View source for Bunny Austin

{{Short description|English tennis player}}
{{other people|Henry Austin}}
{{for|Australian Army Brigadier "Bunny" Austin|Maurice Austin}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox tennis biography
| name                              = Bunny Austin
| image                             = Bunny Austin (1936).jpg
| caption                           = Bunny Austin with his wife Phyllis Konstam in 1936
| fullname                          = Henry Wilfred Austin
| country                           = {{GBR2}}
| residence                         =
| birth_date                        = {{Birth date|1906|8|26|df=y}}
| birth_place                       = [[London]], England
| death_date                        = {{death date and age|2000|8|26|1906|8|20|df=y}}
| death_place                       = [[Coulsdon]], London, England
| height                            =  {{convert|1.76|m|ftin|abbr=on}} 
| college                           =
| turnedpro                         = 1926 (amateur tour)
| retired                           = 1939
| plays                             = Right-handed (1-handed backhand)<ref name="BBC">{{Cite news |last=Peter Jackson |date=6 July 2012 |title=Andy Murray v Bunny Austin: Can Scot emulate 30s British great? |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15292120 |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref> 
| careerprizemoney                  =
| tennishofyear                     = 1997
| tennishofid                       = bunny-austin
| website                           = <!-- official web site address like this: [http://www.site.com www.site.com] -->
| singlesrecord                     = 455–108 (80.8%) <ref name="Bunny Austin: Career match record">{{Cite web |title=Bunny Austin: Career match record |url=https://app.thetennisbase.com/?enlace=playern&player_input_enc=AUSTIN%2C+BUNNY&player_input=AUSTIN%2C+BUNNY&sub=2#aSubmenu |access-date=3 November 2017 |website=thetennisbase.com |publisher=Tennis Base}}</ref>
| singlestitles                     = 30 <ref name="Bunny Austin: Career match record"/>
| highestsinglesranking             = No. 2 (1931<small>, [[A. Wallis Myers]]</small>)<ref name="USLTAEncyclopedia">United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). ''Official Encyclopedia of Tennis'' (First Edition), p. 424.</ref>
| AustralianOpenresult              = QF ([[1929 Australian Championships – Men's singles|1929]])
| FrenchOpenresult                  = F ([[1937 French Championships – Men's singles|1937]])
| Wimbledonresult                   = F ([[1932 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles|1932]], [[1938 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles|1938]])
| USOpenresult                      = QF ([[1929 U.S. National Championships – Men's singles|1929]])
| Othertournaments                  = <!-- adds a "Major tournaments" title -->
| MastersCupresult                  =
| WTAChampionshipsresult            =
| doublesrecord                     =
| doublestitles                     =
| highestdoublesranking             =
| AustralianOpenDoublesresult       =
| FrenchOpenDoublesresult           = 
| WimbledonDoublesresult            = SF (1926)
| USOpenDoublesresult               =
| OthertournamentsDoubles           = <!-- adds a "Major doubles tournaments" title -->
| MastersCupDoublesresult           =
| WTAChampionshipsDoublesresult     =
| OlympicsDoublesresult             =
| Mixed                             = <!-- adds mixed information-->
| mixedtitles                       =
| mixedrecord                       =
| AustralianOpenMixedresult         =
| FrenchOpenMixedresult             = F (1931)
| WimbledonMixedresult              = F (1934)
| USOpenMixedresult                 = F (1929)
}}

'''Henry Wilfred "Bunny" Austin''' (26 August 1906 – 26 August 2000<ref>{{Cite news |last=Litsky |first=Frank |date=2000-08-28 |title=Bunny Austin, 94, a Pioneer in Tennis Shorts |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/28/sports/bunny-austin-94-a-pioneer-in-tennis-shorts.html |access-date=2022-03-16 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gray |first=Michael |date=2000-08-27 |title=Obituary: Bunny Austin, British tennis player |url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/aug/28/guardianobituaries |access-date=2022-03-16 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>) was an English [[tennis]] player. For 74 years he was the last Briton to reach the final of the men's singles at the [[Wimbledon Championships]], until [[Andy Murray]] did so in 2012. He was also a finalist at the 1937 [[French Open|French Championships]] and a championship winner at [[Queen's Club]].  Along with [[Fred Perry]], he was a vital part of the British team that won the [[Davis Cup]] in three consecutive years (1933–1935). He is also remembered as the first tennis player to wear shorts.

==Early life and education==
The son of stockjobber Wilfred Austin and his wife Kate,<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-74491|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/74491|title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2004}}</ref> Austin was brought up in [[South Norwood]], London. Austin concluded that the nickname "Bunny", bestowed on him by school friends, came from the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' comic strip ''[[Pip, Squeak and Wilfred]]'' (Wilfred was a rabbit, or bunny).<ref>A Mixed Double, H. W. "Bunny" Austin and Phyllis Konstam, Chatto and Windus, 1969, p. 31</ref> Encouraged by his father, who was determined that he become a sportsman, he joined Norhurst Tennis Club aged six. Austin was educated at [[Repton School]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.reptondubai.org/alumni/bunny-austin/|title=Repton school website, last accessed on 24 January 2017|website=Reptondubai.org|access-date=22 October 2021}}</ref> and studied history at [[Pembroke College, Cambridge]].<ref>Pembroke College, Cambridge, Staff Handbook, 2 October 2014, 34 pages, History of the College, p.5 [http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Pembroke-Staff-Handbook-October-2014-FINAL-TO-USE.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202064948/http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Pembroke-Staff-Handbook-October-2014-FINAL-TO-USE.pdf|date=2 February 2017}}.</ref>

==Tennis career==
While still an undergraduate at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], he reached the semi-finals of the men's doubles at [[Wimbledon Championships|Wimbledon]] in 1926.<ref name=BBC/>  In 1931, [[A. Wallis Myers]] of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' ranked Austin as the World No. 2.<ref name="USLTAEncyclopedia" /><ref>Gregory Wilkin, "Catching Up With the Rabbit," in Tennis, July 1996, p. 69</ref>  In his first Wimbledon men's singles final in 1932, he was beaten by [[Ellsworth Vines]] of the United States in three sets.

In 1932, he decided that the traditional tennis attire, cricket flannels, weighed him down too much. He bought a pair of shorts to use at Forest Hills and subsequently became the first player to wear them at Wimbledon.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite news |last=Litsky |first=Bob |date=28 August 2000 |title=Bunny Austin, 94, a Pioneer in Tennis Shorts |language=es |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/28/sports/bunny-austin-94-a-pioneer-in-tennis-shorts.html |access-date=19 June 2009}}</ref>

Austin reached the quarter finals or better at Wimbledon 10 times. At Wimbledon 1932, Austin beat [[Frank Shields]] and [[Jiro Satoh]] before losing the final in straight sets to [[Ellsworth Vines]].<ref name="gsta">{{Cite web |title=Wimbledon 1932 |url=http://www.tennis.co.nf/WIMBLEDON%201932.htm |website=Tennis.co.nf}}</ref> At the French championships in 1937, Austin beat [[Yvon Petra]] before losing to [[Henner Henkel]] in the final.<ref name="gsta2">{{Cite web |title=French Open 1937 |url=http://www.tennis.co.nf/FRENCH%20OPEN%201937.htm |website=Tennis.co.nf}}</ref> At Wimbledon 1938 Austin beat Henkel but won just four games in the final against [[Don Budge]], who was at the peak of his form and went on to win the Grand Slam. He would be the last British man to reach the final of Wimbledon until [[Andy Murray]] in 2012. At Wimbledon 1939 Austin was top seed, but lost early. It was his last appearance at Wimbledon.

In the years 1933–1936 he and Fred Perry helped to win the Davis Cup for Britain.

Austin also popularized modern tennis racquet design by using and endorsing the 'Streamline' – a racquet invented by F.W. (Frank Wordsworth) Donisthorpe (patented in Great Britain in 1934) with a shaft that splits into three segments – allowing for aerodynamic movement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuebler |first=Siegfried |title=Book of Tennis Rackets: from the beginning in the 16th century until about 1990 |publisher=Kuebler GMbH |year=2000 |isbn=3-9802903-9-5 |location=Germany |pages=198–200, 600–601 |language=English}}</ref> The design was manufactured by Hazells and at the time was mocked in the press for looking like a [[snow shoe]]. After Austin's retirement, the design was virtually forgotten until the reintroduction of the split shaft in the late 1960s.

==Personal==
He married actress [[Phyllis Konstam]] in 1931, after meeting her in 1929 on a transatlantic liner while travelling for the US Open, and together they were one of the celebrity couples of the age. Austin played tennis with [[Charlie Chaplin]], was a friend of [[Daphne du Maurier]], [[Ronald Colman]], and [[Harold Lloyd]], and met both [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]] and President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]].

In 1933, concerned by increasing threats of a renewal of European, and indeed wider, war, Austin became involved in the [[Oxford Group]], later [[Moral Re-Armament]], speaking on public platforms and writing press articles.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.frankbuchman.info/|title=Frank Buchman - A Life|website=Frankbuchman.info|access-date=22 October 2021}}</ref> He and Fred Perry were the only players to raise their voice, in a letter to ''[[The Times]]'', against the Nazi ban on Jews joining the German team for the Davis Cup.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://uk.iofc.org/bunny-austin-1906-2000 |title=Bunny Austin 1906-2000 &#124; IofC UK |access-date=16 October 2018 |archive-date=17 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017082118/https://uk.iofc.org/bunny-austin-1906-2000 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to Austin's friend [[Peter Ustinov]], Austin was "disgracefully ostracised by the All-England Club because he was a [[conscientious objector]]".  In fact, soon after British declaration of the [[Second World War]], before the question whether he might register as an objector arose, he accepted an invitation from [[Frank Buchman]], Oxford Group founder, for a speaking tour of the US, and went, with the apparently overt approval of the British government. In 1943, with the extension of US conscription to Allied resident citizens, he was drafted into the [[US Army Air Force]], but a diagnosis of [[Gilbert's Syndrome]] (periodic malfunction of the liver) precluded him from combat service, and he was discharged in 1945. The syndrome explained his occasional and sudden fatigue on the court.<ref>Austin, H.W.; Konstam, Phyllis (1969). [https://www.foranewworld.org/material/publications/mixed-double  ''A Mixed Double''], p. 134. London: Chatto and Windus.</ref>

When he returned to Britain in 1961, a voting member of the Membership Committee of the All-England Club who had been removed from the Cambridge tennis team during Austin's captaincy used Austin's alleged [[proselytism]] for the Oxford Group as an excuse for denying him reinstatement in the All-England Club after a lapse of dues payment. His membership of the club was restored in 1984, the year the obstructing member died.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Austin's autobiography, written with his wife, ''[https://www.foranewworld.org/material/publications/mixed-double A Mixed Double]'', was published in 1969.

After a serious fall in 1995, Austin moved to a nursing home in [[Coulsdon]], [[London]]. He died in 2000 on his 94th birthday. His grave is in the village churchyard of Stoke St Gregory in Somerset. Just 56 days before his death, Austin had joined other past Wimbledon champions and finalists on Wimbledon's Centre Court for a pre-millennium parade of champions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/bunny-austin-dies-aged-94-696295.html|title=Bunny Austin dies aged 94|date=18 April 2009|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=22 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/28/sports/bunny-austin-94-a-pioneer-in-tennis-shorts.html|title=Bunny Austin, 94, a Pioneer in Tennis Shorts|first=Frank|last=Litsky|date=28 August 2000|access-date=22 October 2021|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

Austin was inducted into the [[International Tennis Hall of Fame]] at [[Newport, Rhode Island]], in 1997.

A [[biographical novel]] was published about Austin in October 2012, by Gregory Wilkin, entitled ''The Rabbit's Suffering Changes: Based on the True Story of Bunny Austin, the Last British Man—Until Murray—to Play in the Finals of Wimbledon''.

His sister [[Joan Austin]] was also a tennis player.

==Grand Slam finals==
===Singles (Three runners-up)===
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
!Result
!Year
!style="width:160px"|Championship
!Surface
!style="width:190px"|Opponent
!style="width:100px" class="unsortable"|Score
|-
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss ||1932  || style="background:#cfc;"|[[Wimbledon Championships]] || Grass || {{flagicon|USA}} [[Ellsworth Vines]] || 4–6, 2–6, 0–6
|-
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss ||1937  || style="background:#ebc2af;"|[[French Open|French Championships]] || Clay || {{flagicon|GER}} [[Henner Henkel]] || 1–6, 4–6, 3–6
|-
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss ||1938  || style="background:#cfc;"|Wimbledon Championships || Grass || {{flagicon|USA}} [[Don Budge]] || 1–6, 0–6, 3–6
|}

===Mixed doubles (3 runners-up)===
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
!Result
!Year
!style="width:160px"|Championship
!Surface
!style="width:190px"|Partner
!style="width:190px"|Opponents
!style="width:100px" class="unsortable"|Score
|-
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss || 1929 || style="background:#ccf;"|[[1929 U.S. National Championships (tennis)|U.S. Championships]] || Grass || {{flagicon|GBR}} [[Phyllis Covell]] || {{flagicon|GBR}} [[Betty Nuthall]] <br /> {{flagicon|USA|1912}} [[George Lott]] || 3–6, 3–6
|-
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss|| 1931 || style="background:#ebc2af;"|[[1931 French Championships (tennis)|French Championships]] || Clay || {{flagicon|GBR}} [[Dorothy Shepherd-Barron]] || {{flagicon|GBR}} [[Betty Nuthall]] <br /> {{flagicon|RSA|1928}} [[Patrick Spence]] || 3–6, 7–5, 3–6
|-
| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss || 1934 || style="background:#cfc;"|[[1934 Wimbledon Championships|Wimbledon]] || Grass || {{flagicon|GBR}} [[Dorothy Shepherd-Barron]] || {{flagicon|GBR}} [[Dorothy Round]] <br /> {{flagicon|JPN}} [[Tatsuyoshi Miki]] || 6–3, 4–6, 0–6
|}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{ATP}}
* {{Tennis Hall of Fame}}
* {{ITF}}
* {{Davis Cup player}}

{{International Tennis Hall of Fame members}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Bunny}}
[[Category:English male tennis players]]
[[Category:British male tennis players]]
[[Category:International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:People educated at Repton School]]
[[Category:People from South Norwood]]
[[Category:Tennis players from the London Borough of Croydon]]
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces soldiers]]
[[Category:English conscientious objectors]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:20th-century English sportsmen]]