Sever Constantin Dron (born 25 June 1944 in Găieşti,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

) 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 and current coach. After winning several junior national championships, he played for the Romanian

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 ...

team in 1969 and 1971, along Ilie Nastase and

Ion Tiriac An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...

, among others. A graduate of the Bucharest Sports Academy in 1966, he

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

to France in 1972, requesting

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

. There he became a coach, training among others,

Virginia Ruzici Virginia Ruzici (born 31 January 1955) is a former professional tennis player from Romania. She won the 1978 French Open singles championship. Career Ruzici became a professional tennis player in 1975. One of her main assets on court was her po ...

Henri Leconte Henri Leconte (born 4 July 1963) is a French former professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991. Leconte's ...

and

Julie Halard Julie Halard-Decugis (born 10 September 1970) is a French former professional tennis player. Tennis career Halard-Decugis lived in La Baule, France, during the initial stages of her career and later moved to Pully, Switzerland. She turned profes ...

. In 1989, he became a French citizen. He is the founder of "Institut du Tennis Sever Dron" in France and "Tenis Club 2000 – Academia Sever Dron" in Romania.

Awards and honors

*Honorary citizen of Melun, France *Silver and bronze medals by the French Tennis Federation

Book

*Sever Dron, ''Am ales să fiu "nimeni"'' (I chose to be "nobody"), Pandora M, Bucharest, 2013

References

External links

* * 1944 births Romanian male tennis players French tennis coaches Romanian tennis coaches Romanian defectors Romanian expatriates in France Living people French male tennis players Sportspeople from Melun {{Romania-tennis-bio-stub