Wojciech Fibak (; popularly Wojtek Fibak ; born 30 August 1952) 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 Polish entrepreneur and

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

. Fibak is best known for his doubles success with Dutch pro

Tom Okker Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

and Australian

Kim Warwick Kim Warwick (born 8 April 1952) is an Australian former professional male tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1970–1987, reaching the singles final of the Australian Open in 1980. He defeated over 35 players ranked in the top ten ...

, although he also reached the Top 10 in singles.

Biography and personal life

Born in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

, Poland, he won his first tournament in 1976, and between then and 1982 won 15 singles titles and 52 doubles titles. His best year was arguably 1980, when he reached the quarter-finals at the French Open, the US Open and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

. Fibak's career singles win–loss record was 520–310, and he reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 10 on 25 July 1977. His highest doubles ranking was World No. 2, which he reached in February 1979. He was consistently ranked in the top 20 in singles, and earned $2,725,403 in career prize money. The highlight of his career was winning the Australian Open Men's Doubles in 1978 with

. They beat

Paul Kronk Paul Kronk (born 22 September 1954) is a former tennis player from Australia. Kronk won seven doubles titles during his professional career. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP ranking on 25 April 1976, when he was No. 78 in the w ...

and

Cliff Letcher Cliff Letcher (born 9 February 1952) was a former professional tennis player from Australia. He played Davis Cup for Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Cent ...

7–6, 7–5 to take the title. In 1983 he was banned from his local Poznań tennis club and faced reduced involvement from the Polish Tennis Federation and

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 ...

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

for his opposition to the communist

PZPR The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

government. In 1985, Fibak founded the Polish Tennis Club (Polish Tennis Association of Southern California); in the 1990s he was head of the Polish Tennis Federation and widely credited with popularising the sport in his native country. After the fall of communism in the early 1990s his company Fibak Press acquired the regional former PZPR mouthpiece ''

Gazeta Poznańska Gazeta may refer to: in Albania-language newspapers, * Gazeta 55, daily newspaper *Gazeta Rilindja Demokratike, daily newspaper *Gazeta Shqip, daily newspaper in Polish-language newspapers, * Gazetagazeta.com, a Polish-language daily newspaper, pu ...

'', until it was acquired by rivals

Głos Wielkopolski Głos ( pl, voice) may refer to: * ''Głos'' (1886–1905), a social, literary and political weekly review published in Warsaw * ''Głos'' (1991), a socio-political weekly magazine headed by Antoni Macierewicz * ''Głos (Czech Republic) ''Głos ...

in 2006, and published several other newspapers and magazines as well as being involved in books related to tennis. He is also a businessman and an avid

, and used his tennis fortune to open the

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

Galeria Fibak in 2001. Fibak divides his time between

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

, where he was Poland's

honorary consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

. He is a self-declared local patriot and was close to fellow local billionaire

Jan Kulczyk Jan Jerzy Kulczyk (24 June 1950 – 29 July 2015) was a Polish billionaire businessman. He was the founder and owner of Kulczyk Holding (headquartered in Warsaw) and an international investment house Kulczyk Investments (former name: Kulczyk Inves ...

. He has three daughters: Agnieszka, Paulina, and Nina.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Career finals

Doubles (52 titles, 33 runners-up)

Singles (15 titles, 19 runners-up)

Grand Slam doubles performance timeline

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fibak, Wojtek 1952 births Living people Sportspeople from Poznań Polish male tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Polish chief executives Polish company founders Businesspeople from Poznań Polish billionaires Australian Open (tennis) champions