Mark Cox

Mark Cox (born 5 July 1943) is a former tennis player from England, who played professional and amateur tennis in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was ranked as high as world No. 12 on the ATP rankings, achieving that ranking in October 1977.

Early life and education Cox was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School in Leicester and Millfield School in Somerset. He obtained an economics undergraduate degree from Downing College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club. Upon graduating from Cambridge, Cox was employed by a stockbroking firm and only turned professional in 1970. As he later admitted to sports writer James Buddell, " never really thought of tennis as a career. There was no view of open tennis, so when I initially left university, playing felt like a gap year — great fun, and the expenses helped keep my head above water."

Career Cox played his first tournament on 3 November 1958 at the Torquay Indoor Championship. During his career, he won twenty-four singles titles He won 23 of his Davis Cup matches and lost 12.

Following the establishment of the Open Era in men's tennis in 1968, Cox went down in history as the first amateur player to beat a professional when he defeated the American Pancho Gonzales in the second round of the British Hard Court Championships at Bournemouth, in a match that went to five sets and lasted two and a quarter hours. He followed this up for good measure by beating two times Wimbledon Champion Roy Emerson in the next round. It was after his victory over Emerson that Time magazine referred to Cox as a "giant killer", a reputation he strengthened further by achieving big upset wins over No. 1 seed Rod Laver at the 1971 Australian Open and over No. 2 seed Ken Rosewall at the 1972 US Open. During his career, Cox maintained positive head-to-head records over several top players, such as Guillermo Vilas (whom Cox defeated 6–1, 6–1 at the Memphis Open in 1977, a year when Vilas lost only 14 out of 154 matches), Manuel Orantes, Lew Hoad, Roscoe Tanner, Jan Kodes and Ivan Lendl.

Some of Cox's finest moments came late in his career; a notable triumph was at the 1976 Stockholm Open, when at the age of 33 he won the title after knocking out world No. 1 Jimmy Connors and Manuel Orantes (respectively the reigning and previous US Open champions) in succession. He remarked afterwards that "At the big points I played the right shots, the first services were going in. It was like a fairy story." Although able to win on all surfaces he was especially adept at playing on indoor carpet courts, and in 1975 he became the last British player to win back-to-back professional titles (at the Washington Indoor WCT and London WCT events) until Andy Murray repeated the feat in 2008. To date, he is the last English-born male to win a top level UK tournament on grass (Eastbourne in 1973). After his final title in 1977 it would take another 17 years for a British player to win a top-level tour title (Jeremy Bates at Seoul in 1994). During his latter playing years and after his retirement, he worked as a coach and also as a television commentator for the BBC.

Personal life Cox is a Patron of a charity "CRY" (Cardiac Risk in the Young) and an ambassador for the Win Tennis Academy at Bisham. He lives in London in the house he shared with his late wife Susie.

Career finals Singles: 42 (24 titles, 18 runner-ups) Finals by surface Hard (7–5) Grass (4–4) Clay (3–6) Carpet (10–3)

ResultNo.YearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1. 1962 Budleigh Salterton, England Grass Jaroslav Drobny 4–6, 6–0, 2–6 Loss 2. 1962 Eastbourne, England Grass Roger Becker 6–4, 2–6, 4–6 Win 1. 1963 Eastbourne, England Grass Warren Jacques 1–6, 7–5, 6–2 Loss 4. 1965 Chingford, England Clay Bobby Wilson 2–6, 6–8 Win 10. 1969 Stalybridge, England Carpet (i) Bob Hewitt 6–4, 6–3 Win 18. 1973 Eastbourne, England Grass Patrice Dominguez 6–2, 2–6, 6–3Win 19. 1973 Dublin, Ireland Hard John Yuill 7–5, 3–6, 11–9 Loss 14. 1974 Bologna WCT, Italy Carpet (i) Arthur Ashe 4–6, 5–7Loss 15. 1974 London WCT, England Hard (i) Björn Borg 7–6, 6–7, 4–6Win 20. 1975 Washington Indoor WCT, U.S. Carpet (i) Dick Stockton 6–2, 7–6Win 21. 1975 London WCT, England Carpet (i) Brian Fairlie 6–1, 7–5Win 22. 1975 Atlanta WCT, U.S. Carpet (i) John Alexander 6–3, 7–6Win 23. 1976 Stockholm, Sweden Hard (i) Manuel Orantes 4–6, 7–5, 7–6Win 24. 1977 Helsinki, Finland Carpet (i) Kjell Johansson 6–3, 6–3Loss 16. 1977 Queen's Club, England Grass Raúl Ramírez 7–9, 5–7Loss 17. 1977 Cincinnati, U.S. Clay Harold Solomon 2–6, 3–6Loss 18. 1980 Stuttgart Indoor, West Germany Hard (i) Tomáš Šmíd 1–6, 3–6, 7–5, 6–1, 4–6

Doubles: 11 (3 titles, 8 runner-ups) ResultNo.YearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 1. 1973 Copenhagen, Denmark Carpet (i) Graham Stilwell Erik van Dillen Tom Gorman 4–6, 4–6Win 1. 1973 Cologne, West Germany Carpet (i) Graham Stilwell Tom Okker Marty Riessen 7–6, 6–3Win 2. 1973 London, England Carpet (i) Owen Davidson Gerald Battrick Graham Stilwell 6–4, 8–6Loss 2. 1974 Denver WCT, U.S. Carpet (i) Jun Kamiwazumi Arthur Ashe Roscoe Tanner 3–6, 6–7Loss 3. 1975 San Antonio WCT, U.S. Hard Cliff Drysdale John Alexander Phil Dent 6–7, 6–4, 4–6Loss 4. 1975 Memphis, U.S. Carpet (i) Cliff Drysdale Erik van Dillen Dick Stockton 6–1, 5–7, 4–6Loss 5. 1975 Atlanta WCT, U.S. Carpet (i) Cliff Drysdale Anand Amritraj Vijay Amritraj 3–6, 2–6Loss 6. 1975 World Doubles WCT, Mexico Carpet (i) Cliff Drysdale Brian Gottfried Raúl Ramírez 6–7, 7–6, 2–6, 6–7Loss 7. 1976 Washington WCT, U.S. Carpet Cliff Drysdale Eddie Dibbs Harold Solomon 4–6, 5–7Loss 8. 1977 London WCT, England Hard (i) Eddie Dibbs Ilie Năstase Adriano Panatta 6–7, 7–6, 3–6Win 3. 1977 Basel, Switzerland Carpet (i) Buster Mottram John Feaver John James 7–5, 6–4, 6–3