Remembering Barry Phillips-Moore, Player, Coach, Pioneer | ATP Tour | Tennis

The tennis world is remembering Barry Phillips-Mooreformer participant, coach and the earliest adopter of the notorious ‘spaghetti-string’ racquet, which imparted excessive spin and was in the end banned from the game. Phillips-Moore handed away in Adelaide on 29 June, aged 85.

A two-time semi-finalist on the Australian Championships, Phillips-Moore grew up alongside Rod Laverhowever broke the mould of the everyday grass-loving Australian serve/volleyers, preferring to battle from the baseline, particularly on clay. He received the Auckland title in 1968.

After his taking part in profession, Phillips-Moore coached Paul McNamee, Peter McNamara, Harold Solomon and Eddie Dibbs earlier than turning his consideration to main a bunch of younger expertise that fell outdoors conventional improvement pathways on European adventures with the assistance of a trusty minivan.

Certainly one of his most well-known prodigies was fellow Australian and Adelaide native Mark Woodfordewho went on to assert 4 singles titles and 67 doubles titles, together with 12 majors.

After ending highschool, Woodforde joined as much as eight different gamers (largely Australians) on marathon nine-month excursions of Europe. The gamers crammed right into a minivan and shared driving obligations whereas Barry and his beloved spouse Anne (who handed away in 2021) adopted in their very own automobile.

On the time, Phillips-Moore was adamant that the Europeans excursions have been a greater possibility than the U.S. collegiate system. On the finish of the tour the gamers would park the automobile in a resort car parking zone or the like and decide it up a number of months later in the course of the subsequent season.

“I by no means would have had a profession had I not crossed paths with Barry Phillips-Moore,” Woodforde informed ATPTour.com at Wimbledon this week. “He was my coach from the primary 12 months that I travelled abroad once I had the aspiration to be an expert tennis participant.

“My dad laid the groundwork, however Barry gave me that perception that I might grow to be a tennis participant. And I by no means would have moved to that racquet, that particular string (which was authorised by authorities) if it weren’t for Barry.”

<img src="https://www.atptour.com/-/media/photographs/information/2023/07/07/10/13/barry-boys.jpg" model="width:100%;" alt="Barry's Boys: Former travelling companions Mark Woodforde, Richard FrickerMike Derer (sitting), Marty Richards and Gavin Pfitzner with Barry Phillips-Moore at a reunion on the Edinburgh Lodge in Adelaide.” />
Barry’s Boys: Former travelling companions Mark Woodforde, Richard FrickerMike Derer (sitting), Marty Richards and Gavin Pfitzner with Barry Phillips-Moore at a reunion on the Edinburgh Lodge in Adelaide. Picture courtesy Mark Woodforde.

“Barry Phillips-Moore was a professor,” stated esteemed tennis journalist Richard Evansthe creator of greater than 20 books, together with the excellent ‘The Historical past of Tennis’.

“Aside from mentioning numerous juniors, he was at all times fiddling round with racquets and stringing. He created a tighter method of stringing racquets so there was much less area between the strings. He was only a actual tennis guru and, as Mark Woodforde stated, with out Barry he would by no means have made it.”

Phillips-Moore had a sports activities retailer in Adelaide and in later years would additionally promote tennis merchandise – racquets, strings, clothes – out of the boot of his automobile in the course of the European excursions along with his younger gamers. Former World No. 71 Australian Carl Limberger was amongst Phillips-Moore’s protected.

“I bear in mind going into Barry’s household retailer in Adelaide once I was knee excessive to a grasshopper and searching up in any respect these items Barry had imported from Europe,” Woodforde stated. “It was like being on the circus.

“After I grew up and I made a decision I wished to attempt to grow to be a tennis participant, dad reached out to Barry. Barry and Anne got here round to the home and stated ‘In order for you him to have a crack, we are able to take him away’.

“He had a relaxed method and stated it was okay to fail as a result of I’d study from the errors. I had been used to having somebody yelling at me and I used to be afraid to make errors. After I began working with Barry it was nearly like tasting forbidden fruit.”