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Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston

Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston
Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston.jpg
Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston partnering Paul Aymé in the doubles at the World Hard Court Championships in 1913
Full name Mikhail Nikolayevich Sumarokov-Elston
Country (sports) Russia
Born 1893–1894
Yalta, Russian Empire
Died 3 July 1970(1970-07-03)
London, England
Turned pro 1906 (amateur tour)
1936 (pro tour)
Plays right-handed (- 1905)
left-handed (1905 -)
Singles
Career titles 39
WHCC 2R (1913)
Olympic Games 4R (1912)
Doubles
Other doubles tournaments
WHCC 1R (1913)
Olympic Games QF (1912)

Mikhail Nikolayevich Sumarokov-Elston (Russian: Михаил Николаевич Сумароков-Эльстон; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ sʊmɐˈrokəf ˈelʲstən] French: Michel de Soumarokoff-Elston; 1893 or 1894 – 3 July 1970) was a Russian tennis player. He competed in two events at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Apart from his supremacy in the Russian national championships he was a Maltese champion and various French Riviera titleholder.

Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston was born on in 1893 to Count Nicholai Felixovich Sumarokov-Elston reserve Lieutenant of the Cavalry Regiment and Countess Sofia Mikhaylovna Koskul. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of poet Alexander Sumarokov and the Great Great Grandson of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov. He was the nephew of tennis player Count Pavel Sumarokov-Elston, who was his first coach and doubles partner, grandson of Count-General Felix Sumarokov-Elston, Governor of Kuban Oblast, and cousin of the infamous Prince Felix Yussupov, who later became known as one of the collaborators who conspired to kill Grigori Rasputin, cult leader and mentor of Empress consort of Russia Alexandra. Felix provided his own palace for the murder spot and also shot Rasputin once before murdering him with the help of his accomplices. Mikhail had a sister called Elena and a brother Nicholas. At the age of twelve he had a surgery on his right hand, which as a result was rendered unsuitable for tennis and he later switched to left-hand play. First he moved to Dresden and was trained by Kurt Bergmann and George K. Logie. In 1906 he entered the second-class tournament of the Bad Homburg Championships, where he defeated Jack Hillyard amongst many to claim his first title. With this he set a record of being the youngest winner ever at the time in the history of the tournament. In 1908 his father and brother died within two weeks of each other. He moved back to his homeland and graduated first at the Annenschule then at the Law Faculty of the St. Petersburg University.


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