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Rodney Heath

Australian tennis player

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Rodney Wilfred Heath (15 June 1884, 26 October 1936) was an Australian tennis player.

01Personal

Heath was the second son of F. W. Heath who was the official timekeeper at the Victorian Racing Club and Victorian Amateur Turf Club. Rodney's brother C. V. Heath won the South Australian men's singles title in 1902. In June 1915 Heath left Australia to join the Royal Flying Corps in England. He was promoted to the rank of major two years later. In 1916 Heath was injured when he crash-landed his plane after flying into a snowstorm en route from England to France.

02Tennis career

Heath was the Men's Singles champion at the inaugural Australasian Championships in 1905 defeating Albert Curtis in four sets. He won again it five years later, in 1910, after a victory in the final against Horace Rice in three straight sets.

In 1911 he played in the Davis Cup challenge round in New Zealand against the United States and defeated William Larned in four sets.

In 1919 he reached the final of the Wimbledon Men's Doubles tournament with Randolph Lycett.

03Death

On 26 October 1936, 9 months before his 53rd birthday, Heath was found dead in the bedroom of his sister's home in Melbourne, Australia. It is said that Heath died from melanoma in his stomach.

04Grand Slam finals

Singles (2 titles)

Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Win1905Australasian ChampionshipsGrass Arthur Curtis4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
Win1910Australasian ChampionshipsGrass Horace Rice6-4, 6-3, 6-2

Doubles: 5 (2 titles, 3 runners-up)

Watch videos about Rodney HeathExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Rodney Heath, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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