George of Metaxa

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Georg von Metaxa 1937

Georg Felix Ritter von Metaxa (born October 7, 1914 in Vienna , † December 12, 1944 in Arnoldsweiler near Düren ) was an Austrian tennis player and one of the most successful doubles players of the 1930s.

Life

The Metaxa family comes from the Greek island of Kefalonia . The father Stefan had a doctorate in law and a district commissioner in Vienna-Hietzing , the mother Marianne a born Countess Stainach. In his youth, Metaxa was expelled from several schools and eventually grew up in the South German state educational home in Schondorf am Ammersee . He was also considered a good football player and athlete. He responded negatively to a request from Greece to compete as a Greek for the association there.

As a tennis player, he reached the final of the German Youth Championships in 1932, but lost to Henner Henkel . After graduating from high school , he began to study law in Vienna , which he soon broke off and devoted his time entirely to playing tennis. Between 1933 and 1937 he played 16 games for the Austrian Davis Cup team . In 1936 he reached the semi-finals of the European zone with his partner Adam Baworowski . After the connection of Austria to Germany in March 1938 Metaxa member was the German Davis Cup team . 1938 turned out to be his most successful year. At the beginning of July he moved into the double finals of Wimbledon together with his doubles partner Henner Henkel . There both were defeated by the US doubles Don Budge / Gene Mako 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 3, 8: 6. Four weeks later they both reached the interzone final in the Davis Cup against Yugoslavia . Without winning a point, Henkel and Metaxa were clearly defeated by the Australian team John Bromwich and Adrian Quist .

Metaxa played Davis Cup games for Germany until the beginning of World War II . He came to a total of 19 appearances for the German Tennis Association. He was later drafted and played a match against Sergeant Hans Nüsslein as a private in December 1941 . He fell in American artillery fire near Düren in December 1944 and was buried in the Kerpen-Buir cemetery.

literature

  • Heiner Gillmeister: Georg von Metaxa: A throwback to the 100th anniversary of the Austrian and German tennis association. In: Stadium. 28, 1, 2002, ISSN  0172-4029 , pp. 53-76.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b German Tennis Association (ed.): Tennis in Germany. From the beginning until 2002. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2002. ISBN 3-428-10846-9 . P. 161.
personal data
SURNAME Metaxa, Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian tennis player
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1944
Place of death Arnoldsweiler near Düren