American Tennis Player, Patron of the Arts. Alastair Bradley Martin made immense contributions to the world of tennis both on and off the court. He was an eight-time national amateur singles champion and 13-time amateur doubles champion in court tennis, which is referred to as Real Tennis and unlike today’s game of tennis, played in walled-in courts. He won the sport’s United States Open singles title in 1951 and, in three different decades, the Open doubles championship three times. It was not his outstanding performance on the court but his desire for governing the game of tennis that gave him national recognition. Starting with governing lawn tennis, he became a pioneer who helped forge the standards of modern-day tennis competitions. He was president of the Eastern Lawn Tennis Association and played in the United States lawn tennis championships at Forest Hills. His family financed most of the sports facility at Forest Hills, New York, which was the site for the U.S Open from 1923 to 1977. He was president, chairman and 1973 inductee of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1969, after being first-vice president for two years, he was named president of the United States Lawn Tennis Association, which was the forerunner of the United States Tennis Association or the sport’s national governing body. This was a year after the advent of open competition. He supported open game competition which gave professionals the opportunity to compete for prize money in tournaments previously open only to amateurs. He called for professional management and corporate ties for tennis. He made tennis a “big business”. He was not always the winner; twice Martin challenged nine-time world champion Pierre Etchebaster for that title. In 1950 he lost 7-0 and in 1952 he lost 7-2. In 1954, The Racquet and Tennis Club on Park Avenue in New York City produced a video with a CBS sportscaster featuring Ogden Phipps, Francis X. Shields, Etchebaster and Martin, playing singles and doubles; this documented their talents for future generations. With his love of tennis and using his resources, he helped develop tennis clinics in New York metropolitan area public parks. He was grandson of Henry Phipps, the partner of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. He graduated from Princeton in 1938 and lived at an estate in Glen Head on Long Island when he emerged as a court tennis star. He first learned court tennis in the late 1930’s from the legendary Cecil “Punch” Fairs, the English pro and former world champion. When World War II started, he enlisted in the US Army at New York City February 1942 and became an officer. He was described as being six-foot tall, blond-haired, shy, gentle-mannered, energetic man, who preferred to be called “A.B.” instead of Alastair. Besides his passion for tennis, he and his wife, Edith, were avid art collectors naming theirs the “Guennol Collection”, after a Walsh bird named Martin. The collection began in 1947 and can be described as being eclectic, enormous, and very extravagant; one item sold for $5.7 million dollars in 2007. The collection has been on long-term display at the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Martin was a longtime Member of the Board of Trustees and former Chairman at the Brooklyn Museum. He was once named to a list of the country's top 100 collectors by “Art & Antiques” magazine. The couple had a son and a daughter, and at his death, he was survived by his children, six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren along with numerous nieces and nephews.

Son of Bradley Martin, Jr. (1873-1963) and Helen Phipps Martin (1876-1934).

Twin brother of Esmond Bradley Martin, Sr. (1915-2002).

Also brother of Henry Bradley Martin (1906-1988) and Townsend Bradley Martin (1907-1982).