Thomas Emmrich (born 21 July 1953) is a former

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 for

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. Between 1970 and 1988, Emmrich won 46 German Democratic Republic (GDR) titles (17 singles and 29 in the doubles and mixed). He entered the tennis scene after the GDR had decided to promote only those sports which were relevant for the Olympics’ medals table. Thus, he was barred from international competitions outside the Eastern bloc countries and had to keep the status as an amateur. However, he gained some points at an ATP tournament in Sofia as GDR functionaries had not noticed that it had become part of the ATP tour. After this tournament, the ATP ranked him number 482—the only entry of a GDR tennis player in the ATP rankings.

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova ( cs, Martina Navrátilová ; ; born October 18, 1956) is a Czech–American, former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 maj ...

claimed that he could have become a top-ten player in the 1970s. After the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

in 1990, Emmrich proved that he could compete on a high international level as he won several titles, i.e. runners-up in the European Championships of the 35+ Seniors (1996), runners-up in the Doubles World Championships in 2003 (50+), European Champion (50+) in 2006. In addition, he gained many national titles after 1990 in senior competitions. His daughter Manuela Emmrich also picked up the tennis sport and played college tennis in the US. She won the National Championship in 2005. His son,

Martin Emmrich Martin Emmrich (born 17 December 1984) is a German retired professional tennis player who specialized in doubles, participating primarily in the ATP World Tour. On 12 October 2009, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking of 604 whilst his h ...

, is a professional tennis player and is successful on the doubles pro circuit.

Career finals

Doubles (1 win, 1 loss)

Notes

References

External links

* * German male tennis players East German male tennis players Tennis players from Berlin Universiade medalists in tennis 1953 births Living people Universiade silver medalists for East Germany Medalists at the 1977 Summer Universiade {{Germany-tennis-bio-stub