John Gilbert Alexander (born 4 July 1951), nicknamed JA, is an Australian former professional tennis player, sports broadcaster, and federal politician.
As a tennis player, Alexander reached a career-high singles rank of no. 8 in the world in 1975. He reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open singles on three occasions, and won the doubles in 1975 and 1982. He also played on the Australian team that won the 1977 Davis Cup. After the end of his playing career, Alexander worked as a tennis commentator and managed various sports-related businesses.
He was a commentator for Seven Sport, the host broadcaster of the Australian Open, for more than two decades, from the late 1980s until the early 2010s, becoming the main play-by-play commentator for men's singles prime time matches in the new millennium, alongside John McEnroe and from 2005 Jim Courier. JA's final commentary duties at the Australian Open were in 2010, thereafter he moved into politics, winning his seat at the 2010 Australian federal election.
Alexander won the Division of Bennelong for the Liberal Party at the 2010 election, and retained the seat in 2013 and 2016. He resigned on 11 November 2017 due to constitutional ineligibility arising from his dual citizenship of the United Kingdom. He renounced his UK citizenship and stood as the Liberal Party candidate at the by-election, held on 16 December 2017, which he won. In November 2021, Alexander announced his retirement from politics.
Contents
Early life
Alexander was born in Sydney. His father, Gilbert Alexander, was born in Essex, England, in 1907 and moved to Australia at the age of three.
Tennis career
During a tennis career spanning the late 1960s to mid-1980s, Alexander won seven tour singles titles and 27 doubles titles, and earned a total of $1,214,079 (USD) in prize money. He achieved a career best singles ranking of World No. 8 in December 1975. Alexander is the youngest player to represent Australia in the Davis Cup. He was also one of Australia's longest serving Davis Cup players, representing his country from 1968 to 1983. From 1974 to 1986, Alexander served as the resident tennis professional at Lamar Hunt's World Championship Tennis Peachtree World of Tennis Club in Peachtree Corners, Georgia US.
Alexander served as captain of the Australian Fed Cup team and worked as a sports commentator for Australian (Channel 7) and British (BBC) television networks for over 20 years.
Joining Seven in 1986, he provided play-by-play commentary and other duties for the network's Australian Open telecasts for 23 years, as well as appearing on other programs for ATN-7 Sydney, such as Seven News and 1990s reality show Gladiators. Alexander worked with colleagues including Peter Landy, Garry Wilkinson, Allan Stone, Sandy Roberts, Bruce McAvaney and Johanna Griggs, as well as John McEnroe in the early 2000s and Jim Courier from 2005 to 2010 (who remains in this position to this date, now with the Nine Network).
Business career
As managing director of Next Generation Clubs Australia, Alexander designed and built sport and fitness clubs; including the Ryde Aquatic Centre in Sydney to host the 2000 Summer Olympic Games water polo event, the development of Memorial Drive in Adelaide into a multi-function health and fitness facility, and Royal King's Park in Perth.
In 1995, Alexander served as referee during the first series run of the Australian adaptation of the television series Gladiators.
Shortly before his election to Parliament in 2010, Alexander's Tennis Professionals won a High Court case for the right to redevelop the White City Tennis Centre in Sydney.
Alexander also managed a variety of small businesses in the retail and sporting sectors.
Political career
Alexander is a member of the Moderate/Modern Liberal faction of the Liberal Party.
As a Liberal Party candidate, John Alexander won the seat of Bennelong from the Australian Labor Party in the 2010 election with a swing of 4.52 points, giving a two-party-preferred margin of 3.1 points.
Alexander delivered his maiden speech to parliament on 28 October 2010, detailing his particular interest in areas of preventative health, infrastructure, transport and sustainable growth. During his first term Alexander was put in charge of several internal policy committees, with a particular focus on regional development and policies to tackle urban congestion.
In October 2011 Alexander ran the inaugural Bennelong Cup Table Tennis Test match, involving players from China, Korea and Australia playing in a formal competition in Ryde, a suburb within his constituency. In October 2012 the opening games were played in the Great Hall of Parliament House, Canberra—the first competitive sporting event ever played there. The Ambassadors for China and Korea participated in a friendly competition with Alexander and Minister for Sport Kate Lundy. The Bennelong Cup is the celebration of Alexander's Bennelong Schools Table Tennis Program which has put tables in all 40 Bennelong schools to encourage social interaction between students of different cultural backgrounds, together with a healthy activity. The Bennelong Cup has continued every year since with an interschool tournament followed by international competition in Ryde, preceded by exhibition matches in Parliament House, Canberra.
Alexander has also established a range of other local programs including Bennelong Gardens, which provides work opportunities for people with disabilities in specially designed market gardens, and Bennelong Village Business program which promotes the benefits of local small business shopping and negotiates discounted advertising rates for small businesses in the local newspaper. John Alexander received much publicity for his 100 km charity walk around Bennelong to raise money and awareness of motor neurone disease after the loss of two close friends to the disease.
Alexander was not challenged in Liberal preselection in 2012. In the 2013 election Alexander was re-elected as Member for Bennelong, increasing his two party preferred margin to 7.8 points.
Tennis career finals
Personal
Alexander was briefly married, while in the United States, to a Canadian model and later married to Rosemary Brown, a former Olympic swimmer, for almost ten years. He and the former Ms. Brown have three children: Emily (1990), Georgia (1991) and Charles (1994). Alexander no longer lives in his electorate, but continued to rent an apartment in Epping.
Honours
On 26 January 1992, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
On 30 August 2000, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal.