Matthew Farhang Mohtadi ( fa, متیو فرهنگ مهتدی; January 6, 1926 – July 4, 2020) was a Canadian

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

and

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

man, originally from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Sporting career

Mohtadi made the final of the 1944 Middle East Championships, for

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

. He was a member of the

Iran national basketball team The Iranian national basketball team is controlled by the IR Iran Basketball Federation. Overall, the team won three out of the last five FIBA Asia Championship tournaments. History The Iranian national team has had limited success on the i ...

that competed at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

.Sports Reference: Farhang Mohtadi
/ref> He played in their match against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Mohtadi also played

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 ...

in 1948 he played his first tournament at the

Midland Counties Championships The Midland Counties Championships also known as the Midland International was a grass court tennis tournament held at Edgbaston Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club, Edgbaston, Great Britain from 1881 to 1977. History The first unofficial championshi ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...

where he reached the quarter finals. He also competed in seven successive

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 ...

from 1949 to 1955.Tennis Archive: Matt F. Mohtadi
/ref> On each occasion he exited in the opening round, to

Headley Baxter Headley Thomas Baxter (29 March 1919 — 31 August 2004) was a British tennis player and coach. He was active from 1939 to 1953 and contested 10 career singles finals and won 6 titles. Career A native of Middlesex, Baxter was the British junior c ...

, Marcel Coen, Derek Bull, Bryan Woodroffe,

Staffan Stockenberg Staffan Oscar Stockenberg (14 September 1931 – 20 May 2019) was a Swedish tennis player. Tennis career As a junior, Stockenberg achieved significant successes and won two consecutive junior singles titles at the Wimbledon Championships, in ...

, Edwin Tsai and Bob Perry. His losses to Coen and Bull were in five set matches. In 1953 he won the Priory Whitsun Lawn Tennis Tournament at the Priory Club, Birmingham, England against Edwin Tsai, this was his only title win. In 1954 he was runner-up at the North of England Hard Court Championships in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

, to

Ignacy Tłoczyński Ignacy Tłoczyński (; 14 July 1911 – 25 December 2000) was a Polish tennis player, coach and World War II veteran. Tłoczyński participated in 10 Davis Cup ties for Poland from 1930–1939, posting a 23–8 record in singles and a 3–9 r ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. In May 1961 he played his final tennis tournament at the Moseley Open Moseley,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

where he reached the quarter finals. He also played squash competing in the

British Open Squash Championships The British Open Squash Championships is the oldest tournament in the game of squash. It is widely considered to be one of the two most prestigious tournaments in the game, alongside the World Squash Championships (prior to the establishment of ...

Academic and personal life

While in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Mohtadi obtained a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

. He ended up in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, teaching at the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

. During his many years with the university, he served for a period of time as the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department Head and as Director of Public Relations in the Faculty of Engineering.''Enginuity Newsletter'', ''Volumes 7'', ''Number 2'', 'Spring 1997'', University of Calgary He is the father of Nick Mohtadi, an orthopaedic surgeon and former professional tennis player.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohtadi, Matthew Farhang 1926 births 2020 deaths Iranian male tennis players Iranian men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Iran Basketball players at the 1948 Summer Olympics Iranian male table tennis players Canadian academics in engineering Academic staff of the University of Calgary Iranian emigrants to Canada Alumni of the University of Birmingham Sportspeople from Tehran