Henri Cochet was a world No 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
80 Facts About Henri Cochet
2.
Henri Cochet was ranked as world No 1 player for four consecutive years, 1928 through 1931 by A Wallis Myers.
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Henri Cochet turned professional in 1933, but after a less than stellar pro career he was reinstated as an amateur after the end of World War II in 1945.
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Henri Cochet was born on 14 December 1901 in Villeurbanne to Gustave Cochet and Antoinette Gailleton.
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Henri Cochet's father was a groundkeeper at a Lyonnaise tennis club where Henri worked as a ball boy and thus had a chance to practise for free.
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Henri Cochet began playing at the age of eight along with his sister.
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Henri Cochet entered his first local tournament in 1920 where he met his mentor in the final.
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Henri Cochet then moved on to win a series of matches at Aix-les-Bains mostly scratch and handicap matches.
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Meanwhile, his sister Aimee Henri Cochet became a tennis player and competed in the main draw of the 1930 Wimbledon Championships.
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In February 1922 Henri Cochet traveled to the World Covered Court Championships in Saint Moritz in Switzerland where he defeated Borotra in a five-set final and formed a team with him to gain the doubles trophy against Jacques Brugnon and Marcel Dupont.
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Henri Cochet clinched the 1922 World Hard Court Championships in Brussels defeating Count Manuel de Gomar in the singles final and triumphing in the doubles events, partnering Jean Borotra and Suzanne Lenglen respectively.
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Henri Cochet found moderate success in the minor tournaments; at the South of France Championships he lost to Russian Count Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston.
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At the Cote d'Azur Championships Henri Cochet warded off the Englishman Morgan for his first Riviera title.
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In February 1923 Cochet retained his World Covered Court Championships title, defeating John B Gilbert in the final in straight sets.
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At the 1924 Summer Olympics Henri Cochet won the silver medal in both the singles and doubles with his teammate Borotra, while Vincent Richards took the gold for the United States in both events, pairing with Frank Hunter for the latter.
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Henri Cochet was ranked the number one player of France alongside Lacoste and Borotra at the end of the year and was ranked 9th in A Wallis Myers' world ranking list for 1924.
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Henri Cochet again came short to win a triple crown the following week at the Parc Imperial where despite winning both doubles with Julie Vlasto and Italian champion Umberto de Morpurgo he dropped the singles to his latter doubles partner.
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At the so-called "Black Thursday", three Americans yielded to the French, Henri Cochet defeated Tilden, ending his six-year winning streak at Forest Hills and only lost to compatriot Lacoste who became the first foreign US champion since Laurence Doherty in 1903.
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All these achievements were a prelude to the 1927 Wimbledon Championships where in successive rounds fourth-seeded Henri Cochet defeated two leading Americans Frank Hunter and Bill Tilden and finally Jean Borotra in remarkable five set matches, all of whom had a two-sets advantage against him.
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Henri Cochet contributed to the Parisian victory with two mixed and a singles win.
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At the Nice Lawn Tennis Club tournament they met again for the singles contest and Henri Cochet won in straight sets.
22.
In Menton at the official Riviera Championships eventual singles victor Von Kehrling and former Danish Champion Erik Worm warded off Henri Cochet and Count Salm in the doubles final.
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Henri Cochet was victorious in Marseilles versus Emmanuel du Plaix and in the mixed with Cilly Aussem.
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In front of a local crowd of 3000, Henri Cochet won in four sets against the home favorite.
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Henri Cochet and recurring partner Bennett added the French hard courts mixed title to their set of accolades after defeating Helen Wills, women's world champion, and Frank Hunter, the No 2 USLTA player in a three-set championship match.
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On 6 July at the 1928 Wimbledon Championships Lacoste equalized with a victory over Henri Cochet and deprived him of the title.
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The overseas campaign of Henri Cochet started at the US National Championships, which he kept for France for the third straight time.
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Henri Cochet won the Gallia tournament for the fourth time and the Monte Carlo Cup for the second time, eliminating Italian aces Giorgio de Stefani in the semi-final and Umberto de Morpurgo for the former championships and de Morpurgo again for the latter.
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Henri Cochet defended his Monaco mixed title for the first time and the Butler Cup for the third.
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Henri Cochet successfully defended the Austrian championships against Franz Wilhelm Matejka and claimed the doubles with Roger Danet.
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Henri Cochet claimed the Czechoslovakian Championships from fellow countryman Christian Boussus.
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However, Henri Cochet did not leave without a trophy as the mixed championship was earned by him and Eileen Bennett Whittingstall.
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The American started off poorly; he was not able to win one single point in the first game, hit many unforced errors, especially in the longer rallies, and Henri Cochet pulled away and took the set.
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Henri Cochet was exhausted and showed the opposite form compared to the previous day.
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Henri Cochet won in four sets and claimed the Cup for France for the third time.
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Henri Cochet won the singles in La Baule against Raymond Rodel and the mixed doubles in Vals-les-Bains.
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Rodel, Cochet, Jacques Brugnon and Pierre Henri Landry, representing the Racing Club de Paris, sailed to Japan for a series of friendly matches against the Japanese Davis Cup team where Cochet suffered a surprise defeat against Takeichi Harada.
38.
In 1929 Cochet was ranked World number one amateur by A Wallis Myers, Hungarian tennis magazine Tennisz es Golf, edited by Bela von Kehrling, by rival Bill Tilden, F Gordon Lowe, L'Auto and Vincent Richards Evidently he led the French rankings as well.
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In early 1930 Henri Cochet decided to rest and only compete in doubles contests.
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Henri Cochet's most successful French Championships came in this year when he was close to winning a triple crown after being victorious in singles over Bill Tilden, in doubles with Jacques Brugnon over Harry Hopman and James Willard and was a finalist in the mixed tournament as well.
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Henri Cochet won every service game, except for the third set where Cochet made a lot of errors at the net, and the French pair took the victory.
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Henri Cochet became the Danish Covered Courts champion for the first time after defeating Danish national champion Einer Ulrich in Copenhagen.
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Henri Cochet won the mixed contest as well with Simone Barbier.
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Henri Cochet was invited by his hometown club FC Lyon to an interclub match with German Uhlenhorster Klipper.
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At that time Henri Cochet was struggling with a shoulder injury.
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Henri Cochet then toured Europe to give exhibitions in Cluj-Napoca, Budapest and Prague.
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Henri Cochet did not recover from his illness before the second Italian International Championships but this did not prevent Cochet from signing up for the competition.
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Henri Cochet entered the finals of the doubles too, but his partner Andre Merlin could not make up for Henri Cochet's bad shape and they lost to Alberto Del Bono and singles victor Hughes.
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The third and fourth set however were taken by Henri Cochet which gave the French team its fifth successive Davis Cup.
50.
Henri Cochet won his third doubles French Championships, this time with Jacques Brugnon.
51.
Henri Cochet's combined record-breaking ten French titles of the 17 title matches are the most possessed by a male player.
52.
The year 1932 marked the first time Henri Cochet slipped off the top of the charts after switching places with Vines.
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In June 1933 Henri Cochet, seeded first, relinquished his French Championships title to Australian Jack Crawford, who overwhelmed him in the final in three straight sets, becoming the first non-French player to possess it.
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Henri Cochet was defeated by Fred Perry and won against Bunny Austin, both in five sets.
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At the 1933 Wimbledon Championships first-seeded Vines conquered Henri Cochet, who was seeded third, in straight sets in the semi-final.
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Henri Cochet made appearances at the French Riviera with Plaa with back and forth matches across France.
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In early 1934 Henri Cochet went on to showcase in Santiago and Vina del Mar, where he was challenged by the Pilo Facondi and Perico Facondi brothers, Chile's leading professionals, who both lost two matches each against Henri Cochet.
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Henri Cochet then sailed home to France and consequently missed the US Pro Tennis Championships.
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Henri Cochet chose instead to gather money in exhibition matches in Havana, Haiti, and Martinique on his way home.
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Henri Cochet subsequently suffered from an illness and missed the following events.
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Henri Cochet spent most of 1935 with a promotional tour across the globe, sponsored by the French government, which included Egypt, India, East Indies, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, China and its final destination Australasia.
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In 1936 Henri Cochet had a second chance to regain his spotlight when he was first seeded French Pro Championship after Bill Tilden and Bruce Barnes failed to show up due to travel issues.
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Henri Cochet found consolation in the doubles, where he completed a round robin flawless streak with his teammate Ramillon especially the last match over the American pair Lester Stoefen and Bill Tilden.
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Henri Cochet then held tennis shows across the Soviet Union including Moscow, Leningrad, and Kyiv.
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Henri Cochet then repeated the Soviet tour and missed the German Pro and the Bonnardel Cup.
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Henri Cochet then was a part of a rather fruitless Italian tour, his only notably victory came in the Foro Italico against Tilden.
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Henri Cochet returned to the Soviet Union for the third straight time to accept a coaching venture, which turned out to be a short-term assignment as the Soviet government accused him of espionage and expelled him.
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In 1940 France was overrun by Nazi Germany and for a brief period of time Henri Cochet fell into war captivity.
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Henri Cochet launched his own sporting goods store in Paris and lived on a farm in the outskirts.
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Henri Cochet gave tennis broadcasts, and accepted the Vichy government's offer to head its youth tennis program and after that to become a sports commissioner, who organized sport programmes for the deported French armament workers.
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In December 1940 the first open tennis tournament, combining amateur and professional players, was organized in Paris where Henri Cochet lost to Paul Feret.
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Henri Cochet participated in charity matches to raise funds for the prisoners of the Axis powers.
73.
The next year Henri Cochet met Petra for the title and lost for the second consecutive time.
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Henri Cochet played one of his last matches at the Swiss covered courts championships in St Moritz, returning to the scene of his very first tennis triumph after a 36-year hiatus.
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Henri Cochet taught her how to play tennis and later entered minor tournaments together.
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Apart from playing tennis Henri Cochet was an amateur ice-hockey player.
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Henri Cochet was an occasional coach as well and in 1930 he coached the French junior tennis team once a week for free including his brother-in-law Georges Desthieux who won the New Malden tournament that year.
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Henri Cochet was awarded the Red Ribbon of the Legion of Honour for his sport merits in 1951.
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Henri Cochet died on 1 April 1987, aged 85, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
80.
Henri Cochet was banned from competing in the amateur Grand Slams when he joined the professional tennis circuit in 1933.