ATP Tour stars, including Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios, paid tribute to the late Peter McNamara on Monday evening at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.
McNamara, a former Top 10 singles player who, along with fellow Aussie Paul McNamee, formed one of the best doubles teams in the early 1980s, died on 20 July aged 64 after a long fight with prostate cancer.
Aussie Rennae Stubbs, a former WTA player, emceed the on-court ceremony that followed the evening doubles match between Kyrgios/Tsitsipas and Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah.
“He was one of my idols,” Stubbs told ATPTour.com in an interview before the ceremony. “Peter was always such a great athlete, great competitor, great looking guy. He personified what Australian sports are all about.
“Watching him coach, he was always so hard working and professional.
“He was the epitome of just an incredibly good man and kind, and he always had a good word to say about everybody. He was honest. He's really going to be missed.”
For the past four years, until February 2019, McNamara worked with China's Wang Qiang. When they started working together, in 2015, Qiang was ranked just inside the Top 100. She finished 2018 at No. 20, becoming the first Chinese woman to finish the year inside the Top 20 since Li Na retired in 2014.
Stubbs coached against McNamara and would see him around the WTA. But she had no idea he was battling prostate cancer. Aussie Matthew Ebden, who had McNamara as a coach about five years ago, remembered his countryman as never one to complain.
“He was very disciplined and hard working, two things I really got from him. He was honest and genuine,” Ebden said. “He was really respectful and had really sound manners and ethics.”
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