The former tennis ace: Patrick Hart
The former Australian tennis ace, Patrick Hart famously known as "Pat" Cash was born on 27 May 1965 in the city of Victoria. The right handed tennis ace triumphed at the grass court Grand Slam championship back in 1987.
Pat came to the limelight on the very first occasion as a junior contester back in 1980s. He was listed as the top junior contester in the world back in 1981. The Australian professional tennis player grabbed the junior trophy on the very first occasion back in 1982 at the grass court Grand Slam tournament as well as the United States Open championship.
The 1.82 meters tall, Patrick turned professional back in 1982 and gained his first high level singles trophy that season in his native place, Melbourne.
Cash was known as a tough fighter, volley and serve player along with his popular black and white head band as well as his cross earrings.
Patrick in 1983, registered his name as the youngest ever tennis player to participate in the final of the Davis Cup. He succeeded in the final singles rubber versus Joakim Nystrom as Australian side knocked down Sweden 3–2 to grab the title.
The next year, Cash managed to make his way into the semi final stage of the men’s singles at the grass court tournament as well as the United States Open championship. He fell down in a total of three sets at the grass court tournament’s semi final match by John McEnroe and was defeated at the US Open semi final match as well by Ivan Lendl, who met victory in a total of five sets. The Australian tennis player Patrick Hart ended the doubles contest at Wimbledon as runner up on two occasions, first in 1984 with his partner McNamee and on second occasion in the season1985 paired with FitzGerald. The following year, Pat made his way into his very first major singles final match at the Australian Open however, eventually lost to Stefan Edberg in a total of five sets. This was the final Australian Open championship contested on the grass surface.
The glorious moment of Pat’s professional life came at the grass court Grand Slam tournament in the season 1987. While making his way into the finals of the 1987 Wimbledon, Pat knocked down Mats Wilander in the quarterfinal round where as Jimmy Connors in the semi final stage at the All England Club. The Australian tennis ace, grabbed his very first Wimbledon title by hammering down Ivan Lendl in the final battle.
In 1988, Patrick made his way into the finals of the Australian Open championship on the second occasion in a row and met another Swede tennis ace, Mats Wilander in the finals.
This was the very first men's singles final clash contested at the new Melbourne Park and the Swede tennis player, Wilander triumphed in a total of two hundred and seventy minutes, grabbing the set number five 8–6. It was also the first major final in the rich history of the game to be contested indoors as a result of rainy weather that pulled the closing of the roof half way through the battle.
Pat participated in his third final of the Davis Cup back in 1990. However, on this occasion, Australia was knocked down 2-3 by the United States of America.
The Australian player kept on participating on the circuit every now and then through the middle of 1990s. However, a couple of sequential injuries did not allow the Australian tennis ace to return to his perfect form after triumphing at the grass court Grand Slam tournament back in 1987.
He succeeded in his last high level singles championship back in 1990 which was held in Hong Kong where as his last doubles trophy came at Pinehurst back in 1996 along with his partner Rafter.
Patrick Hart retired from the professional tennis back in 1997. Since Pat’s retirement, he has lived mostly in London. Pat has served as a coach of many top class tennis players such as Mark Philippoussis as well as Greg Rusedski.
He established a tennis academy in his native place at first and is now planning to Thailand, Dominican Republic as well as Ko Sumui and thus is rendering his services and contributing in the progress of the game of tennis.
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