Irvin "Irv" Sherrod Dorfman (September 3, 1924 – October 8, 2006) was an outstanding
amateur American
tennis player
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 cove ...
in the 1940s and 1950s. He was ranked No. 15 in singles in the United States in 1947, and No. 3 in doubles in the U.S. in 1948.
Early and personal life
He was born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, the son of Belle and Nat Dorfman, and was Jewish.
During World War 2, he was in the
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. He was married to Eileen Merl Dorfman and Jane Randall (originally Rosenbaum), with whom he had a daughter, Andrea Dorfman. He had a younger sister, Marcia Katz. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia.
Tennis career
Dorfman played his collegiate tennis at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. In 1946 he won the Eastern Intercollegiate Tennis Title. He also won the 1947 Connecticut State Tournament in singles, men's doubles, and mixed doubles. He graduated from that
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...
school in 1947.
At the
Cincinnati Masters, Dorfman reached the 1948 singles final, only to fall to Herbert "Buddy" Behrens in a match that lasted 64 games: 5–7, 9–11, 6–2, 8–6, 4–6. To this day, it is the longest final in games in the history of the Cincinnati tournament, which started in 1899 and is now the oldest tournament played in its original city in the United States.
Dorfman also won the doubles title in 1948 in Cincinnati, partnering with future
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indo ...
enshrinee
Pancho Gonzalez.
Dorfman reached the quarterfinal of the
1950 French Championships in which he lost to eventual champion and compatriot
Budge Patty
Edward John Patty (February 11, 1924 – October 4, 2021), better known as Budge Patty, was an American world no. 1 tennis player whose career spanned a period of 15 years after World War II. He won two Grand Slam singles titles in 1950. He wa ...
.
He died in
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...
in 2006.
See also
*
List of select Jewish tennis players
References
External links
*
*
American male tennis players
People from Brooklyn
Tennis people from New York (state)
Yale Bulldogs men's tennis players
1924 births
2006 deaths
Jewish American sportspeople
Jewish tennis players
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
United States Navy personnel of World War II
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
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