Franjo Punčec
Franjo Punčec in 1936
|
|
| Country (sports) |
 Yugoslavia
|
|---|---|
| Born |
22 November 1913 Čakovec, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 5 January 1985 (aged 71) Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Turned pro | 1931 (amateur tour) |
| Retired | 1950 |
| Singles | |
| Highest ranking | No. 3 (1939, "Sport" Magazine) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| French Open | SF (1938) |
| Wimbledon | SF (1938, 1939) |
| US Open | 4R (1938) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| Wimbledon | QF (1939) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| Wimbledon | 4R (1939) |
Franjo Punčec (Serbian Cyrillic: Фрањо Пунчец [fraːɲo pûːntʃěːts]; Hungarian: Puncsec Ferenc [ˈpuntʃɛc ˈfɛrɛnts]; 25 November 1913, Čakovec - 5 January 1985, Johannesburg) was a Yugoslav tennis player of Croatian ethnicity.
Punčec started to play tennis at the Čakovec sports club and was coached by Géza Legenstein. He was crowned junior champion of Yugoslavia in 1931. He celebrated his first international match win at the 1931 Hungarian International Championships, over Wilhelm Brosch of Austria, at the age of 17. Though he lost in the second round in singles and first round of mixed doubles, he reached the quarterfinals of the doubles. He was asked to be a line judge at the 1931 Davis Cup tie against Japan Davis Cup team in Zagreb. He then joined the CWC Concordia Zagreb tennis club.
Punčec played for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Davis Cup team at the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, and later the Davis Cup, from 1933 to 1946. His greatest successes were reaching the semifinals of the French Open in 1938, where he lost against Czechoslovakian Roderich Menzel, and reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon, where he lost to American Don Budge that same year. In 1939 he again reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, but lost to American Bobby Riggs. He was the first Croatian ever to be placed in the rankings list, reaching as high as World No. 4 in Gordon Lowe's 1939 amateur rankings. Punčec was also ranked World No. 10 by A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph in 1938.Sport Magazine of Zurich ranked him first in the European rankings and third in the World's top ten.
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