Daniel "Dan" Maskell was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 player, who later became even better known as a radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 commentator on the game, and was known as the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's "voice of tennis".

Maskell was born in Fulham, London, England, was British tennis champion sixteen times, and was coach of the winning British Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

 team of 1933. He began commentating after his Second World War service.

The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust was founded in 1977. Its aims are to raise money to help disabled people to play tennis in three main areas: wheelchair tennis, deaf tennis and tennis for people with learning disabilities.

Commentating career

Maskell began commentating on the Wimbledon Championships in 1949 for BBC Radio before switching to television in 1951. He would remain as the "voice of tennis" on the BBC until his retirement in 1991. The last match he commentated on before retiring was the 1991 Wimbledon Men's Singles final between Michael Stich

Michael Stich

Michael Detlef Stich is a former professional tennis player from Germany. He is best remembered for winning the men's singles title at Wimbledon in 1991...

 and Boris Becker

Boris Becker

Boris Franz Becker is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17...

 (which Stich won).

When commenting on a particularly exciting piece of play or an outstanding shot, he sometimes used his most remembered and revered catchphrase "Oh, I say!".

Quotations from Dan Maskell's commentaries

• "And here's Zivojinovic, six foot six inches tall and fourteen pounds ten ounces."
• "Lendl has remained throughout as calm as the proverbial iceberg."
• "The Gullikson twins here. An interesting pair, both from Wisconsin."
• "YES SHE'S GOT IT!"

External links

• Anyone for Tennis Loughborough University Archives
• International Tennis Hall of Fame