John M. P. Marks (born 9 December 1952) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.
Marks won the ILTF Western Australian Championships on grass in 1978 at Perth defeating Mark Edmondson, Chris Kachel, and Bob Carmichael in a marathon five set final. Marks would finish as runner-up in the same event in 1979 losing the final to Edmondson.
Marks is best remembered for finishing runner-up in singles at the 1978 Australian Open, defeating Arthur Ashe in the semifinals. In the final, he lost in four sets to Vilas. "Vilas displayed magnificent court coverage and his adept use of the top spin lob worried Marks." As a result of this slam final appearance, he achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 44, after entering the tournament ranked No. 177.
Marks never won a Grand Slam singles title during his career, but won 7 doubles titles and reached the semifinals of the men's doubles at the 1978 US Open. As a junior, Marks won the Australian Open boys' doubles in 1971, partnering Michael Phillips.
Career finals Singles (2 runners-up ) ResultW/L YearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 0–1 1975 Sydney Outdoor, Australia Grass Ross Case 2–6, 1–6Loss 0–2 1978 Australian Open, Melbourne Grass Guillermo Vilas 4–6, 4–6, 6–3, 3–6
Doubles (7 titles, 7 runner-ups) ResultW/L YearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1–0 1975 Sydney Outdoor, Australia Grass Mark Edmondson Chris Kachel Peter McNamara 6–1, 6–1Loss 1–1 1976 Palma, Spain Clay Mark Edmondson John Andrews Colin Dibley 6–2, 3–6, 2–6Loss 1–2 1976 Sydney Outdoor, Australia Grass Mark Edmondson Syd Ball Kim Warwick 3–6, 4–6Win 2–2 1977 Cairo, Egypt Clay John Bartlett Pat DuPré Chris Lewis 7–5, 6–1, 6–3Win 3–2 1977 Båstad, Sweden Clay Mark Edmondson Jean-Louis Haillet François Jauffret 6–4, 6–0Win 4–2 1977 Manila, Philippines Hard Chris Kachel Mike Cahill Terry Moor 4–6, 6–0, 7–6Loss 4–3 1978 Florence, Italy Clay Mark Edmondson Corrado Barazzutti Adriano Panatta 3–6, 7–6, 3–6Loss 4–4 1978 Sydney Indoor, Australia Hard (i) Mark Edmondson John Newcombe Tony Roche 4–6, 3–6Win 5–4 1978 Hong Kong Hard Mark Edmondson Hank Pfister Brad Rowe 5–7, 7–6, 6–1Loss 5–5 1978 Taipei, Taiwan Carpet (i) Mark Edmondson Sherwood Stewart Butch Walts 2–6, 7–6, 6–7Loss 5–6 1979 Hamburg, Germany Clay Mark Edmondson Jan Kodeš Tomáš Šmíd 3–6, 1–6, 6–7Win 6–6 1979 Gstaad, Switzerland Clay Mark Edmondson Ion Țiriac Guillermo Vilas 2–6, 6–1, 6–4Loss 6–7 1979 Båstad, Sweden Clay Mark Edmondson Heinz Günthardt Bob Hewitt 2–6, 2–6Win 7–7 1979 Taipei, Taiwan Carpet (i) Mark Edmondson Pat DuPré Robert Lutz 6–1, 3–6, 6–4
Grand Slam tournament performance timeline
Singles Tournament 1976 1977 1978 19791980Australian Open1R1R1RF1RQ1 0 / 5French Open AA2R1RA 0 / 2Wimbledon1R1R2R1RQ1 0 / 4US Open A1R A1RA 0 / 2Strike rate 0 / 20 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 40 / 0 Note: The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.
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