Zsuzsa Körmöczy (25 August 1924 – 16 September 2006) was a female

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

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. She reached a career high of World No. 2 in women's tennis, and won the 1958 French Open at the age of 34.

Early life

She was born in

Pély Pély is a village in Heves County, Hungary. Notable residents *Zsuzsa Körmöczy (1924–2006), World No. 2 women's tennis player *Mari Törőcsik Mari Törőcsik (born Marián Törőcsik; 23 November 1935 – 16 April 2021) was a Hunga ...

, Hungary, and was Jewish.Suzy Kormoczy
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Tennis career

In Hungary, as a 16-year-old in 1940 she won the national doubles and mixed doubles titles, and she later won the national singles title six times, and the doubles or mixed doubles trophies 10 times.">"Who Is The Greatest Jewish Female Tennis Player Of All Time?" , ''World Tennis Magazine''
/ref> According to Lance Tingay of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and the ''Daily Mail'', Körmöczy was ranked in the world top 10 in 1953, 1955, 1956, and 1958 and again from 1959 through 1961 (no rankings issued from 1940 through 1945), reaching a career high of World No. 2 in those rankings in 1958 at the age of 34. She won the singles title at the 1958

French Championships The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

at the age of 33 and reached the semifinals at

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 * ...

in 1958. She was named

Hungarian Sportswoman of the Year Hungarian Sportspeople of the Year awards are granted each year since 1958, with categories for sportsmen, sportswomen, teams, coaches (since 1985) and presidents (since 1995). List of winners Statistics Individual winners of three or mor ...

in 1958 after having won the French Championships the same year. She became the first sportswoman granted this award. She won eight of the nine tournaments she entered in 1958, and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon. In 1959 she made Wimbledon's ‘round of eight’, finishing sixth, and was the French Open Singles runner-up. She retired from competition in 1964 to work as a coach for Vasas (the Ironworker Union's Sports Club) and act as the national tennis association's manager. After the

fall of communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...

, she was decorated by new democratic governments in 1994 and 2003. In 2007, she was inducted posthumously into the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

¹In 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kormoczy, Zsuzsa 1924 births 2006 deaths Hungarian female tennis players French Championships (tennis) champions Jewish tennis players Hungarian Jews Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's singles Jewish sportswomen Tennis players from Budapest