The tennis world is mourning the death of former top administrator Brian Tobin, who served as president of the International Tennis Federation and Tennis Australia.
Tobin, who laid the foundations for the great success of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park, died on Monday aged 93, according to the ITF.
He became the first full-time president of the ITF in 1991 and guided the governing body into a new era that followed the establishment of the ATP and WTA tours and the reintroduction of tennis into the Olympics in 1988.
The Perth-born businessman headed Tennis Australia from 1977 to 1989, overseeing the move of the Australian Open from the grass courts of Kooyong to its current home at Melbourne Park, and the construction of Rod Laver Arena with its revolutionary retractable roof.
It was a critical period with the Open, before the shift, struggling to draw the world’s best players to Kooyong.
Ash Barty after winning the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park in 2022
Dubbed the ‘Happy Slam’, the Australian Open is a favourite with many of the world’s best players – and leading administrator Brian Tobin was behind the move from Kooyong to Melbourne Park in 1988
Spanish fans always came out in huge numbers to see Rafael Nadal in the flesh at Melbourne Park
Former Tennis Australia president Geoff Pollard paid tribute to Tobin, who is survived by his wife Carmen and sons Geoff and Alan, for his contribution.
‘Brian will always be remembered as the Tennis Australia president who successfully moved the Australian Open from Kooyong to Melbourne Park in 1988,’ Pollard said in a statement.
‘He set the scene for me and the presidents that followed to grow the Open to become an equal partner with our fellow grand slams.
‘As a player he was ranked in the top 10 Australian men in the 1950s and early 1960s.
‘He spent a lifetime developing and promoting the game we all love. We have all lost a great friend.’
ITF president David Haggerty described Tobin, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003, as ‘a great president’.
‘He oversaw tennis’s emergence as a truly global sport, played and enjoyed by millions around the world,’ Haggerty said in a statement.
