Pat O'Hara Wood

Hector O'Hara Wood, known as Pat, was an Australian tennis player, born in St Kilda, Melbourne, on 30 April 1891 and died in Richmond on 3 December 1961. He is best known for his two victories at the Australasian Championships, now the Australian Open, in 1920 and 1923. He was quick around the court, with textbook groundstrokes, sharp volleys and a solid serve. After Melbourne Grammar School he entered Trinity College at the University of Melbourne in 1911, where he excelled at cricket as well as tennis and made 167 not out against Ormond College. He enlisted as an officer in the Australian Army in 1916 and in 1919 won the doubles event at the Inter-Allied Games in Paris with Randolph Lycett. His brother Arthur O'Hara Wood won the 1914 championships, and in 1923 he married the tennis player Meryl Waxman.