Anthony Dalton Roche AO MBE (born 17 May 1945) is an Australian former professional tennis player. A native of Tarcutta, Roche played junior tennis in the New South Wales regional city of Wagga Wagga. He won one Grand Slam singles title, the 1966 French Open at Roland Garros, and 15 Grand Slam doubles titles. In 1968, Roche won the WCT/NTL combined professional championships in men's singles by winning the final event of the season at Madison Square Garden. He was ranked World No. 2 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph in 1969. He won the U.S. Pro Championships in 1970 at Longwood in Boston. Roche won the New South Wales Open twice, in 1969 and 1976. He won a key Davis Cup singles match in 1977. He also coached multi-Grand Slam winning world No. 1s Ivan Lendl, Patrick Rafter, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt as well as former World No. 4 Jelena Dokic. Playing career Roche started to play tennis at school when he was nine. His father, who worked as a butcher, and his mother were both recreational tennis players and encouraged his interest. Roche grew up playing in Australia under the tutelage of Harry Hopman, who also coached other Australian tennis players such as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. Roche had a successful singles and double career. He won one singles Grand Slam tournament, the 1966 French Open at Roland Garros, defeating István Gulyás in the final. He was five times the runner-up at Grand Slam tournaments: the French Championships in 1965 and 1967, losing to Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson respectively, Wimbledon in 1968, losing to Rod Laver, and the US Open in 1969 and 1970, losing to Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. With compatriot John Newcombe, he won 12 Grand Slam men's doubles tournaments. In January 1968, Roche turned professional, signing with World Championship Tennis, joining other pros like John Newcombe, Cliff Drysdale, Nikola Pilić and Roger Taylor to form the "Handsome Eight". Roche was guaranteed $125,000 annually, an amount equivalent to the annual salary of Willie Mays, the top paid baseball player. Roche was the leading money winner on the WCT tour in 1968. In the 1968 final for the WCT/NTL professional tours at Madison Square Garden, Roche defeated Rod Laver in the semifinal and Pancho Gonzales in the final to become the combined professional champion for 1968. Roche held a personal head-to-head edge