Iván Balás

Iván Balás ( ; ; 1894 – 1971) was a Yugoslav tennis player of Hungarian ethnicity. He was one of the first to play for the Yugoslavian team at the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, and later the Davis Cup in 1927. Technically, his match was the second rubber of the tie. Apart from team competitions, he clinched international championships for Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Romania and Slovakia in various events.

Early life and family

Iván Balás was born in 1894 in Elemir, Bečkerek (renamed Zrenjanin in 1946), Banat, then part of Austria-Hungary and now Serbia. He was born into a wealthy landowner family of ethnic Hungarians, the son of Iván Balás, Sr. (1866, Tápióbicske – 1909, Budapest and Erna Koronghy (1874, Baracháza – 1850, Budapest). His family's wealth contributed to his rapid growth in tennis. His Hungarian father, built two tennis courts in Elemir where his son Iván learned tennis. Iván attended the Nagybecskerek high school. He continued his studies in Budapest.

Tennis career

In college Balás played tennis as well as basketball, hockey, football and athletics. He began to win club and international tournaments in Nagybecskerek. Balás' first public triumph was recorded in 1922 in the men's singles of the National Championship in Novi Sad.

At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, he played both singles in doubles. In the men's singles, he was defeated in the first round by Jack Nielsen (Norway). And in doubles, he and Đorđe Dunđerski advanced to the second roundbut lost to Jacques Brugnon/Henri Cochet (France).

In 1926, he was crowned the champion of Yugoslavia. He was drafted into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Davis Cup team for the first-ever Davis Cup match against India in Zagreb in May 1927, joined by Đorđe Dunđerski. Although they didn't win a game or set, both of them provided strong resistance. Balás even had two balls to have a chance to serve out the first set in the match against Hassan-Ali Fyzee, but did not succeed, as the Indian player came back to claim the match. On the third ball, the game was suspended due to bad weather, and so the match was decided after the first two days' results. The organizers agreed not to wait on Monday, but to pass the remaining two dead rubbers and the victory to India.

Balás next represented Hungary, debuting in a match against Austria. At the time, he was fifth/sixth on the Hungarian rankings. In 1930, he earned the second place in mixed doubles at the Bucharest International Championship (lost to Ghica Poulief and Nini Golescu) In Cluj-Napoca he lifted the doubles' trophy with partner Béla Kehrling, defeating Romanian champion Constantin Cantacuzino and Alexandru Botez; he also finished third in singles and mixed contest. In 1931, he reached four doubles finals, including the Hungarian Covered Courts tournament mixed and men's doubles, and the Warsaw International Championships doubles and mixed doubles.

Personal life

In 1928, Balás was engaged in Hungary, and he was no longer in the Davis Cup team of Yugoslavia. He mostly played and practised in Budapest and joined the Magyar Atlétikai Club. In 1944, he moved to Austria, where he continued his tennis career and married Zita Kremmel in 1950. On April 11, 1951, their daughter Charlotte was born. As of 1951 he lived and worked in France, where he was a devoted tennis player and coach for the rest of his life.

Balás died in Paris in 1971. The tennis club ''Galeb'' in Zrenjanin organizes a traditional tournament each year that bears his name.

Footnotes

Works cited

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Secondary

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*Cluj-Napoca

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Balas, Ivan
1894 births
1971 deaths
Yugoslav male tennis players
Hungarian male tennis players
Sportspeople from Central Banat District
French male tennis players
Tennis players at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Olympic tennis players for Yugoslavia
Date of birth missing
Date of death missing
Hungarian emigrants to France
Hungarians in Vojvodina
20th-century French sportsmen