Eric William Sturgess (10 May 1920 – 14 January 2004) was a South African male tennis player and winner of six Grand Slam doubles titles. He also reached the singles final of a Grand Slam tournament three times but never won. Sturgess was ranked World No. 6 by John Olliff of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' in both 1948 and 1949."Richard Gonzalez World's No. 1: Amateur Lawn Tennis Rankings"
''The Sunday Indian Express'', 18 November 1949.

Biography

Eric Sturgess was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, where he attended

Parktown Boys' High School Parktown Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in Parktown, a suburb of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in Johannesburg. Parktown Boys' sister school is Pa ...

. Sturgess joined the South African Air Force on the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and became an instructor with No 4 Spitfire Squadron, SAAF. In October 1944 he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire, captured on landing and sent to the air force officers' prison camp,

Stalag Luft III , partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...

, in eastern Germany. In January 1945 he was transported to Stalag IIIA at

Luckenwalde Luckenwalde (; Upper and dsb, Łukowc) is the capital of the Teltow-Fläming district in the German state of Brandenburg. It is situated on the Nuthe river north of the Fläming Heath, at the eastern rim of the Nuthe-Nieplitz Nature Park, abou ...

which was liberated two months later by the advancing Russian forces. He reached the singles final of the 1947 and 1951

French Championships The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

but lost to Hungarian

József Asbóth József Asbóth (; 18 September 1917 – 22 September 1986) was a Hungarian tennis player. Born to a family of railway workers, he is best remembered for being the first Hungarian and first player from Eastern Europe to win a Grand Slam single ...

(6–8, 5–7, 4–6) and

Jaroslav Drobný Jaroslav Drobný (; 12 October 1921 – 13 September 2001) was a World No. 1 amateur tennis and ice hockey champion. He left Czechoslovakia in 1949 and travelled as an Egyptian citizen before becoming a citizen of the United Kingdom in 1959, w ...

(6–3, 6–3, 6–3) respectively. In 1947 he won the doubles competition with countryman

Eustace Fannin Evelyn Eustace Fannin (28 June 1915 – 25 November 1997) was a South African tennis player. Fannin was born in Ixopo in June 1915 and educated at Hilton College. In 1947, he won the doubles title at the French Championships with compatriot E ...

. In 1948 he reached the singles final at the U.S. National Championships but lost to American

Pancho Gonzales Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 15 major singles titles, including two U.S. National Singles Championships in 1948 and 1949, and 13 P ...

. In 1947 and 1948 he won the

British Hard Court Championships The British Hard Court Championships is a defunct Grand Prix tennis and WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1968 to 1983 and 1995 to 1999. The inaugural edition of the tournament was held in 1924 in Torquay, moving to the West Hant ...

played in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

. He won the first three

Swedish Open Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

tournaments (1948, 1949, 1950), played in

Båstad Båstad () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Båstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden, with approximately 5,000 permanent residents. It is however one of Sweden's most typical summer resorts. The population is presumably more ...

. Sturgess won a record 11 singles titles at the South African Championships between 1939 and 1957. At both the 1951 and 1952 South African Open, he won in the finals playing

Syd Levy Sydney Levy (17 October 1922 – 22 November 2015) was a South African tennis player. He competed at Wimbledon Championships, Wimbledon, the French Championships, the US Open (tennis), U.S. Open, and Davis Cup, and won a silver medal at the Macca ...

of South Africa. By the end of his career Sturgess had reached 15 Grand Slam finals (three in singles, six in doubles and six in mixed doubles). He won four titles (the 1947 French Championships doubles title, the 1949 French Championships mixed doubles title and the 1949 and 1950 Wimbledon mixed doubles title). He represented South Africa in the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

competition in six ties, compiling a 13–5 record in singles and doubles.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (3 runner-ups)

Doubles (1 title, 5 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles (5 titles, 2 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * *
Telegraph obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturgess, Eric South African people of British descent French Championships (tennis) champions Tennis players from Johannesburg South African male tennis players Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era) 1920 births 2004 deaths Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Alumni of Parktown Boys' High School White South African people South African Air Force personnel of World War II