9th

Swiss tennis player Emmanuelle Gagliardi was born on this day in 1976. Emmanuelle has never won a WTA Tour singles title, but reached the semi-finals of the 2002 Indian Wells Masters, losing to eventual champion Daniela Hantuchová in three sets. She was a member of the Switzerland Fed Cup team that reached the final in 1998. She was also a member of the Swiss team for the 2008 Summer Olympics and played doubles with Patty Schnyder, reaching the second round. In doubles, Emmanuelle reached the semi-finals of the 2003 Australian Open with Petra Mandula and won the 2004 China Open with Dinara Safina. Also born on this day, but in 1950 was Italian tennis star Adriano Panatta. He won the French Open in 1976, and was the only player ever to defeat Björn Borg at Roland Garros, doing so on two occasions.

 

10th

John Fortescue ‘J.F.’ Foulkes, Canadian tennis player, was born today in London in 1872,  the second of six children born to Rev. Augustine Lempriere Foulkes and Francesca Forster.  His father, who had been a cricket player, earned a doctorate at Queen’s College, Oxford and was the vicar of Steventon. He moved to Canada as a teenager in 1891, and quickly began winning tournaments. A member of the Victoria Lawn Tennis Club, Foulkes may have captured the Canadian national championship in singles 1907, 1909, and 1910 – but there is some dispute about this, some sources claiming that he wins in 1907 and 1908 did not occur and that on those occasions he was in fact runner up. His 1907 win, if it did occur, broke a string of 13 consecutive wins by an American player and only the second for a Canadian in 18 years. He competed in the men’s singles and doubles at the 1908 Summer Olympics. He was an eight-time British Columbian champion, won five Pacific Northwest titles in Tacoma, Washington, and added two Washington state championships in Seattle. Foulkes played on the 1913 Canadian Davis Cup team. Foulkes served in the Canadian Army during the Boer War, earning the Queen’s Medal with four clasps. From then on he was frequently referred to as “Captain” Foulkes.  He served again during the First World War in the 4th Canadian Division in the Canadian Service Corps. He was awarded the Order of Agricultural Merit from France and was mentioned in dispatches three times in 1917 and 1918.  In the 1919 New Year Honours following the war, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Foulkes has been elected to both the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 1913 Davis Cup team. He was also elected to USTA Pacific Northwest Tennis Hall of Fame in 2008. He died aged 75 on 22nd June 1948.

 

11th

Dorothea “Dora” Köring was born on this day in 1880 in Chemnitz, Germany. At the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 she won a gold medal in the mixed doubles event with Heinrich Schomburgk, which was only the second ever German female Olympic gold medal. She also played in the women’s outdoor singles tournament, at one stage in the match, when she was leading Marguerite Broquedis, the French woman left the court to change her shoes. This tactical manoeuvre resulted in Dorothea losing her rhythm and she eventually lost the match, coming home with a silver medal.  Affiliated to Akademischer SV Dresden, Dorothea was the 1912-13 German singles Champion and later played a professional tour in 1927 against Suzanne Lenglen, without much success. Dorothea tragically lost her life during World War II, on 13th February 1945, when her house was bombed during the Dresden bombing raids, she was 64 at the time.

 

12th

Yoo Jin-sun is one of three tennis players born on 12th July over the years. Born in 1962 in Seocheon, South Korea, he represented his native country as a qualifier at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. There he was defeated in the first round by the number twelve seed from Israel, Amos Mansdorf. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on June 1988, when he became number 194 in the world.  Also born today but in 1977, Francesca Lubiani, from Italy. Her career high WTA singles ranking is 58, which she reached in May 1997. Her career high doubles ranking is 114, set in August 2005. Finally Britain’s Annabel Croft was born in 1966 in Farnborough, Kent, a former professional British No 1, she now is a radio and television presenter. As a tennis player she won the WTA Tour event Virginia Slims of San Diego and represented Great Britain in the Fed Cup and the Wightman Cup. After retiring from tennis, she turned to television presenting, with such shows as Treasure Hunt and Interceptor. In 2005, she appeared in the ITV programme Celebrity Wrestling, which she went on to win. Most recently she has been a presenter for Eurosport, and Sky Sports, among other broadcasters.

 

13th 

Born on this day in 1961 in Sweden was Anders Per Järryd, who turned professional in 1980. He won his first tour doubles title in 1981 and a year later he captured his first top-level singles title. In 1983 he won his first Grand Slam doubles title at the French Open, partnering his fellow Swede Hans Simonsson. Järryd had a strong year in 1984, winning two singles and five doubles titles. He also finished runner-up in the men’s doubles at the US Open that year, partnering Stefan Edberg. 1985 saw Järryd’s career-best Grand Slam singles performance, when he beat Claudio Panatta, Scott Davis, Vincent Van Patten, Danie Visser and Heinz Günthardt to reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon before being knocked-out in four sets by Boris Becker. Järryd reached his career-high singles ranking World No. 5 in July 1985, and captured the World No. 1 doubles ranking that August. At the French Open and US Open, Järryd progressed to career best finishes, finishing the fourth round and quarter-final respectively. In 1986 he won the WCT Finals by beating Boris Becker in the final, while he and Edberg were the men’s doubles runners-up at the French Open. He won three of the four Grand Slam men’s doubles titles in 1987, at the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open and was also a member of Swedish team which won the Davis Cup that year, furthermore he played on 3 Swedish teams which finished runners-up in the Davis Cup in 1986, 1988 and 1989. In 1988 he  finished runner-up in the men’s doubles at both the French Open and Wimbledon and won the men’s doubles Bronze at the Olympic Games that year, partnering Edberg. Järryd was also a member of the Swedish team which won the 1988 World Team Cup. The following year, Järryd partnered Fitzgerald to win the men’s doubles title at Wimbledon; thus completing a career set of all four Grand Slam men’s doubles titles. 1991 again saw Järryd capture three of the four men’s doubles titles, as he partnered Fitzgerald to win the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, his last Grand Slam titles. Järryd reached his last Grand Slam doubles final at the 1993 Australian Open, partnering Fitzgerald again. Over the course of his career, Järryd won eight top-level singles titles and 59 tour doubles titles. His final singles title came in 1993 at Rotterdam. He won his final doubles title in 1995 at St. Petersburg. He retired from the professional tour in 1996.

 

14th

Leonardo Lavalle Moreno, who was born in Mexcio City on this day in 1967, turned professional in 1985 and represented his native country at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where he lost in the quarter-final to Spain’s eventual runner-up Jordi Arrese. The left-hander won one career title in singles (Tel Aviv, 1991) and reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 17th March 1986, when he became World No. 51. He won the Wimbledon boys’ junior singles and doubles title in 1985. His singles win was notable for the fact that the men’s singles winner that year, Boris Becker, was younger than Leonardo. He was later a runner-up in doubles at Wimbledon in 1991 and a Wimbledon doubles semi-finalist in 1989 and 1990. Also born on this day but in 1984 was Slovak player Lenka Dlhopolcová. She won three ITF singles tournaments in her career, reached a ranking high of world number 156 on 4th  February 2002. Lenka qualified for the first round of the 2001 US Open Women’s Singles, but lost 2–6, 3–6 to the eventual champion Venus Williams.

 

15th

Born on this day in 1885 in Austria was Arthur Zborzil. At the 1912 Stockholm Olympics he teamed up with Felix Pipes to win a silver medal in the men’s doubles event, losing out on the gold medal to the South African pairing of  Harold Kitson and Charles Winslow.  Zborzil also competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics, but he lost his first match in the singles event as well as his first match with Felix Pipes in the doubles event. Zborzil also played at the 1905 Austrian International Championships, losing in the quarter-finals. Zborzil was a medical doctor but not a lot is known about his life. He died on 15th October 1937.