Full name Alan Ronald Mills Wimbledon 4R (1959, 1962) Handed Right-handed French Open 3R (1959, 1962) Role Tennis player | Plays Right-handed Name Alan Mills Country (sports) Great Britain US Open 2R (1963) | |
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Books Lifting the Covers: The Autobiography | ||
Alan Ronald Mills, CBE (born November 6, 1935 in Stretford, Lancashire, England), is a former tennis player and tournament referee for the Wimbledon tennis championships from 1982 to 2005. Although each individual tennis match was controlled by an on-court umpire, Alan Mills ran the entire tournament. However, perhaps he was most well known because the decision to stop play in the event of rain was that of Mills, and so his face was familiar to millions of television viewers worldwide, in the corner of Centre Court, clutching his two-way radio and glancing upwards at the sky in search of rainclouds.
Tennis career
Mills was himself an accomplished tennis player. At the age of 17 he was the senior county champion in his home county of Lancashire, and he reached the last 16 in the men's singles at Wimbledon on two occasions. He was also the first man in the history of the Davis Cup to win a match with the scoreline 6–0, 6–0, 6–0, completing the match in just 32 minutes.
Mills was the first Englishman to defeat Rod Laver when the Australian came to Britain.
He became a professional tennis coach in 1966 and played matches on the professional tour.