A Farewell to Brian Tobin

I heard the sad news this week that Brian Tobin, the former ITF and Tennis Australia President had passed away aged 93. Brian was a great tennis person who had been ranked in the top 10 in Australia at a time when Australia was dominating tennis and as a player, played the Grand Slams in doubles.

The other people at the top of the organization at that time were:

• Mike Davies, former top player ranked number 6 in the World who was General Manager and Commercial Director. He had previously worked for the ATP and WCT.

• Thomas Hallberg was in charge of Davis Cup and had played Grand Slams and Davis Cup for Sweden (he had also been CEO of Swedish Tennis and had helped set up Tennis Europe in the 70s)

• Debbie Jevans (who is now chairman of the AELTC) was running women’s tennis and BJK Cup and who had been last 16 of Wimbledon twice.

• Bill Babcock was in charge of men’s tennis and he was a former Satellite player who had worked for the men’s player council.

• Sally Holdsworth, who had played Wimbledon many times, was in charge of HR and office Admin.

• Chris Stokes was Commercial Director and with Mike Davies had raised large revenues by putting in place a wide range of sponsors for the ITF events.

• Doug MacCurdy was Director of Development and had worked for the USTA and had played on the satellite pro tour.

Because I played tennis with some of them, I was lucky enough to be invited from time to time to lunch at Queens club and I would sit there listening to discussions about the future of the ITF and of international tennis, afraid to speak as there was so much tennis knowledge present and I did not want to embarrass myself.

Mike and Chris had been so successful in signing a TV deal for Davis Cup in 1995 that Brian sent a memo to ask how we were going to spend the money. In the end, Brian and the Board agreed to distribute 50% of the end-of-year profits as a dividend to the member nations which continued until he finished as President. The ITF was probably at its strongest at that moment financially and in terms of its influence on the future direction of tennis.

In the 90s, the ITF and the Grand Slams were very much aligned, and it was the time of the Grand Slam Cup which was owned by the Slams and run by the ITF. The fact that the Grand Slams and the ITF were united on most things was a big part due to Brian’s strength as a leader and his political skills.

Brian was a very nice person. When he was not travelling, he worked late, and instead of asking me to come to him, he would often come down to my office, poke his head around my office door and ask me a question or just enquire how things were going with my work and family. It made me feel important and it was a lesson for me in humility and people management.

I remember one time when my son Simon aged 8, was in the office. I had left him at reception while I did something in my office. When I came back, I found that Brian had taken him up to his office and left Simon watching TV.

At the US Open in 1992, we had a development officers meeting and Brian insisted on taking us all out to dinner. He was so interested in each of us and in what was happening in the various regions where the officers were based.

The ITF AGM in 1998 was held in Ireland and I had recently been appointed as Director of Development replacing Doug MacCurdy. It was the first time that I had presented the Development report at the ITF AGM, and I was very nervous. Brian saw this and came to me beforehand and said some positive words to me showing that he believed in me. It went well.

Brian was a very good speaker who at ITF functions had an ability to make everyone in the room feel comfortable. At that AGM he made a speech at a cocktail party, dropping in some jokes and tennis stories, and as he was speaking, I realized that he was an Australian version of movie star, Sean Connery, the former James Bond. He had real charisma.

Every Friday night if he was in town he would invite staff to his office for drinks and I heard so many good stories from him and others present. I travelled a lot with Brian in 1998/99 and was with him at many events between 1992 and 99 when he finished. In 1998 in Senegal, we met the Senegal President who had been in power for more than 30 years. The day before, Bill Clinton had met the same President as we were in Dakar at the same time. Brian showed his abilities as a world statesman on so many similar occasions.

He was always great fun to be with and I always laughed a lot around him. I remember one particular time when we were in Sun City, South Africa, and we met up with the great Abe Segal who had been a Grand Slam doubles champion in the 50s and had played Davis Cup with Gordon Forbes. Abe was accompanied by a lady at least 35 years younger than him. When she went to get us a drink, he turned to Brian and said….”I don’t know what it is Brian but the older and uglier I get….the more beautiful women I seem to attract!” We laughed a lot about this comment.

We sat later that week for dinner with Gordon Forbes, the then President of Tennis South Africa, and they talked about the ATP tours and Davis Cup. Gordon then said something very powerful. He said….”The most important part of sport for the spectator is that they care who wins. The overall quality of the match is less important. This is why Davis Cup (even if some top players are missing) and Grand Slams are important because spectators care who wins, and it’s why some ATP/WTA events are not as interesting”. Powerful words that I have used many times afterwards.

Brian told me once over a beer about the first time he played on Centre Court at Wimbledon. It was a mixed match which was last on court and a heavy dew was on the court. On his first return he tried to run around a second serve and slipped, fell on the ground and the second bounce of the serve hit him on the head as he struggled to get up. He joked that he liked always to make a good first impression.

The last time I saw Brian was in Melbourne at a lunch during the Australian Open in 2019. At the time I had announced my candidacy for the ITF Presidency. We spent 45 minutes talking about the ITF, the Davis Cup (he wasn’t happy about the new format) and he gave me a lot of good advice and encouragement. His wife Carmen was there at the lunch. She is such an amazing lady who was a great support to Brian, travelling extensively with him on ITF business. At my first AGM in 1992 in Dominican Republic, my wife Daisy accompanied me and during that week, Carmen made her feel so welcome. I’ll never forget that. When Daisy died suddenly in 2000, Brian was one of the first to message his condolence with some very kind words of support.

I learned so much from Brian and the other people in the management team at the ITF. From Brian, I learned how important leadership skills are and that people skills and good communication, and humility (giving people respect and listening to them) are a very big part of it. It’s what adds value to your qualifications and what makes you successful in any business.

At the ITF Board meetings, Brian would introduce a subject and then chair the discussion allowing everyone to speak. Then he would summarize, give his view and then call for the vote. It worked very well.

Brian was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003 which meant a lot to him to join some of the great Australian Tennis players. He was also an honorary member of the All England Club and I remember he invited me to the Club dinner in 1998 as his guest.

He was a key person in tennis, first in Australia as the President overseeing the Australian Open move to its new home and then internationally as President of the ITF. He was a big supporter of the Olympic Tennis Event and of Wheelchair Tennis and made the important decision to bring the IWTA inside the ITF and to hire Ellen De Lange to run wheelchair tennis for the ITF. He did so much to make the ITF and the sport of tennis stronger.

He taught me a lot, mostly by example, and I feel privileged to have been his work colleague and friend.

May he rest in peace.

#TennisAustralia #InternationalTennisFederation #ATP #WTA #GrandSlamBoard

Dave was the person behind the ITF Tennis Play and Stay Campaign and the rule change for Ten and Under Tennis, approved in 2010. 

He has also authored seven coaching books. During his time at the ITF, he has traveled to over 140 nations and there are few people that know world tennis as well as him.

Today, Dave works as the Tennis Director for the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation (see photo below). He also regularly presents at coaching conferences, like the Australian Open Conference in Melbourne and the PTR conference in Hilton Head.