Doyle gave Irish tennis confidence and charisma as well as an American way of thinking that teams can win
Matt Doyle, seen here in action for Ireland against the USA in the 1983 David Cup, wasn't your average tennis player. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
He almost immediately energised the Irish tennis scene, gave the game a profile and presence that it has not had since, and added a dimension that tennis didn’t previously possess, a big-serving game and a confident personality. Whether it was true or not, Doyle always gave the impression that he didn’t need to work. An abiding image is of his 6ft 4in sitting at the spike bar in The K Club as he pored over the coloured newsprint of the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal. The commonly held assumption was that he was checking the companies in which he had made investments to support this apparent post-tennis life of leisure.
Matt Doyle with Irish team-mates Sean Sorensen, Tommy Burke and Michael Hiskey in 1983. Photograph: Independent News and Media/Getty Images Wilander, who had won the French Open as a teenager in 1982, went on to win at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open in 1988 with Doyle at his side.
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