholm Olympic Games in the covered court singles. Wilding won the Australian Championships in 1906 and 1909. In doubles he won Wimbledon titles in 1907-08, 1910, and 1914 and an Australian title in 1906, adding a mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1914. Wilding also won the World Hard Court Championship in 1913-14 and the World Covered Court Championship in 1913, both of which were considered major championships in that era. He was a successful and popular figure on the world tennis circuit that was then centered on the tourist spots of Europe.