Franjo Kukuljević (; 7 October 1909 – 8 November 2002) was a Yugoslav
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 ...
International Lawn Tennis Challenge
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 ...
from 1930 to 1939. He was a 13-time national champion – one in singles, six in doubles and six in the mixed doubles, usually with Vlasta Gostiša. He was a Dutch, Indian and Danish champion as well.
Tennis career
Franjo Kukuljević first came to attention when he won the National Tennis Championships in 1929. This led to him receiving an invitation to join the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Davis Cup team the following year in
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
. He made his debut with doubles partner Ivan Radović, losing to the Spanish team. He was also defeated in his singles match by Enrique Maier due to his lack of match play. This was followed by appearances at international tournaments in places such as
Kaposvár
Kaposvár (; also known by other alternative names) is a city with county rights in the southwestern part of Hungary, south of Lake Balaton. It is one of the leading cities of Transdanubia, the capital of Somogy County, and the seat of the Kaposvá ...
, Piešťany and Semmering. In 1930 he was selected to represent Yugoslavia in the inaugural
Balkan Games
The Balkan Athletics Championships or Balkan Games () is a regional athletics competition held between nations from the Balkans and organized by Balkan Athletics. The first games were held in Athens in 1929, and the most recent were being held in ...
in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, joined by
Franjo Šefer
Franjo Šefer ( sr, Фрањо Шефер ; german: Francis Schaeffer or ; born 1905 in Vienna) was a Yugoslav tennis player of Austrian-Jewish descent.
Early life and family
Franjo Šefer was born in 1905 in Vienna to a Jewish family. They mo ...
and Vlasta Gostiša. Playing singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches, they earned a silver medal, the final scores of the top five teams being Romania with 25 points, Yugoslavia with 24, Greece with 18, Bulgaria with 4, and Turkey with 3.
In 1931 Zagreb welcomed the
Japan Davis Cup team
The Japan men's national tennis team represents Japan in Davis Cup tennis competition and is governed by the Japan Tennis Association.
Japan first competed at the Davis Cup in 1921, where they finished as runners-up. They were an inaugural me ...
consisting of the Sato brothers and Minoru Kawashima who were scheduled to face Yugoslavia in the first round of the Davis Cup in front of 1,500 spectators, which at the time was a record at the tennis courts in Yugoslavia. Kukuljević nearly defeated
Hyotaro Sato
Hyotaro Sato (1 June 1904 – 12 April 2006) was a Japanese tennis player.
Born in Yokkaichi, Sato was an elder brother of tennis player Jiro Sato and studied at Kwansei Gakuin University.
In 1930 and 1931 he toured with the Japan Davis Cup team ...
whom he pushed to five sets. He competed again at the second
Balkan Games
The Balkan Athletics Championships or Balkan Games () is a regional athletics competition held between nations from the Balkans and organized by Balkan Athletics. The first games were held in Athens in 1929, and the most recent were being held in ...
.
In 1932 a rivalry arose between Kukuljević and the up-and-coming talent
Franjo Punčec
Franjo Punčec (; 25 November 1913 – 5 January 1985) was a Yugoslav tennis player. He played for the Yugoslavian team at the International Lawn Tennis Challenge from 1933 to 1946.
Early life and family
Punčec started to play tennis at the ...
. They met in two notable finals, first in the Yugoslavian International Championships, and then in the national championships. In both meetings Kukuljević dominated the field and left victorious. Kukuljević then returned to Semmering where he booked his first world top ten trophy over a Wimbledon champion, the Australian Jack Crawford.
The 1933–1934 season saw Kukuljević's decline as Franjo Punčec stripped him of his national singles title. After travelling to Egypt he injured himself, which caused him to waste the rest of his season. In 1935 he won the All-India Lawn Tennis Doubles Championships with
Franjo Šefer
Franjo Šefer ( sr, Фрањо Шефер ; german: Francis Schaeffer or ; born 1905 in Vienna) was a Yugoslav tennis player of Austrian-Jewish descent.
Early life and family
Franjo Šefer was born in 1905 in Vienna to a Jewish family. They mo ...
. He performed well in the mixed doubles as well and took the Netherlands Championships mixed trophy.
By chance, in 1937 at the
Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...
he met
Madansinhji
Maharajadhiraj Mirza Maharao Sri Madansinhji Vijayaraji Sawai Bahadur (12 October 1909 – 21 June 1991) was the last official ruler of the Princely State of Cutch, from 26 February 1948 to 1 June 1948.Kutch, with whom he played doubles. They became lifelong friends. Kukuljević went on to claim the singles title in the Dutch Championships after eliminating Giorgio de Stefani in the final. He then travelled to
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, clinching the tournament there by beating Czechoslovakian Josef Siba for the title. He became the Danish champion as well in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
after facing his compatriot
Josip Palada
Josip Palada ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Палада, ; 5 February 1912 – 4 May 1994) was a Yugoslavian tennis player.
Early life and family
Palada was born in Zagreb and started to play tennis at the age of fifteen on the courts of the Neurologica ...
in the final match. In the doubles he won the South of Sweden Championships. He then toured India and Nepal again, then sailed to the Philippines and Japan to take part in exhibition matches.
In 1938 Kukuljević reached the Davis Cup Europe final with Punčec and Palada, and only lost to Germany in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. In
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
he beat world number one
Don Budge
John Donald Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the Grand Slam, and to win all four Grand Slam ev ...
in two straight sets, which was a major upset.
In the 1939 Wimbledon Championships he beat reigning French champion Don McNeill in the second round, a huge feat that received a massive media coverage in England. He marched into the quarterfinals where only
Henner Henkel
Heinrich Ernst Otto "Henner" Henkel (; 9 October 1915 – 13 January 1943) was a German tennis player during the 1930s. His biggest success was his singles title at the 1937 French Championships.
Biography
Henner was born in 1915 the son of ...
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...
. He played in
Gödöllő
Gödöllő (; german: Getterle; sk, Jedľovo) is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is 34,396 according to the 2010 census and is growing rapidly. It can b ...
where he lost in the doubles, partnering Josip Sarić.
In 1948 he added the North of England Championships to his accolades, which he won in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
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* Scarborough (surname)
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Kukuljević had a brother named Tomislav. After World War II, they emigrated to South Africa, where Kukuljević worked as a merchant and married Ljuba Kukuljević. He died in 2002 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 ...