Dilip Bose thread

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PKBasu
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Dilip Bose thread

Post by PKBasu »

The first Indian to be seeded at Wimbledon surely deserves a thread of his own, although he was too far before my time for me to know much more than the bare details about him. The Wimbledon archive is helpful, showing that he made the PQF (R4) in singles in 1948 (one better than in 1947) and the third round (also PQF) in MxD too that year:

http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/d ... index.html

Since he first played at Wimbledon in 1939, I presume the war years would have been his peak, and he could have gone much further in those years had war not intervened.
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Re: Dilip Bose thread

Post by PKBasu »

On the way to the PQF in 1948, Dilip Bose defeated Harry Hopman (AO singles finalist thrice) in a 5-setter. Hopman of course was the famous coach of all Australia's great tennis players in the 1950s and 1960s (Rosewall, Hoad, Laver, Newcombe, Roche). In 1948, Bose also made R3 in singles at Roland Garros.

In 1950, Dilip Bose won the pre-Wimbledon tournament on grass at Birmingham:
http://www.tennisarchives.com/voorloopf ... oopid=4073

In July 1950, Bose made the final of a tournament in Dusseldorf. This may have been his best year (he was 28 years old), but he retired injured in R2 at Wimbledon.

And in 1949, he won the Asian singles championship, beating Sumant Misra in the final -- and a number of Europeans who lived in Asia in earlier rounds!

Here's where I found this information:
http://www.tennisarchives.com/coureurfi ... reurid=372
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Re: Dilip Bose thread

Post by rajitghosh »

He also won a tournament in Priory Club, England in 1950. He was the 1st Indian to be seeded at Wimbledon but not at a Grand Slam. At the 1925 French Open SM Jacob was seeded 8th and reached the semis. In 1926 AA Fyzee was seeded 8th. In 1927 Sri Krishna Prasad was seeded 11th and reached the 4th round.
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