Gold Tennis Champion's Cigarette Case and Matchbox Holder

A 9ct gold cigarette case, hallmarked Birmingham, c.1920, engraved World's Championships, 1922, Singles 4th, Doubles 2nd, Mixed 1st, and accompanied by a 9ct gold matchbox holder, engraved P.O'H.W. (2 items), Hector 'Pat' O'Hara Wood (1891 ? 1961) was a successful Australian tennis player in the 1920s. In Singles, he won the Australasian Championships Title (predecessor of the Australian Open) in 1920 and 1923, he won 11 Doubles Titles between 1919 and 1927 including Wimbledon twice and the U.S.Open twice, and in 1923, together with Susanne Lenglen, he won the Mixed Doubles Title at Wimbledon for which he received the above cigarette case and matchbox holder. O'Hara Wood was born in St Kilda, Victoria. He is best known for his two Singles victories at the Australasian Championships in 1920 and 1923. He was quick around the court, had textbook groundstrokes, sharp volleys and a solid serve. He died in 1961, aged seventy in Richmond, Australia. His brother Arthur O'Hara Wood (1890?1918) was also an Australian tennis player and won the 1914 Australasian Championships. After attending Melbourne Grammar School, he entered Trinity College (University of Melbourne) in 1911, where he excelled at cricket as well as tennis, leading the Trinity College team to a memorable victory against Ormond College in March 1911, where he made 167 not out. In 1916, as a 23-year-old law student, he enlisted as an officer in the Australian Army. In 1919, as Captain Pat O'Hara-Wood, he and Bombadier Randolph Lycett won the doubles event at the Inter-Allied Games in Paris. In August 1923 he married Australian tennis player Meryl Waxman.