.jpg) Drobný in 1958 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Country (sports) |  Czechoslovakia (until 1939 and 1945–1950) Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1945) Egypt (1950–1959) Great Britain (after 1959) | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1921-10-12)12 October 1921 Prague, First Czechoslovak Republic | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 13 September 2001(2001-09-13) (aged 79) London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Turned pro | 1938 (amateur tour) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | 1969 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Plays | Left-handed (one-handed backhand) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Int. Tennis HoF | 1983(member page) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Singles | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Career record | 1106–268 (80.5%)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Career titles | 147 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest ranking | No.1 (1954,Lance Tingay)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam singles results | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | 2R (1950) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| French Open | W (1951,1952) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | W (1954) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| US Open | SF (1947,1948) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Doubles | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Career record | 0–1 (Open Era) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam doubles results | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | F (1950) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| French Open | W (1948) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | F (1951) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam mixed doubles results | |||||||||||||||||||||
| French Open | W (1948) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | SF (1948) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Jaroslav Drobný (Czech pronunciation:[ˈjaroslavˈdrobniː];[3] 12 October 1921 – 13 September 2001) was aworld No. 1 amateur tennis andice hockey champion. He left Czechoslovakia in 1949 and travelled as an Egyptian citizen before becoming a citizen of the United Kingdom in 1959, where he died in 2001. In 1951, he became the first and, to date, only Egyptian to win theFrench Open, while doing likewise at theWimbledon Championships in 1954. He was inducted into theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame in 1983. He played internationally for theCzechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team, and was inducted in theInternational Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.
Drobný began playing tennis at age five, and, as a ball-boy, watched world-class players including compatriotKarel Koželuh.[4] He had an excellent swinging left-handed serve and a good forehand.[5] Drobný played in his firstWimbledon Championship in 1938, losing in the first round to Alejandro Russell. After World War II Drobný was good enough to be able to beatJack Kramer in the fourth round of the1946 Wimbledon Championship before losing in the semifinals.[6] In 1951 and 1952, he won the French Open, defeating in the finalEric Sturgess and then retaining the title the following year againstFrank Sedgman.[7] Drobný was the losing finalist at Wimbledon in both 1949 and 1952 before finally winning it in 1954 by beatingKen Rosewall for the title, the first left-hander to capture Wimbledon sinceNorman Brookes.[8]
He won three singles titles at theItalian Championships (1950, 1951, and 1953).[9][10][11]
Drobný was ranked World No. 1 amateur in 1954 byLance Tingay ofThe Daily Telegraph.[2] He also won the French Open doubles title in 1948, playing withLennart Bergelin, and he won the mixed doubles title paired withPatricia Canning Todd at 1948 French Open.
Drobný held the distinction of having competed at Wimbledon under four different national identities. In 1938, at the age of 16, he started for his native Czechoslovakia. A year later, following the German invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia, he was officially representing theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. After World War II, he started at Wimbledon yet again as Czechoslovak but chose to defect from the communist regime in 1949 – he left Czechoslovakia for good on 11 July 1949.[12]
After theCzechoslovak coup d'état of 1948, Drobný became increasingly dissatisfied with the way the communist propaganda used him for its purposes. At the time, he was Czechoslovakia's most renowned athlete together with the long-distance runnerEmil Zátopek. Increasingly, it was becoming apparent to Drobný that he was no longer able to travel freely to tournaments and he grew dissatisfied with the new regime. This ultimately resulted in his defection from his native land.
Drobný defected from Czechoslovakia together with a fellow Czech Davis Cup playerVladimír Černík while playing at a tennis tournament inGstaad, Switzerland on 15 July 1949, after disobeying instructions from the USSR government to not play.[13] "All I had", he wrote later, "was a couple of shirts, the proverbial toothbrush and $50."[4] Drobný and Černík were the core of the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team. Twice, the two of them had carried their country to the Davis Cup semifinals, losing to Australia in 1947 and in 1948. Drobný won 37 of his 43 Davis Cup matches.[7]
Becoming stateless, Drobný attempted to gain Swiss, US and Australian papers until finally Egypt offered him citizenship. He represented Egypt at Wimbledon from 1950 through 1959, including his title winning run in 1954. He is the only Egyptian citizen ever to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament. At the time of his Wimbledon win in 1954, Drobný was already living in the United Kingdom (at Lake House, Dormans Park, near East Grinstead Sussex) but only in his final appearance at Wimbledon in 1960, at the age of 38, did he represent his new homeland Great Britain.The London Gazette announced on 24 July 1959 that he had been 'naturalised' on 8 May the same year.[14]
During his amateur career, Drobný won over 130 singles titles, and was world ranked in the top amateurs 10 from 1946 to 1955. Drobný was inducted in theInternational Tennis Hall of Fame inNewport, Rhode Island in 1983. He is the only person to win the rare combination of Wimbledon in tennis and a world championship title in ice hockey.
In total, Drobný started in Wimbledon 17 times, always sporting his trademark tinted prescription glasses as an old ice hockey injury affected his eyesight.[14] Drobný is the only male tennis player who ever won a Wimbledon singles title while wearing glasses.Billie Jean King andMartina Navratilova are the only female Wimbledon champions wearing glasses.Arthur Ashe, who was known for playing with spectacles, had switched to contact lenses by the time he won Wimbledon in 1975.
Drobný has won the most clay court titles of any one player (over 90).[15][16]
From 1938 to 1949 Drobný played center in the Czechoslovak ice hockey league.[4] He was a silver medalist with the Czechoslovak ice hockey team in the1948 Olympics. In the final match, Czechoslovakia and Canada tied goalless but Canada won the gold medal due to a better overall goal average. Drobný scored 9 goals in 8 games at the Olympics. Jaroslav Drobný was also a member of the Czechoslovak national ice hockey team which won the gold medals at the1947 World Ice Hockey Championships in Prague.[14] He scored 15 goals in 7 games in the tournament including a hat-trick in the decisive victory over USA which gave his country its first ever World Championships title.[citation needed] In 1997, Drobný was inducted in theInternational Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.[17][18]Drobný could have become the first ever European player to start in theNational Hockey League when theBoston Bruins put him on their reserve in 1949. Apparently, he was offered $20,000 to come over to play for Boston but he refused, preferring to remain playing amateur ice hockey and retain the flexibility to play tennis during the summers.[19] The first European to play in the NHL eventually becameUlf Sterner from Sweden when he started for theNew York Rangers for the first time on 27 January 1965.
In 1955, Jaroslav Drobný published his autobiography titledChampion in Exile. He was married toRita Anderson Jarvis, onetime English tournament player. He died 13 September 2001 inTooting, London a month before his 80th birthday.[14][20]
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | 1946 | French Championships | Clay |  Marcel Bernard | 6–3, 6–2, 1–6, 4–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 1948 | French Championships | Clay |  Frank Parker | 4–6, 5–7, 7–5, 6–8 |
| Loss | 1949 | Wimbledon | Grass | Ted Schroeder | 6–3, 0–6, 3–6, 6–4, 4–6 |
| Loss | 1950 | French Championships | Clay | Budge Patty | 1–6, 2–6, 6–3, 7–5, 5–7 |
| Win | 1951 | French Championships | Clay |  Eric Sturgess | 6–3, 6–3, 6–3 |
| Win | 1952 | French Championships(2) | Clay |  Frank Sedgman | 6–2, 6–0, 3–6, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1952 | Wimbledon | Grass | Frank Sedgman | 6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 2–6 |
| Win | 1954 | Wimbledon | Grass | Ken Rosewall | 13–11, 4–6, 6–2, 9–7 |
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1948 | French Championships | Clay |  Lennart Bergelin | Harry HopmanFrank Sedgman | 8–6, 6–1, 12–10 |
| Loss | 1950 | French Championships | Clay | Bill Talbert | Tony TrabertEric Sturgess | 6–2, 1–6, 10–8, 6–2 |
| Loss | 1950 | Australian Championships | Grass | Eric Sturgess | John BromwichAdrian Quist | 6–3, 5–7, 4–6, 6–3, 8–6 |
| Loss | 1951 | Wimbledon | Grass | Eric Sturgess | Ken McGregor Frank Sedgman | 3–6, 6–2, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 |
| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1948 | French Championships | Clay | Patricia Canning Todd | Doris HartFrank Sedgman | 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 |
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| Tournament | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | SR | W–L | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | A | A | A | Not held | A | A | A | A | 3R | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% | ||||
| French Open | A | A | Not held | F | A | F | A | F | W | W | SF | 4R | A | 4R | 2R | 4R | 4R | 2R | A | 1R1 | 3R | 2R | 1R | 2 / 16 | 46–13 | 78% | |||||
| Wimbledon | 1R | 3R | Not held | SF | QF | 2R | F | SF | 3R | F | SF | W | QF | 1R | 2R | 4R | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | 1 / 17 | 50–16 | 76% | |||||
| US Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | SF | SF | QF | 3R | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | 0 / 5 | 15–5 | 75% |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 2–1 | 10–2 | 8–2 | 12–3 | 9–2 | 13–4 | 8–1 | 11–1 | 9–2 | 10–1 | 4–1 | 3–2 | 2–2 | 6–2 | 2–2 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–2 | 0–1 | 3 / 39 | 112–35 | 76% | |||||||
1Drobný did not play. His opponent got a walkover.
Ivan Blatný wrote a poem calledWimbledon which addresses Drobný.[9][21][22]
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| People | |
