Obituary: Adrian Quist: 1913-1991 - by James Buddell

Adrian Quist, the best player in Australia shortly prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, and a major force on the international circuit for 20 years, passed away in a Sydney hospital aged 78 after a long battle with cancer.

Quist won the Australian singles championships on three occasions in 1936 and 1940 (d. Crawford both times) and 1948 (d. Bromwich). He also finished as runner-up in 1939 (l. to Bromwich), finishing the season at a career-high No. 3. As the winner of 14 major men’s doubles championships from 18 finals, he was the first player in the sport’s history to complete the doubles Career Grand Slam. In 1935, he teamed with Jack Crawford to take the Roland Garros and Wimbledon doubles titles, and in 1950 he won the Wimbledon title again, with John Bromwich.

Jack Kramer, writing in his 1979 autobiography, The Game, noted, "Quist played the backhand court. He had a dink backhand that was better for doubles than singles, and a classic forehand drive with a natural sink. He was also fine at the net, volley and forehand."

Quist, whom friends called Adrian Karl, was the son of a noted Southern and Western Australian cricketer, Karl Quist, who owned a sports shop, and Carmen Lurline. Growing up in Glenelg, Adelaide, 5’6” Quist was encouraged to play tennis by the English cricketer Patsy Hendren, and won two Australian junior doubles titles in 1930 and 1932, and the 1933 junior singles.

Quist, a fine, determined athlete, of great integrity and sportsmanship, who never knew when he was beaten, won the Australian doubles championship 10 years in a row (1936-1940 and 1946-1950), eight times with John Bromwich and twice with his former junior partner, Don Turnbull. When asked his great partnership with Bromwich, he told The Sydney Morning Herald, for which he wrote, in 1986, "We did not talk much ... there was a thread between us on the court that never extended off the court."

Quist represented Australia in 54 Davis Cup rubbers (22 of 33 singles, 19 of 22 doubles) between 1933 and 1948, holding the record for most victories until Lleyton Hewitt surpassed the mark in September 2010. Quist was a part of the first team to recover from 0-2 down in the 1939 Challenge Round, against the United States.

He was first employed by Dunlop in 1932, and moved to Melbourne (1937) and Sydney (1940) as a director and manager. Asthma prevented him enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force, but he served voluntarily in the Citizen Military Forces from 1939, before he was mobilised for full-time duty on in March 1942 as a lieutenant. He was married to Sylvia Keighley between 1941 and 1950.

After retiring from the sport in 1950 was responsible for the mentoring of young talents, such as Lew Hoad, Rod Laver and Tony Roche, becoming Dunlop’s general manager in Australia in 1963. Quist, who maintained friendships with Jaroslav Drobny and Gottfried von Cramm, was also a television commentator on Davis Cup ties and a journalist. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984.

Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard paid tribute to Quist for his contribution to tennis, saying, "As a player, Adrian Quist ranks among the best of all time. His career was interrupted by war just as he and John Bromwich reached the top of world tennis winning the Davis Cup. This break denied him a real chance of winning the Wimbledon singles title."

He was survived by a son and a daughter.

Adrian Karl Quist, tennis player, coach and journalist, born 23 January 1913, died 17 November 1991.