Former Australian tennis star Peter McNamara has died from cancer, aged 64.

McNamara, who reached a career-high ranking of no. 7 in 1983, beat all-time greats Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl to win two of his five singles titles.

Oh so gutted to hear of the passing of Australian Peter McNamara. What a lovely man and such a wonderful player who reached no7 in the world in singles and with Paul McNamee were a legendary doubles team, the Super Macs. He was only 64. Way too young. Very sad. RIP Macca.

— Craig Gabriel (@crosscourt1) July 21, 2019

His best grand slam singles result was making the semi-final of the 1980 Australian Open.

He is best remembered for his successful doubles partnership with Paul McNamee, with whom he twice won Wimbledon (pictured above) and won the Australian Open doubles in 1979.

Hard to believe that after 50 years of friendship Macca is gone… you lived life to the full mate and will be missed by your loved ones and many more…a toast to the great times mate pic.twitter.com/0RVbCD6ZRd

— Paul McNamee (@PaulFMcNamee) July 21, 2019

McNamara, born in Melbourne, retired in 1987 and went on to become an in-demand coach for the likes of Mark Philippoussis, Grigor Dimitrov and, more recently, Australian player Matt Ebden.

McNamara died peacefully at his home in Germany after a long and private battle with prostate cancer.

Alan Jones has long been involved in Australian tennis and paid tribute to McNamara.

“I was very saddened and astonished to hear the news overnight,” says Alan.

Click PLAY below to hear Alan’s comments in full

Image: Tommy Hindley / Getty Images