Prince Nelson of the United Kingdom

Nelson Bacall
KBE
Full name	Nelson Frederick Francis Albert Charles
Country (sports)	Great Britain
Born	March 23, 1961 (age 63); London, England
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro	1980
Retired	2005
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach	Pancho Segura
Prize money	$82,263,939; * 4th all-time leader in earnings
Int. Tennis HoF	2006
Singles
Career record	1052-158 (86.95%)
Career titles	55 (12th in the Open Era)
Highest ranking	No. 1 (9 December 1983)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	W (1983, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001)
French Open	W (1981, 1983, 1984, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2005)
Wimbledon	W (1983, 1984, 1989, 1998, 2002)
US Open	W (1983, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1997)
Tour Finals	W (1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2004)
WCT Finals	W (1983)
Olympic Games	W (1984, 1992, 2000, 2004)
Career record	{{#property:P555}}
Mixed doubles
Career record	36-8 (82.3%)
Career titles	12
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	W (1993, 1997, 1998, 1999)
French Open	W (1992, 1994, 1998, 1999)
Wimbledon	W (1991, 1995, 1999)
US Open	W (1992, 1994, 1999)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (2005)
Medal record
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games

Prince Nelson (Nelson Frederick Francis Albert Charles; born 23 March 1961), known professionally as Nelson Bacall, is a British former professional tennis player, filmmaker, and a member of the British royal family. The youngest of two sons of King Charles III and the American actress Lauren Bacall, Nelson is known for his twenty-five years long career in professional tennis during which he won a total of 55 singles titles, the most for a British player in the Open Era and the second-most behind Fred Perry. Having turned professional in 1980, in the following year, Nelson won his first title at the French Open, becoming the first British player to win a major Grand Slam title since Fred Perry. In 1983, Nelson subsequently won his first US Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon Championships titles, as well as his second French Open title in a single calendar year, thereby becoming the first British player to be ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals. Following this, Nelson went on to win the Australian Open a further eight times, the French Open a further six times, the US Open a further six times, and the Wimbledon Championships a further four times, becoming the joint record holder for most US Open titles won alongside Bill Tilden with seven and formerly the record holder for the most Australian Open titles won with nine until he was surpassed by Novak Djokovic in 2023. In 1984, Nelson became the first player to achieve the Golden Slam, a feat only repeated later by Steffi Graf, with whom he also shares the distinction of being the only two players to have won each of the four Grand Slam tournaments at least four times as well as the only three players alongside Margaret Court to have won the Grand Slam in both singles and mixed doubles. In addition, with a total of seven titles, together with Novak Djokovic, Nelson also holds the joint record for the most ATP Finals titles in which, at forty-four years old, he is also the oldest player to win the tournament. Moreover, in 1983, in his only WCT Finals win, Nelson famously defeated the American tennis player John McEnroe to become the only British player to win the tournament. Meanwhile, on the international stage, namely at the Olympic Games, Nelson helped deliver gold for Great Britain in tennis for the first time in decades since 1920. More significantly, in 2005, Nelson also helped deliver Great Britain's first Davis Cup title in almost seven decades via a memorable 3-2 win over Croatia, a feat that was only repeated a decade later by Andy Murray.

In addition to his hugely successful singles career, Nelson also enjoyed some success competing in the doubles, doing so primarily with his wife Steffi Graf. Together, the duo won the Australian Open and the French Open four times as well as the Wimbledon Championships and US Open thrice during which they achieved a Grand Slam in 1999, making them only the second mixed doubles pair to win the Grand Slam after Margaret Court and Ken Fletcher. Considered to be the most successful and prolific duo of the Open Era, the two are popularly nicknamed "The Golden Duo" (German: "Das goldene Duo") by media outlets while BBC Sport dubbed them the "King and Queen of Tennis". Since his retirement in 2005, Nelson has served as the chairman of Great Britain's Lawn Tennis Association as well as the president of The Football Association, a post that he held until 2020 when he was succeeded by his nephew Sir William Carter. Moreover, together with his siblings, Nelson has headed the production company Regal Legacy, producing films including the Kate Joan franchise, The Golden Trail, and Don't Look Up.

Considered to be among the greatest professional tennis players in history and, among Britons, some of the nation's greatest alongside Fred Perry and Andy Murray, due to both his fast and powerful serve and his trademark blonde hair, Nelson is popularly nicknamed "The Blonde Arrow", "The Thunderbolt", and "The Prince of Speed" by supporters. On 20 September 1999, Nelson married the German tennis player Steffi Graf, with whom he has two children. In 2006, Nelson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, joining the likes of fellow Britons Fred Perry, Wilfred Baddeley, Laurence Doherty, and his German wife Steffi Graf.

Early Life

Adulthood

Personal Life

As the secondborn son of King Charles III, for much of his life, Nelson was second in line to the throne of the United Kingdom. However, the birth of his niece, the future Queen Alexandra saw him relegated to third place during the final years of his father's reign. Then, during the first few years of his brother's reign, Nelson was once again second in line to the throne until the birth of his nephew Prince Richard, followed by several other children of his brother, resulted in him placing sixth in the line of succession where he currently sits.

In a somewhat unusual manner for a member of the royal family, Nelson is known to have publicly sported a pair of tattoos, both of which are inked on his arms. In this, his right arm features a tattoo depicting a lightning bolt crossed with an arrow, a reference to his nickname and playing style. Otherwise, his left arm features a tattoo depicting a combination of the letter "V" and the Roman numeral for three ("III"), a reference to the famous phrase of "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered") by the Roman leader Julius Caesar.

A lover of high-end automobiles in the tradition of his family, Nelson, much like his siblings, personally owns several vehicles himself in which he is known to be a devoted fan of the German luxury vehicle brand Mercedes-Benz. As of current, he normally drives a white Mercedes-AMG GT while also owning a Mercedes-Benz G-Class and a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. In addition, much like his brother, Nelson also owns a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which he occasionally drives for leisurely purposes.

Marriage

Since 1999, Nelson has been married to the German tennis player Steffi Graf. Before their marriage, the couple first met at a 1990 exhibition game popularly dubbed "The Golden Slam Showdown", a best-of-three contest that pitted a 28-year-old Nelson and a 21-year-old Graf, both of whom currently hold the distinction of being the only two tennis players, male or female, to achieve a Golden Slam. Held at the Centre Court in Wimbledon, London, despite a one-sided first set that saw Graf commandingly defeat her husband 6-2, Nelson ultimately went on to win the contest by later defeating Graf 6-4 and 6-2 in the second and third sets respectively. Nonetheless, irrespective of the results, their shared feat in tennis, coupled with a mutual sense of admiration for each other soon saw the couple begin a relationship that, despite not being officially confirmed by either of them, quickly became a popular rumour and an open secret among tennis fans. Regardless, during the ensuing years, the two appeared together as teammates for doubles matches where, at least in the public eye, the duo appeared as casual friends while seemingly dropping vague little hints of their growing romance from time to time. In this, their joint appearance at the wedding of Nelson's brother Thomas to the American supermodel Christy Turlington in December 1995 only further intensified rumours of their romance to the point that in an ensuing 1997 interview with BBC Sport shortly after the couple won the Australian Open in the mixed doubles category, Nelson remarked, "I'm honestly a tad bit disappointed that, after winning an undeniably challenging tournament together as a duo, the most popular questions that just come our way are not how we did so well to beat our opponents but rather if we are in love or dating each other in secret. It should be realised that this is tennis and not some reality dating show whatsoever".

Eventually, on 12 September 1999, shortly after the couple completed a historic Grand Slam in the mixed doubles category, Nelson publicly proposed to Graf, thereby publicly confirming their relationship to the public for the first time during which Graf also announced her retirement from professional tennis. On 20 September 1999, eight days after the proposal, the couple were eventually wedded at Oheka Castle in New York, United States in an intimate ceremony attended by their closest friends and relatives. Following this, the couple later welcomed two children, namely a daughter Elisabeth in 2001 and a son Carl in 2004. By the couple's own request, neither of their two children was afforded royal titles although both still retain their respective positions in the line of succession.