This week: tennis player known as the Becker Wrecker, a jewellery designer and a friend of Elvis.

THE tennis player Peter Doohan, pictured, who has died aged 56, was most famous for his victory over Boris Becker at Wimbledon in 1987.

Becker was the top seed and two-time defending champion at the time while Doohan was ranked 70 after beginning the year ranked 301. He won 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, earning the nickname "the Becker Wrecker." Becker said at the time: "I think I'm a better player than he is, but he was like magic, guessing everything I would do."

Doohan won one ATP singles title and five doubles titles, and reached a best singles ranking of 43 and a doubles ranking of 15 before he retired in 1996.

Before turning pro, he played at the University of Arkansas where he won an NCAA doubles title .

Doohan died after a short battle with an aggressive form of motor neurone disease.

Becker posted a photograph of the two of them on Twitter and wrote: "RIP mate! You were the better player... The tennis fraternity lost a great guy and wonderful player!"

THE costume jewellery designer Kenneth Jay Lane, who has died in New York at the age of 85, counted many famous names among his friends and customers including Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo, Nancy Reagan and the princesses Margaret and Diana. However, it was the home shopping empire QVC, which brought him broad mainstream appeal.

Brought up in Detroit, Lane landed an internship at Vogue before designing for the shoe company Genesco. He stated putting rhinestones on his shoes before working on ear-rings and buttons. Before long, his creations were being featured in fashion magazines and he started his business in 1963.

Mr Lane once playfully called himself a "fabulous fake". QVC said his legacy would live on.

THE actor and songwriter Robert Gene "Red" West, who has died aged 81, was perhaps best known as a longtime confidant of Elvis Presley.

West met Presley at high school and worked for him for 20 years. He was a friend, driver and bodyguard.

West also took small roles in some of Presley's films and co-wrote some songs Presley sang, including Separate Ways and If You Talk In Your Sleep.

After being fired by Presley's father in 1976, West became a full-time actor and appeared on TV shows and in films.

His most famous role was in 1989's Road House, starring Patrick Swayze.

After West was fired by Presley's father in 1976, he went on to help write a book called Elvis: What Happened? The book, published shortly before Presley's death, included details about the singer's drug dependency and unhealthy lifestyle. West and his co-authors, Sonny West and David Hebler, said the book was an attempt to encourage Elvis to give up his dangerous ways. However, some fans said it was written out of spite.