Tributes have poured in following the death of multiple Grand Slam champion, coach and commentator Fred Stolle at the age of 86.
Stolle was one of Australia’s most successful tennis players throughout the 1960s. He won two Grand Slam singles titles at the 1965 French Open before going on to win the US Open title a year later. At the other two majors, he was a three-time finalist at Wimbledon and twice runner-up at the Australian Open. In 1966 World Tennis ranked him as the No.1 player in the world.
In the doubles, Stolle also enjoyed great success by winning 10 more major titles in men’s doubles and a further seven in the mixed. He also played a part in his country’s three consecutive trophy wins in the Davis Cup between 1964 and 1966.
After ending his professional career, Stolle remained involved in tennis. He coached the World Team Tennis New York Apples before spending six years working with Vitas Gerulaitis between 1977 and 1983. Gerulaitis reached a high of No.3 in 1978.
In the media world, he was a well-known broadcaster who worked for ESPN for almost two decades. He was also at some point part of Nine Network, Fox Sports and CBS.
“I credit him personally for where I am in my post-tennis career,” Todd Woodbridge said in tribute.
“When I started playing he was the voice of Channel Nine, along with [Australian tennis icon] John Newcombe and [US tennis great] Tony Trabert, and he was always there with a joke and a crack, but positive advice about how to become better.
“Then he made a career for himself after playing tennis, as a broadcaster and a commentator, and in America running corporate tennis to all the biggest organizations and the biggest companies, and I thought, ‘OK, this is the guy to look at, to emulate’, because he had done so well … He showed there’s more to life than just playing tennis.”
Rod Laver, who is the only man in the Open Era to win all four major events within the same year, paid his own tribute.
“As I wrote in my book on the Golden Era of Aussie tennis, Fred Stolle was too nice a guy to hold a grudge,” Laver wrote on X.
“He won many Grand Slams and was in the finals of many more. It took the best to beat the best. We never tired of reliving the past as we traveled the world looking into the future with an enduring love of the sport. You will be missed, Fiery, RIP.”
Meanwhile, Darren Cahill described Stolle as ‘a great man and legend of our sport’ and former world No.1 doubles player Paul McNamee wrote on social media that his ‘legacy is perhaps unrivaled.’
Stolle was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. He was also awarded an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and an Office of the Order of Australia distinction in 2005.
