Sergey Leonyuk (born 3 April 1960) is a former professional
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 from Belarus.
Biography
Leonyuk was born in Minsk, the capital of the
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
, modern day Belarus. He represented the Soviet Union and was a nine time Soviet champion.
In 1978 he played in a
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
tournament in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, India. He lost in the first round of the singles to
Ramesh Krishnan and also played in the doubles draw with Igor Tihonenko.
He won a bronze medal in singles and silver medal in doubles
at the Friendship Games, held in Poland in 1984, for nations that
boycotted the Summer Olympics.
A regular
Davis Cup
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 ...
representative for the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, he appeared in 13 ties in the 1980s, including stints in the World Group. In
1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
he and
Alexander Zverev
Alexander "Sascha" Zverev (; born 20 April 1997) is a German professional tennis player. He has been ranked by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) as high as world No. 2, and was continuously ranked in the top 10 from July 2017 to N ...
came from two sets down to win a doubles match over Czechoslovakia's
Tomáš Šmíd and
Libor Pimek
Libor Pimek (born 3 August 1963) is a former professional male tennis player.
Pimek's best Grand Slam singles result came at the 1987 US Open when he reached the 3rd round, losing to Swede Mats Wilander in straight sets. He won one singles tou ...
in
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
.
He won one
Challenger
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Entertainment
Comics and manga
* Challenger (character), comic book character
* ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga
Film and TV
* ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...
title, the
Tampere Open
The Tampere Open is a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It is currently part of the ATP Challenger Tour, and has been held annually at the Tampere Tennis Center in Tampere
Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city ...
in 1986, which he and
Ģirts Dzelde won with a walkover in the final.
In the wake of the
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...
, Leonyuk moved to
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 ...
, New York to ensure his children's safety. He brought with him a promising 15-year old junior from Minsk,
Vladimir Voltchkov
Vladimir Nikolayevich Voltchkov ( be, Уладзімір Мікалаевіч Валчкоў, ''Uładzimir Mikałajevič Vałčkoŭ''; russian: Владимир Николаевич Волчков; born April 7, 1978) is a Belarusian former profe ...
, who he housed and coached.
In the 1990s, Leonyuk was an assistant coach of the Russian Davis Cup team.
He has also served as the tournament director of the
Kremlin Cup
The Kremlin Cup (russian: Кубок Кремля) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts, which was suspended in 2022. It was part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour and was a Premier Tournament on the WTA ...
.
Challenger titles
Doubles: (1)
See also
*
List of Soviet Davis Cup team representatives
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonyuk, Sergey
1960 births
Living people
Soviet male tennis players
Belarusian male tennis players
Tennis players from Minsk
Belarusian expatriate sportspeople in the United States
Belarusian tennis coaches
Universiade medalists in tennis
Universiade gold medalists for the Soviet Union
Universiade silver medalists for the Soviet Union
Universiade bronze medalists for the Soviet Union
Medalists at the 1981 Summer Universiade
Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games
Goodwill Games medalists in tennis
Friendship Games medalists in tennis