Pierre Pellizza (10 July 1917 – 8 June 1974) was a French

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 ...

player in the years before and after World War 2. In 1948 he settled in America. His younger brother was

and

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

player

Henri Pellizza Henri Pellizza (21 March 1920 — 20 October 2001) was a French badminton and tennis player. Pellizza, younger brother of tennis player Pierre Pellizza, came from the city of Pau. His tennis achievements include three third round appearance at ...

Allison Danzig Allison "Al" Danzig (February 27, 1898 – January, 27 1987) was an American sportswriter who specialized in writing about tennis, but also covered college football, squash, many Olympic Games, and rowing. Danzig was the only American sportswriter ...

of The New York Times said of Pierre Pellizza: "Pellizza was a bulldog for tenacity. He showed a forehand that rivalled Petra's...and a backhand that excelled his countryman's". The best results of Pierre Pellizza's career came at Monte Carlo, where he won the title in 1939 and 1946 (beating

Yvon Petra Yvon Petra (; 8 March 1916 – 12 September 1984) was a French male tennis player. He was born in Chợ Lớn, Ho Chi Minh City, Cholon, French Indochina. Petra is best remembered as the last Frenchman to win the Wimbledon Championships men's s ...

in both finals). Pellizza played Davis Cup from 1938 to 1947. At the French Championships, Pellizza reached the quarter-finals in 1946 (where he lost to Tom Brown) and 1947 (where he beat 8th seed

Enrique Morea Enrique Jorge Morea (11 April 1924 – 15 March 2017) was an Argentine tennis player. Morea reached the singles semifinals of the French Championships in 1953, beating Mervyn Rose and Gardnar Mulloy and then losing to Ken Rosewall. At the Fr ...

before losing to Tom Brown). At Wimbledon his best performance was in 1946, when he reached the quarterfinals (he came from two sets down to beat

Dragutin Mitić Dragutin Mitić ( sh-Cyrl, Драгутин Митић, ; 16 September 1917 – 27 August 1986) was a tennis player from Yugoslavia. He defected to the West in 1952 and afterwards lived in the United States. Early life and family Dragutin Mitić ...

before losing to

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 ...

). At the U.S. Championships, Pellizza's best results were the last 16 in 1936 (where he lost to Bitsy Grant) and 1946 (where he lost a five set match to former champion Don McNeill) He turned professional in 1948. Like

Paul Féret Paul Féret (; 27 July 1901 – 3 February 1984) was a French international tennis player in the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Paris, he competed in the Davis Cup two times in 1925. Amateur, to professional, back to amateur Féret was one of the fi ...

and

Henri Cochet Henri Jean Cochet (; 14 December 1901 – 1 April 1987) was a French tennis player. He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous " Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Born in ...

, Pellizza was later reinstated as an amateur. He played the French Championships for the last time in 1957, when he lost in the first round to

Andrés Gimeno Andrés Gimeno Tolaguera (3 August 1937 – 9 October 2019) was a Spanish tennis player. His greatest achievement came in 1972, when he won the French Open and became the oldest first-time Grand Slam champion in the Open era at 34 years of age. ...

References

1917 births French male tennis players 1974 deaths Professional tennis players before the Open Era People from Lourdes Sportspeople from Hautes-Pyrénées {{France-tennis-bio-stub