Anita Kanter (born 1933) is a former amateur

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from the U.S. who played in the 1950s. In singles, Kanter was ranked # 6 in the United States (and # 10 in the world by ''World Tennis'' magazine) in 1952, and # 9 in the US in 1953.

Early life

Kanter was born in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, and is Jewish. She attended

Santa Monica High School Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...

Tennis career

Kanter won the 1949 US Girls National Hard Court Singles Championship. She won the US girls tennis championship in 1951 as an 18-year-old sophomore at the

University of California-Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, as well as the 1951 National Hard Court Doubles and Mixed Doubles championships.Kanter, Anita: Jews In Sports
/ref> In 1952, she won the

U.S. Women's Clay Court Championships The U.S. Open Clay Courts, known formally as the U.S. Clay Court Championships, was a national tennis championship for women that was sanctioned by the United States Tennis Association. The first edition was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1912, ...

, and was the runner-up at the Foothills Cup. That year at the

Cincinnati Masters The Cincinnati Masters or Cincinnati Open (branded as the Western & Southern Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati. The event started on September 18, 1899, and is the olde ...

, she won both the singles and doubles titles. In 1953 she won the US National hard court tennis championship, successfully defended her doubles title, and reached the singles final. She was seeded no. 1 in singles and doubles in both appearances in Cincinnati. In doubles in those two years, she paired with Joan Merciadis in 1952 and with

Thelma Long Thelma Dorothy Coyne Long (née Coyne; 14 October 1918 – 13 April 2015) was an Australian tennis player and one of the female players who dominated Australian tennis from the mid-1930s to the 1950s. During her career she won 19 Grand Sla ...

of Australia in 1953.

Maccabiah Games

Kanter, who is Jewish, competed in Israel in the 1953 Maccabiah Games—the "Jewish Olympics". At the Games, Kanter, ranked #9 in the US at the time, lost the women's singles title to Angela Buxton and ended up with the silver medal, but won two gold medals, one as she won the mixed doubles title with Grant Golden and one as she won the women's double title with Toby Greenberg - beating Angela Buxton and Carol Levy of Britain in the final.

Hall of Fame

In 2014, she was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themselves ...

.Eric Sondheimer (September 16, 2013)
">"15 selected for Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame,"
''Los Angeles Times''.

References

External links