The French Switzerland Championships or Championnats de Suisse romande was a men's and women's open international clay court tennis tournament founded in 1905. It was first staged at the Le Montreux Palace Lawn Tennis Club, Le Montreux Palace Hotel,

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The championships ran until 1948.

History

The French Switzerland Championships were established in September 1905 and first played at the Tennis Club du Montreux Palace. In 1908 the event was moved to the Tennis Club de Montreux. During World War I the tournament was only held two times, then resuming fully in 1920. During World War II it was not held from 1939 to 1941, but resumed thereafter. Hosting of this event was shared between both venues, but the majority of time was played at the Montreux Lawn Tennis Club. The championships were discontinued in 1948. Former winners of the men's singles title included; Robert Wallet, Roy Allen, Max Decugis,

Anthony Wilding Anthony Frederick Wilding (31 October 1883 – 9 May 1915), also known as Tony Wilding, was a New Zealand world No. 1 tennis player and soldier who was killed in action during World War I. Considered the world's first tennis superstar, Wildin ...

, Norman Brookes,

Uberto De Morpurgo Uberto De Morpurgo (12 January 1896 – 26 February 1961) was a male tennis player from Italy. Uberto De Morpurgo was born in Trieste when it was part of Austria, but became an Italian citizen when the city changed hands after World War I. His ...

Otto Froitzheim Otto Froitzheim (; 24 April 1884 – 27 October 1962) was a German tennis player. He won the singles and doubles titles at the World Hard Court Championships in 1912. He also won an Olympic Silver medal in singles in 1908 and was a finalist a ...

Henry Mayes Henry George Mayes, MBE (14 February 1880 – 1928) was a British-Canadian tennis player, military figure and businessman. He won the Queen's Club Championships in 1922, 1926 and 1927. Biography Born in Northampton, Mayes was educated at No ...

, Giorgio de Stefani,

Hector Fisher Hector Cosmo Fisher (born 4 May 1901) was an English-Swiss-Thai tennis player and footballer. Personal life Fisher was born in Myaungmya, Burma in 1901 and baptised in Bassein, Bengal, British India in August 1902. He was the son of Henry Cosmo ...

Gottfried von Cramm Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm (; 7 July 1909 – 8 November 1976) was a German tennis champion who won the French Open twice and reached the final of a Grand Slam on five other occasions. He was ranked number 2 in ...

, Boris Maneff,

Pierre Pellizza Pierre Pellizza (10 July 1917 – 8 June 1974) was a French tennis player in the years before and after World War 2. In 1948 he settled in America. His younger brother was tennis and badminton player Henri Pellizza. Allison Danzig of The New Y ...

and Gianni Cucelli. Previous winners of the women's singles championship included; Aurea Farrington Edgington, Germaine Régnier Golding,

Cilly Aussem Cilly Aussem (; 4 January 1909 – 22 March 1963) was a German tennis player. She was the first German, male or female, to win the singles title at Wimbledon, which she did in 1931. She also won the women's single titles at the French Champion ...

Ilse Friedleben Ilse Friedleben (, née Weihermann; 2 September 1893 – December 1963) was a German female tennis player who was active until the beginning of the 1930s. Biography Friedleben was born under her maiden name Weihermann in Frankfurt am Main on 2 ...

Lolette Payot Lolette Payot-Dodille (; 17 April 1910 – February 1988) was a Swiss-French tennis player. Biography Payot was born on 17 April 1910 at Lausanne. She learned to play tennis age 8 on the courts of the Montchoisi tennis club. At the age of 13, ...

, Hilde Krahwinkel,

Alice Weiwers Alice Weiwers was a tennis player from Luxembourg. Weiwers was the winner of Tournoi de France, the French Championship tournament held in Vichy France. Weiwers won the 1941 and 1942 singles, 1941 doubles, and 1941 mixed doubles titles. References ...

and Annelies Ullstein Bossi.

Tournament names

The tournament sometimes carried the title of the Montreux Palace Hotel Autumn Championships or Montreux Autumn Meeting.

Venues

The event was first held at the Le Montreux Palace Hotel in 1907 the following year in 1908 it was held at the Montreux Lawn Tennis Club founded in 1890, in the grounds of the

Hôtel des Alpes-Grand Hôtel The Hôtel des Alpes-Grand Hôtel or Résidence des Alpes is an assemblage of buildings which formed a former palace in the city of Montreux in Switzerland History In 1840 the town bought a parcel of land on which to build a hostel entitled 'Ch ...

Territet Territet (Montreux) is a locality which is part of the Montreux commune, in the Vaud canton, Switzerland. Geography Territet is located between the city center of Montreux and the village of Veytaux, within the municipality of Montreux, on t ...

both venues held the event at various times.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Clay court tennis tournaments Defunct tennis tournaments in Switzerland