HUGH LAWRENCE DOHERTY (1875-1919) – GOAT-contender, was born appropiately in Wimbledon three years after his famous older brother. Called “H. L.” or “Little Do” (as opposed to his much taller brother called “Big Do”) by the press – he seemed to be called “Laurie” by his closest friends.
Laurie Doherty’s achievements are more or less still unmatched even a hundred years after he retired.
Her can be credited with winning and holding every major tournament of his day, on every surface, on every continent and most of them for several years by far outshining his famous brother.
NOTE: In this study I've focused mainly on Lawrence's and Reginald's singles careers since their record in doubles is simply unique -- only two recorded losses during their prime 1896-1906 -- I lack the words to express the level of admiration I hold for that record!
If we look at the incomplete records that we have during his 11 year career 1896-1906:
Tournament wins: 61 (starting in 81 tournaments) winning 75.30% of all tourneys entered on our record
Finals/Challenge Round-finals: 11
Losses on record: 20 (real match-losses – including chivalrous w/o)
Compare this to his great brother who "only" won 28 tournaments (16 losses including w/o having started in 44 singles championships) winning 63.63% of all tourneys entered on our record.
Hugh Lawrence Doherty:
Olympics Gold 1900 (singles and doubles)
USO 1903 (First GS-major won without set-loss)
Davis Cup – 4 times in a row: 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906
Wimbledon – 5 times in a row: 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906 - final 1898
Queens Indoor – 6 times in a row: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906
The South of France Championships, Place Mozart, Nice – 7 times in a row: 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906
Golden Grand Slam 1903 – holder of every major championship – Davis Cup, Olympics, Wimbledon, USO, Queens Indoor, The South of France Championships plus many other championships and everyone of the majors he won in doubles with his brother this year since they were undefeated and this fact raises his win-loss record for 1903 to about app. 80 – 0!
H. L. was undefeated in singles and doubles in Davis Cup
Undefeated streak on all surfaces including every championship on every continent: 3 years and 3 months
(July 1901- October 1904)
Retires as undefeated and undefeated holder of every major championship on every available surface in 1906.
His win-loss record in singles for the year 1903 has been stated as app: 45-0 -- 80-0 including doubles!
He also won the first major tourney without set-loss - USO 1903 – 130-44 (174) for a 74.71 % game-winning percentage
19 major championships (arguably of Grand Slam-status of the day -- 24 major championship titles including Davis Cup and the Olympics Gold) although I would contend the Olympics field wasn't the deepest or strongest.
If you include all 8 Wimby titles in doubles (with R. F. of course), 2 USO-doubles titles and 4 Davis Cup doubles titles, 9 British Covered Court doubles championships at Queen's indoors and some other doubles titles H. L. ends up with an arguable and just unbelievable total of over 40 major titles (!!!) in 10 years during a hotly contested era on several continents.
These were the Grand Slam-major championships of the era. Wimbledon on fast grass, US Nationals/Newport/USO played on slightly slower grass, Queens was the unofficial world indoor championship played on superfast wood-tiles and the big South of France Championship at the Place Mozart, Nice was arguably the forerunner to today’s French Open, i. e. the greatest red clay championship in France of the era.
As you see above Laurie Doherty started to win every one of these majors and then kept on winning them reaching his summit in 1903 winning every one in spectacular fashion. He didn’t return to defend his USO-title in 1904 but few doubt that he would’ve failed had he done so had todays comfortable travel been available. During these days traveling was extremely ardous – going by steamer for weeks since the airplanes was just being invented by the Wright-brothers just that same year in 1903.
The others (Wimby, Nice, Queens) for the following years being the only player in history to retire with so many big titles (having won them all many times in succession) while still being the holder.
In 1903 he had the “Golden Grand Slam”-title with the Olympic Gold Medal in singles and doubles, Wimbledon, USO, Queens Indoor, SOF Nice, Davis Cup and at least an additional five tournaments having achieved 10 tournament wins. He also was undefeated this year (as he had been in for half of 1901, the whole of 1902 and even deep into the fall of 1904 – having a three year and three month stretch as undefeated).
What has been the most important factors in determining Laurie Doherty’s achievements in tennis has been the strength of his rivals and the strength of the fields as well as reading a lot of witness accounts and reading up on the records of players who kept playing from his era and still performed well against the greats in the 1920s.
I will go into a short career era overview/analysis before I go into the real meat and potatoes and add comments from witness, rivals and contemporaries.
Then follows the post including my new, updated records of both the brothers so you can study the results yourselves that I have a running commentary for.
I will also explain quite clearly in somewhat in-depth his main rivals – all his great contemporaries in composite quotes from their rivals so you get a dynamic image yourselves of how these players made their impression in matches. It will make the scores come alive.
This era is not to be underrated.
Harry Hopman, Sir Norman Brookes and A. Wallis Myers and the referee F. R. Burrow all rated Hugh Lawrence Doherty as a serious GOAT-contender and there’s enough evidence to suggest that had Laurie having a career today he could’ve matched the other greats – with todays smooth traveling, a lot more scientific in the discipline and ten times better technique and equipment.
The racquet-heads of the early 1900s was slightly bigger than in the 30s to early 1980s and the balls (many Ayres-balls) looked like the ones today but they were weighing about 40 grams average until todays 52 grams was cemented in the 1910s and 1920s.
The game of tennis was during this time a bit faster, more explosive than the game played from 1910 onwards. A little bit retro development mirroring slighty what happened in our age from early 1980 onwards…
