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1957 Local Tournament

Ladies Singles ; ½ f = V Mattar d Samaha 62 63; N Farah d A kyriacopoulo 16 63 63; F = V Mattar d N Farah

Men's singles : ½ f = Michel Rebeiz d Karim Fawaz; Mounir Zeidane d Henri Haddad; F = M Rebeiz d M Zeidane;

1957 International Tournament

Men's Singles : 1st rd : Gaetan Koenig (S.Afr) d Roy Karaoglan (Leb) 57 86 63; P Aguirre (Chile) d Nadim Hajjar 64 46 63; Peter Scholl(Germ) d Nazmi Bari 75 62; Mario Llamas d Michel Rebeiz 60 61; R Becker (GB) d Garrido 6364; 2nd rd : Torben Ulrich (Denmark) d Samir Khoury (Leb) 61 46 64; Pancho Contreras (Mexico) d Koenig 64 62; Neil Gibson (Australia) d Aguirre 61 63; Mario Llamas (Mexico) d P Scholl 16 62 64; Billy Knight (GB) d Ribeiro (Brazil) 62 63.

¼ f: Roger Becker (GB) d Warren Woodcock (Australia) 75 75; T.Ulrich d Contreras 75 62; Gibson d Llamas 60 57 62; Mervyn Rose (Australia) d Knight 63 64;

½ f: Becker d T Ulrich 75 61; Rose d Gibson 63 108;

Final: Roger Becker d Mervyn Rose 36 36 64 62 61

Men's doubles 1st rd : Woodcock-Gibson d Karaoglan-Edouard Samuel 64 63; Koenig-Garrido d E Aboukhaled-Y Zeydane (Leb) 63 36 63; Scholl-T Ulrich d A Accaoui-J Homsy w-o; 2nd rd : Rose-Aguirre d Scholl-T Ulrich 64 63; Woodcock-Gibson d Koenig-Garrido 57 63 1513; Becker-Knight d Rizk-Ribeiro 63 86; Contreras-Llamas d S Khoury-E Attieh (Leb) 75 63;

½ f : Woodcock-Gibson d Rose-Aguirre 36 119 63; Contreras-Llamas d Becker-Knight 64 75;

Final : Woodcock-Gibson d Contreras-Llamas 63 63 64

Ladies Singles. 1st rd : Marie-Odile Bouchet (Fr) d C Holvet 61 75; Maria Elena de Amorim (Brazil) d Vera Mattar (Leb) 64 61; F de la Courtie d Nena Farah (Leb) 6161;

¼ f : Margaret Hellyer (Australia) d A Kyriacopoulo (Leb) 64 62; Rosa Maria Reyes (Mex) d Bouchet 63 62; de Amorim d Florence de la Courtie (Fr) 26 64 75; Yolla Ramirez (Mex) d Samaha (Leb) 60 60 ;

½ f : Hellyer d Reyes 46 62 60 ; Ramirez d Amorim 64 64 ;

Final : Yolla Ramirez (Mex) d Margaret Hellyer (A) 62 75.

Ladies doubles ½ f : Hellyer-de Amorim d de la Courtie- Bouchet 86 63; Reyes-Ramirez d Mattar-Holvet 60 62 ;

Final : Reyes-Ramirez d Hellyer-de Amorim 57 63 62 ;

Mixed doubles : 1st rd : de la Courtie-Gibson d de Amorim-Koenig 62 63 ; ¼ f : Hellyer-Woodcock d Kyriacopoulo-Aguirre 61 62 ; Reyes-Contreras d Bouchet-Ulrich 61 62 ; de la Courtie-Gibson d Holvet-S Khoury 61 60 ; Ramirez-Llamas d N Farah-Garrido 61 75 ; ½ f : Reyes-Contreras d Hellyer-Woodcock 60 61 ; Ramirez-Llama s d de la Courtie-Gibson 64 61 ; Final : Ramirez-Llamas d Reyes-Contreras 61 63

• The charismatic Lebanese President of the Republic, Camille Chamoun, attended Finals day in Brummana that year. He presented the Cups to all winners, throwing in also the local "abayas" (desert capes) to Ms Ramirez and Reyes.


• Rosa Maria Reyes will eventually marry the future French no 1 player, Pierre Darmon.


• Warren Woodcock played at least 2 sets barefeet to get grip of his footwork on the slippery clay in Brummana.


• Mervyn Rose, often superseded by the other Australian stars like Hoad, Rosewall, Cooper,Fraser, etc. who dominated the 50's and the 60's, will win Roland Garros on clay at last in 1958. An accusation of triggered result was investigated by the Lebanese Federation after the come-back of Becker in the Brummana finals. Becker was known on the amateur circuit to be a dedicated gambler.


• Rose had won the German championships earlier in August , beating Budge Patty in the ½ 46 26 86 1311 63; and Pierre Darmon (France) in the final…

No Event was held in the summer of 1958 whilst Lebanon was in full internal political and armed turmoil, which ended with the US Marines landing on its coast in July and withdrawing at the end of the summer.

Nevertheless, following a few local tournaments played before and after the "Events" as the Lebanese called the 1958 spring and summer armed rebellion, a ranking was issued by the Lebanese Federation at the end of the year : Men's singles = 1-Samir Khoury; 2-Roy Karaoglan; 3-Nadim Hajjar; 4- Elie Attieh; 5-Karim Fawaz & Michel Rebeiz; Ladies = 1- Ms Vera Mattar; 2- A Kyriacopoulo; 3-Nena Farah; 4- Renée Abi Hatab.

Early in 1959, Samir Khoury turned officially "registered Professionnal" and was consequently banned by the Federation from all Lebanese competitions. Those were the days of "Amateurism"in Tennis !