Wilhelm Bungert

Wilhelm Bungert
Full name Wilhelm Paul Bungert
Country (sports)  West Germany
Residence Düsseldorf, Germany
Born (1939-04-01) 1 April 1939
Mannheim, West Germany
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro 1957 (amateur tour)
Retired 1972
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Singles
Career record 54–32
Highest ranking No. 4 (1964, Lance Tingay)[1]
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open QF (1962)
French Open 4R (1962)
Wimbledon F (1967)
US Open 4R (1966)
Doubles
Career record 8–9
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 2R (1962)
French Open F (1962)
Wimbledon QF (1964)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open SF (1962)
Wimbledon QF (1963)
Team competitions
Davis Cup F (1970Ch)

Wilhelm Paul Bungert (born 1 April 1939) is a former German tennis player best known to reach the 1967 Wimbledon final and the 1970 Davis Cup final as a player and the 1985 Davis Cup final as team captain.

Tennis career

In 1962 the right-handed Bungert reached the quarterfinals of the International Australian Championships, the doubles finals of the International French Championships and the International Tennis Tournament of Monte Carlo.

Bungert was ranked as high as World No. 4 for 1964 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph.[1]

After reaching the semifinals in 1963 (beating Roy Emerson before losing to Chuck McKinley)[2] and 1964 (losing to Emerson), the unseeded Bungert was the second German player (thirty years after Gottfried von Cramm) to reach the Wimbledon men’s finals in 1967 when he beat Roger Taylor in five sets.[3] However, he lost the final in straight sets against the Australian John Newcombe.

In 1970 he (with Christian Kuhnke) was part of the German Davis Cup team which lost the finals against the U.S. 0:5. In July of the same year he won his only career singles title in Düsseldorf.

In the eighties Bungert was captain of the German Davis Cup team (Boris Becker and Michael Westphal) which lost the finals against Sweden 2:3. Nikola Pilić became his successor as captain.

Today, Bungert owns a tennis and golf center in Hilden. adidas named one of their tennis shoes after him[3] and have been producing pairs up until (at least) October 2005.[4] PUMA also named a tennis shoe after him, though exact production dates are unknown.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 runner-up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up1967WimbledonGrassAustralia John Newcombe2–6, 1–6, 1–6

Doubles (1 runner–up)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponent Score
Runner-up1962French ChampionshipsClayWest Germany Christian KuhnkeAustralia Roy Emerson
Australia Neale Fraser		3–6, 4–6, 5–7

Career finals

  • Singles Titles (1): 1970 Düsseldorf
  • Doubles Titles (1): 1968 Kitzbuehel (w/Jurgen Fassbender)
  • Singles Finalist (3) 1967 Wimbledon, 1968 Kitzbuehel, 1968 Düsseldorf

References

  1. 1 2 United States Lawn Tennis Association (1972). Official Encyclopedia of Tennis (First Edition), p. 427.
  2. ↑ "Wimbledon 1963". www.tennis.co.nf.
  3. 1 2 The 100 greatest Wimbledon players ever - Times Online
  4. ↑ Everett, Jack. Cromwell, Dylan, ed. "adidas Wilhelm Bungert". eatmoreshoes. eatmoreshoes. Retrieved 28 March 2013.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.