A Junior British champion by the age of 15, Bobby Wilson went on to play in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon four times.
His family announced that the former tennis pro had died on Wednesday.
Born November 22, 1935 in Finchley, London, he first took tennis gold in 1951 when he became British Junior Champion at the age of 15.
Placing as the competition’s runner up the following two years, while still a junior, he won a senior level singles match at Wimbledon in 1952 before losing to eventual runner-up Jaroslav Drobný in the second round.
As an unseeded player, he reached his first major Wimbledon quarterfinal in 1958 without dropping a set.
This set up a meeting against world number one Ashley Cooper, the Australian eventually came away as the victor after a tightly contested game.
During his tenure as a professional tennis player, Mr Wilson also participated in 34 ties for the British Davis Cup team.
With his most successful year coming in 1963, when the British team won the Europe zone, defeating Sweden in the final.
The same year as his international exploits he managed to secure quarterfinal places at Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and Forest Hills.
Noted for his ability to breeze through early rounds of major tournaments, his success for the year saw him seeded No. 6 at Forest Hills
Taking the first two sets against unseeded Frank Froehling, Wilson looked primed to reach his first major semifinal, but he lost the next two sets. Froehling took the deciding set too, however, by a score of nine games to seven, saving a match point to do so.
He continued to compete at Wimbledon in doubles events even after his prime playing years were behind him.
His final showcase at the tournament was in 1977, where at age of 41 he played in the mixed doubles and lost in the first round; he finished with a record of 77 wins and 47 losses at the world’s most famous tennis competition.
Throughout his touring career he had also been a keen coach, something he continued up to the age of 82.
