The All England Club was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our 1948 gentlemen’s singles Champion, Bob Falkenburg, who died last week at his home in California, aged 95. During an extraordinary life, he not only won a Wimbledon final from match points down, but he also became an outstanding golfer and is credited with introducing fast food to Brazil.

Robert Falkenburg was born in New York in 1926. Much of his early childhood was spent in Brazil and Chile, where his father, Eugene, worked as an engineer. His mother, Marguerite, was a successful amateur tennis player and Falkenburg himself took up the sport, aged 10, after the family had relocated to Los Angeles.

Falkenburg won the US Junior Championship in 1943 and 1944, before quickly making his mark on the senior game. He reached the semi-finals of the US Championships in 1946 and first played at Wimbledon in 1947. There he defeated Hans Redl, an Austrian who played with one arm after losing the other one in the War, in the fourth round, before losing to Australia’s Dinny Pails in the quarter-finals, having let slip a two-set lead. He did, however, win the gentlemen’s doubles title, in partnership with Jack Kramer.

The following year saw Falkenburg’s greatest triumph. Having come from two sets to one down to defeat Yugoslavia’s Dragutin Mitic in the third round, he made comfortable progress to the final, where an altogether more dramatic comeback was required. With Bromwich holding two match points at 5-3, 40-15 in the final set, Falkenburg went for broke, hitting two spectacular backhand return winners. He saved a third championship point when Bromwich left his return, thinking it would go long. It landed in, the momentum had turned, and a few games later Falkenburg was Wimbledon champion, winning 7-5, 0-6, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. The man known as ‘the praying mantis’ for his habit of falling to his knees on court, had seen his prayers answered. He was the first man to win a Wimbledon final from match point down since Henri Cochet beat Jean Borotra in 1927. It wouldn’t happen again until Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in the memorable 2019 final.

Falkenburg’s biggest weapon was his serve, one of the most powerful in the game at the time. His biggest weakness was his physical fitness, and he was sometimes known to ‘throw’ a set, to save his energy during long matches. Some in the crowd were unhappy to witness this tactic in the 1948 Wimbledon final against Bromwich. Bromwich, however, did gain a modicum of revenge the following year, when he came back from two sets down to defeat Falkenburg in the quarter-finals, 3-6, 9-11, 6-0, 6-0, 6-4.

Falkenburg settled in Brazil with his Brazilian wife, Lourdes Mayrink Veiga Machado, who he had married in 1947. He even represented Brazil in the Davis Cup in 1954 and 1955. However, his biggest contribution to Brazilian society was to introduce the country to fast food.

Frustrated at not being able to get hold of a good burger or milkshake, he took the matter into his own hands, opening ‘Bob’s’ fast food and ice cream shop on Copacabana beach in 1952. The idea was a huge success and new outlets were quickly opened. Although Falkenburg sold the chain and moved back to California in the 1970s, Bob’s remains a Brazilian institution, having grown to more than 1,000 outlets and even expanding into Chile, Portugal and Angola.

After retiring from tennis, Falkenburg combined his business commitments with a successful amateur golf career, continuing a fine tradition of Wimbledon champions who also excelled at golf. Amongst others, Ellsworth Vines, the 1932 Champion, finished third at the 1951 USPGA Championship, and Lottie Dod. The five-time ladies’ champion, won Golf’s British Amateur Championship in 1904.

Falkenburg didn’t quite match the success of Vines, however he did qualify for the Open Championship on four occasions and also competed in the British Amateur Championship. In addition, he won the Brazilian Amateur Championship three times and represented Brazil in the Eisenhower Cup on three occasions.

Falkenburg is survived by his wife, his daughter Claudia, his son Robert II, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.