Articles

1956 - Local Tournament

Men's ¼ f = Samir Khoury d Mounir Zeydane 64 60; Elie (Loulou) Aboukhaled d B Daoud 62 61; Joe Jabbour d Youssef Zeydane 63 63; Nadim Hajjar d Michel Rebeiz 60 63; ½ f = Khoury d Jabbour 1210 119 63; Hajjar d Aboukhaled 61 61 61; Final = Samir Khoury d Nadim Hajjar

Ladies Final : Nena Farah d Souad Tabbarah 64 64;

1956 - International

Men's singles = 2d round = Budge Patty (US) d Nadim Hajjar (Leb) 61 61; Torben Ulrich (Denmark) d Jacques Thomas (Fr) 64 64; Gordon Forbes (S.Afr) d Bowman ; Don Candy (Australia) d F Garnero 64 61; Tony Vincent (US) d Cevenhir (Turkey) 61 60; Ian Vermaak (S Afr) d Samir Khoury (Leb) 63 62; Trevor Fancutt (S Afr) d Jean Claude Molinari (France) 36 61 108; Jar Drobny (Egypt) d B Daoud by default;

¼ f = B Patty d T Ulrich 61 26 60; D Candy d G Forbes 61 36 62; I Vermaak d T Vincent 75 62; Drobny d Fancutt 86 62;

½ f = Patty d Candy 46 62 63 64; Drobny d Vermaak 36 26 75 75 61

Final = Budge Patty d Jaroslav Drobny 64 36 62 61;

Men's doubles = Fancutt-Bowman d Patty-Vincent 75 57 75; Vermaak-Forbes d Garnero-Jabbour 63 63; Molinari-Thomas d T Ulrich A Ismaïl 75 62; Drobny-Candy d Khoury-Hajjar 63 63;

½ = Vermaak-Forbes d Fancutt Bowman 63 810 63 Drobny-Candy d Molinari Thomas 61 62;

Final = Drobny-Candy d Vermaak-Forbes 64 36 75 63;

Ladies Singles 2d rd : Daphné Seeney d N Farah 62 60; Ilse Buding (Germ) d Vera Mattar (Leb) 61 75; Edda Buding (Germ) d I Metzner(Brazil) 62 108; Patricia E. Ward (GB) d M. O'Donnell (Australia) 63 61;

½ f = Seeney d I Buding 64 62; E Buding d Pat Ward 97 64;

Final = Edda Buding d Daphné Seeney 61 86

Mixed doubles ½ f = I. Buding-Candy d Seeney-Fancutt 36 75 62; Ward-Forbes d E Buding-Vermaak 86 26 64;

Final = Ilse Buding- D Candy d P Ward-G Forbes 75 64;

Ladies Doubles F = Miss Ward-D Seeney d Buding-Buding 86 62;

• The men's final was played on a Saturday as the two stars finalists, Drobny and Patty, had urging commitments elsewhere as soon as Monday morning.


• B Patty (1924-… ) had won Roland-Garros and Wimbledon in 1950, and had been ranked world no 2 in 1950, and was still no 8 or 10 in 1956. His looks had earned him the nickname of "matinee idol", i.e. the cinema stars that enchanted housewives during the early (matinee!) sessions in movie theaters all over the globe. He lived in Paris, and lost a historical marathon match to Drobny at Wimbledon in 1953 despite holding 6 match points : 86 1618 36 86 1210. In 1957, age 33, he paired with the diabetic Gardner Mulloy (aged 43) to win the Wimbledon doubles against the world no 1 pair, Hoad and Fraser.


• Drobny got the UK passport but never again won a major title.


• The beautiful and statuesque Buding sisters were born in Rumania, lived in Argentine, and played for their native Germany. They had a brother, Ingo, who got to the top of the German rankings in the 60's, and eventually played also twice at Brummana.


• In Istanbul, Sven Davidson won again over Patty who had beaten Drobny in the semis- Edda Buding got the Ladies title over Miss Ward.


• The bearded Dane, Torben Ulrich, was totally atypical on the amateur circuit. Very sweet and gentle and a true pacifist, he was eventually sent to prison for a few weeks when he refused to serve in the Danish military. He always refused to take part in matches in the morning, and was rather skillful with musical instruments. Later, in the 60's, he became one of a few of the "Hippies"players of the world, a group that included the Brazilian Tomaz Koch, and the South Africam Ray Moore.