Andre Merlin
Nickname: The basset hound
| Born |
Subscribe now
This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet.
Please click here and get full access to the entire database! |
|---|---|
| Died | |
| Plays | |
| Bio | He was a French tennis player. His father, Martial Merlin was the Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa, where Andre was born. Then the family lived in French Indochina where his father was also Governor-General. His childhood is partially described in Le Fils du consul by Lucien Bodard. André Merlin won the third edition of the Italian Open in 1932 against Pat Hughes. Merlin first represented the France Davis Cup team in the final of the 1933 tournament, against Great Britain at the Stade de Roland Garros. France, under The Four Musketeers, had won the previous six tournaments, but were an ageing side and brought in Merlin to counter the younger British players. René Lacoste, who became captain of the French Davis Cup team, chose him to everyone's surprise to replace him as second singles player to face the English in the final in 1933 alongside Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon. An eye-catching and combative player but without much reference until then, in a one sided encounter Merlin sharply lost his first match against Bunny Austin (6-3, 6-4, 6-0), leading to criticism of the relevance of Lacoste's selection. Henri Cochet was beaten by Fred Perry, but the French fought back to win the doubles then levelled the tie when Cochet overcame Austin in five sets. This meant it came down to Merlin in the fifth rubber, with his match against Perry to decide the title. During the fifth and final decisive match against Fred Perry, particularly offensive, he managed to lead a set to zero and even obtained two set points in the second however he had failed to capitalise on those ones. Perry fought back to win in four sets (4-6, 8-6, 6-2, 7-5) and secure Britain's first title since 1912. Thus ending the domination of the Four Musketeers over the event for six years and announcing the start of the domination of the big Perry. This would remain the only Davis Cup final that Merlin played. Merlin was selected the following year, he achieved the feat of beating Australian world No. 1 Jack Crawford, winner of the Roland-Garros and Wimbledon tournament, (4-6, 6-4, 6 -4, 6-2). Despite his effort, it was not enough to ultimately win the tie, however he also beat Vivian McGrath in the last match which was without stakes. He met Crawford again in 1935 but lost this time. He will play a total of ten matches in the Davis Cup with a record of six wins and four losses. Merlin was a quarter-finalist in the 1936 French Championships, as an unseeded player. He had a win over fifth seed Henner Henkel en route to the quarter-final defeat in which he took countryman Christian Boussus to five sets. After the war, Merlin made one final appearance at his home tournament, at the 1947 French Championships, but ended up defaulting his opening match. A commercial agent by profession, André Merlin had a rather turbulent life marked by a dependence on drink and a suicide attempt. He died in 1960 at the age of 48 at Bichat hospital in Paris. |
| Misc | Subscribe now |
| Tournament | AO | RG | W | US | Win-Loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Subscribe now
This information and data is not available because you are not our subscriber yet.
Please click here and get full access to the entire database! |
|||||