Portal:Tennis/Selected biography/29

Tony Wilding (31 October 1883 – 9 May 1915) was a former World number 1 tennis player from Christchurch, New Zealand.

Wilding was the son of wealthy English immigrants to New Zealand and enjoyed the use of private tennis courts at their home. He obtained a legal education at Trinity College, Cambridge and briefly joined his father's law firm. His tennis career started with him winning the Canterbury Championships aged 17.

Wilding developed into a leading tennis player in the world during 1909–1914 and is considered to be a former World number 1. He won 11 Grand Slam tournament titles including six in singles and five in doubles. He also won three ILTF Championships; the World Hard Court Championships twice and the World Covered Court Championships once. Wilding won the Davis Cup four times playing for Australasia, and won a bronze medal at the indoor singles tennis event of the 1912 Olympics which made him the first and only player ever from New Zealand to win an Olympic medal in tennis in the Summer Olympics,a record which still remains unbroken as of 2016. He still holds a number of all time singles tennis records namely 75 career clay court titles (1900–15), 23 titles won in a single season (1906) and 114 career outdoor titles (shared with Rod Laver). In his ranking list of greatest tennis players compiled in 1950, Norman Brookes, winner of three Grand Slam titles and president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia, put Wilding in fourth place.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I Wilding enlisted and was killed on 9 May 1915 during the Battle of Aubers Ridge at Neuve-Chapelle, France. In 1978 Wilding was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.