Werner Zirngibl (born 4 September 1956) 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 Germany.

Biography

A right-handed player, Zirngibl won his first Grand Slam match at the January edition of the 1977 Australian Open, then had to retire during his second round match against

Dick Crealy Richard Crealy (born 18 September 1944) is an Australian former tennis player most notable for reaching the final of the Australian Open in 1970, being a member of the 1970 Australian Davis Cup Team, and winning three Grand Slam titles in dou ...

. He managed to win the Belgium International Tennis Championships in 1978 as a

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...

. Following an upset win against top seed Adriano Panatta in the semi-finals, he had a four-set win over

Ricardo Cano Ricardo Cano (born 27 December 1951) is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. Most of his tennis success was in doubles. During his career, he won four doubles titles and finished runner-up six times. Cano participated in 23 Davis ...

in the final. The tournament, held on outdoor clay courts in Brussels, was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit. This was the first occasion a qualifier had gone on to win a Grand Prix tournament. In 1979 he represented

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in a

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 ...

tie at home in

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. His only appearance was in the doubles with

Ulrich Pinner Ulrich Pinner (born 7 February 1954) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 19 in August 1979 and was the German No. 1 from 1978-1980. Pinner participated in ten Davis Cup tie ...

, which they won over the Israeli pairing of

Shlomo Glickstein Shlomo Glickstein ( he, שלמה גליקשטיין; born 6 January 1958) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 22 in November 1982, and his career-high doubles ranking of World ...

and Meir Wertheimer. At the

1979 French Open The 1979 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 28 May until 10 June. It was the 83rd staging of the French Open, and the first Grand Slam ...

he equalled his best performance at a Grand Slam when he made it to the second round. Zirngibl studied medicine during his tennis career and became an orthopaedic surgeon. Based in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, he has performed surgery on top players including Michael Stich and Ivan Lendl.

Grand Prix career finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Challenger titles

Singles: (2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zirngibl, Werner 1956 births Living people German male tennis players West German male tennis players German orthopedic surgeons Sportspeople from Bonn Tennis players from North Rhine-Westphalia