Roderich Menzel
 |
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| Full name | Roderich Ferdinand Ottomar Menzel |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |
 Czechoslovakia Germany |
| Born |
13 April 1907 Reichenberg, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 17 October 1987 (aged 80) Munich, West Germany |
| Height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| Turned pro | 1928 (amateur tour) |
| Retired | 1939 (brief comeback in 1951) |
| Plays | Right-handed (1-handed backhand) |
| Singles | |
| Highest ranking | No. 7 (1934, A. Wallis Myers) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Australian Open | QF (1935) |
| French Open | F (1938) |
| Wimbledon | QF (1933, 1935) |
| US Open | 4R (1934, 1935) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| Wimbledon | SF (1937) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| US Open | F (1935) |
Roderich Ferdinand Ottomar Menzel (German pronunciation: [ˈrɒdərɪk ˈmɛnʦəl]; 13 April 1907 – 17 October 1987) was an amateur tennis player and, after his active career, an author.
Roderich Menzel was born in Reichenberg (Czech: Liberec), Bohemia, an advanced industrial city of Austria-Hungary Empire. He lived with his parents and two brothers in a three-storey house in Römheldstraße 7 (Tatranská street these days). His father Ernst, who was born in the family of glassworks manager in the mountain village Wilhelmshöhe, rose from a correspondent to the position of a partner of cable manufacturer Felten & Guilleaume's North Bohemia office.
During his studies at a business high school he started to playing a football as a goalkeeper for RSK Reichenberg – at the age of 16 (1923) he joined the senior team. Looking back on his goalkeeper career Menzel often gave a good funny story about his great idol, goalkeeper of RSK Reichenberg, Ende. As is usual, home team goalkeeper's name always appeared at the very end of both team rosters in the home programme but in this case people often thought that at that point the programme actually ends.
But as he was playing tennis at same level as a football, an important decision had to be made. He chose tennis and soon became a Czechoslovak junior champion (1925). Shortly before he had to cope with a large family tragedy, when his father died of a heart attack due to complicated double pneumonia.
In 1928, Menzel first qualified for the main Wimbledon competition and also entered a Davis cup competition against Sweden. He immediately won his first two singles in his long successful Davis Cup career (61 wins/23 defeats), which in a history of the Czech (Czechoslovakian) Davis Cup team remains unsurpassed. Among his memorable Davis Cup performances belongs a couple of five set battles against Gottfried Von Cramm, his great rival at the time.
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