Krešimir Friedrich (; 30 July 1898,

Koprivnica Koprivnica () is a city in Northern Croatia, located 70 kilometers northeast of Zagreb. It is the capital and the largest city of Koprivnica-Križevci County. In 2011, the city's administrative area of 90.94 km2 had a total populati ...

– 3 March 1985,

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

) was a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n tennis player, footballer and lawyer from Koprivnica, and a national tennis champion of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

Early life and family

Krešimir Friedrich was born in Koprivnica into a family of 11 children, all brothers. He and his brother Ferdo began visiting the local tennis courts in Koprivnica in their youth, frequenting the same club where contemporary painter and eventual fifth-ranked national player and subsequent

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

captain

Fedor Malančec Fyodor, Fedor () or Feodor is the Russian-language form of the originally Greek-language name "Theodore" () meaning "God's gift" or "god-given". Fedora () is the feminine form. "Fyodor" and "Fedor" are two English transliterations of the same Ru ...

trained at the time. They were occasionally hired as ball boys, and thus had a chance to play a bit sometimes.

Football career

Friedrich and his brother

Dragutin Dragutin (Cyrillic: Драгутин) is a Croatian and Serbian masculine given name. Those bearing it include: * Stephen Dragutin of Serbia * Dragutin Topić * Dragutin Dimitrijević * Dragutin Mitić * Dragutin Tadijanović * Dragutin Šurb ...

began playing at the

NK Slaven Belupo Nogometni klub Slaven Belupo (), often referred to as Slaven Belupo, is a Croatian professional football club based in the city of Koprivnica in the north of Croatia. They play their home matches at Gradski stadion in Koprivnica. They play in ...

but soon left for the

HAŠK HAŠK (full name Hrvatski akademski športski klub, ) was a Croatian football club established in Zagreb in 1903. The club was one of the most successful sides in Zagreb and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the period between the two World Wars. The ...

club in 1923 although Krešimir was mostly a reserve player in the latter team.

Tennis career

Friedrich had minor local achievement in the 1920s, including the third place at the VIII HAŠK tournament doubles competition, partnering his brother; the match was won by Ivan Balás and Franz Wilhelm Matejka. In 1930 he won the

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

tournament in doubles and mixed doubles. That same year, he reached third place in the Serbian International Championship in singles and was a runner-up in doubles, pairing with

Emil Gabrowitz Emil may refer to: Literature *''Emil and the Detectives'' (1929), a children's novel *"Emil", nickname of the Kurt Maschler Award for integrated text and illustration (1982–1999) *''Emil i Lönneberga'', a series of children's novels by Astr ...

of Hungary; they only lost to the eventual champions,

Franjo Šefer Franjo Šefer ( ; or ; born 1905 in Vienna) was a Yugoslav tennis player of Austrian-Jewish descent. Early life and family Franjo Šefer was born in 1905 in Vienna to a Jewish family. They moved to Karlovac in 1910, where he made his first st ...

and

Ivan Radović Ivan Radović ( sr-Cyrl, Иван Радовић ; 22 June 1894 – 14 August 1973) was a Serbian-Yugoslavs, Yugoslav tennis player and Painting, painter. Early life and education Ivan Radović was born in Vršac and graduated from the Teach ...

. Friedrich was a national doubles champion in 1928 and 1931 with his brother, Dragutin. He was drafted into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Davis Cup team in 1929 in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, where his team lost to Greece 4 to 1. Friedrich won the only rubber when he defeated Costas Efstratiadis. He was called up twice more, but both meetings resulted in love-match loss for his team. In 1935, in the first international tournament of

SK Ilirija Nogometno društvo Ilirija 1911 is a Slovenian football club based in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital, that competes in the Slovenian Second League, the second tier of football in the country. The club was founded in June 1911 and is the oldest ...

in Ljubljana, the Friedrich brothers fell in three straight sets to the well-known duo of Franjo Šefer and

Franjo Kukuljević Franjo Kukuljević (; 7 October 1909 – 11 August 2002) was a Yugoslav tennis player. He played for the Yugoslavian team at the International Lawn Tennis Challenge from 1930 to 1939. He was a 13-time national champion – one in sing ...

. He was coached by

František Koželuh František Koželuh (3 July 1885 – 12 March 1946) was a Czech football player and manager. Club career Koželuh played most of his playing career in Prague with Sparta.

Footnotes

Works cited

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Secondary

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Friedrich, Kresimir 1898 births 1985 deaths Sportspeople from Koprivnica People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Men's association football players not categorized by position Yugoslav men's footballers NK Slaven Belupo players Yugoslav male tennis players