A 103-year-old Australian who flew Spitfires in the war won tennis bronze in Crete
Henry Young of Adelaide is 103 and the oldest competitive tennis player in the world. Last week he flew to Crete for the world masters championships and won a bronze medal.
6 November 2026
A long life
Henry flew Spitfires in the Second World War. After the war he farmed, and he played rugby as well as tennis.
In 2022 he played a charity match at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. It helped raise $4 million for Ukraine.
After the medal
Henry did not go straight home. He went on to Athens and played a friendly doubles match with his friend Gerry.
On the other side of the net were Alison Duncan, Australia’s ambassador to Greece, and her husband. She said his energy for life was an inspiration.
The trip came about through Greece’s consul general in Adelaide, Dr Alexandra Theodoropoulou, and Kostas Markou.
Carry a story in five words
We run a game called Long Story Short: one real news sentence a day, and you keep the five words that carry it. Today’s is below. Do play.
How to play
One real news sentence. The job is to keep the five words that carry the story and let the rest go, then guess. Blue means the right word in the right place, orange the right word in the wrong place.
Yesterday: A grandmother, 85, was already outside her Benton Harbor home when firefighters arrived on Friday, because her grandson had pulled her through a window as the kitchen burned. The five were grandson pulled grandmother through window.