Pavel Složil (born 29 December 1955) is a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia. Složil enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won 32 doubles titles and finished runner-up an additional 29 times, including at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

in. Slozil and his partner, Renata Tomanová (also from Czechoslovakia), won the 1978 French Open mixed-doubles championship, defeating

Virginia Ruzici Virginia Ruzici (born 31 January 1955) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. She won the 1978 French Open – Women's singles, 1978 French Open singles championship. Career Ruzici became a professional tennis player in 1975. One of h ...

(Romania) and Patrice Dominguez (France). The mixed doubles championship was an important event in those days, contested by top players, with

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

and Mary Carillo having won the year before. In 1985, Složil achieved a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 4. Složil participated in eleven

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 ...

ties for

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

from 1978 to 1986, posting a 7–2 record in doubles and a 4–2 record in singles. He was a member of the winning Czech Davis Cup team in 1980, along with teammates

Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player and coach. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis ...

Tomáš Šmíd Tomáš Šmíd (born 20 May 1956) is a former tennis player from Czechoslovakia, who won nine singles titles during his career. In doubles, he won 54 titles and was world No. 1 in doubles from December 17, 1984, to August 11, 1985. The right-hand ...

and

Jan Kodeš Jan Kodeš (born 1 March 1946) is a Czech former professional tennis player. A three-time major singles champion, Kodeš was one of the premier players in the early 1970s. Kodeš's greatest success was achieved on the clay courts of the French ...

. Složil served as

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...

's coach from November 1986 until the end of 1991. Shortly after the start of his tenure as Graf's coach, she had her Grand Slam breakthrough year in 1987, winning six tournaments and then defeating

Martina Navratilova Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...

in the French Open. Graf went on to be a finalist 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 * W ...

and the US Open, losing both times to Navratilova. The next year, Graf achieved a calendar year's Grand Slam, a feat performed only twice before. She also won the 1988 Olympics singles and the Wimbledon ladies' doubles that same year. From 1987 through 1991, coached by Složil, Graf won ten Grand Slam singles championships, winning the Australian Open (1988–89-90), the French Open (1987–88), Wimbledon (1988–89-91) and the US Open (1988–89), plus numerous side tournaments. He subsequently served as coach for

Jennifer Capriati Jennifer Maria Capriati (born March 29, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 17 weeks. Capriati won 14 WTA Tour-level singles t ...

Anna Kournikova Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova Iglesias (née Kournikova; ; ; born 7 June 1981) is a Russian model and television personality, and former professional tennis player. Her appearance and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars ...

and

Magdalena Maleeva Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva (, ; born 1 April 1975) is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 ...

between 1992 and 1999. In 2002, he began work at the World Tennis Club in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Florida. He served there as Tennis Director until 2014 when he began coaching and teaching at the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy, also in Naples. There he works with the junior players in the morning and continues to teach tennis to a wide range of players.

Career finals

Singles (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Doubles (32 titles, 29 runner-ups)

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Slozil, Pavel 1955 births Living people Czech male tennis players Czechoslovak male tennis players French Open champions Sportspeople from Opava Tennis players from the Moravian-Silesian Region Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Summer World University Games medalists in tennis Steffi Graf FISU World University Games gold medalists for Czechoslovakia Medalists at the 1977 Summer Universiade