Brussels Pro Championships

Last updated
Brussels Pro Championships
Defunct tennis tournament
TourPro Tennis Tour
Founded1934;91 years ago (1934)
Abolished1967;58 years ago (1967)
Location Brussels, Belgium
Surface Clay / outdoors Wood / indoors

The Brussels Pro Championships [1] was an outdoor clay court then later indoor wood court professional tennis tournament founded in 1934. It was staged in Brussels in Belgium, and also known as the Brussels Professional Championships [2] it featured three tournaments, a spring event usually held in April, [3] an Autumn event played in October, and sometimes early Winter edition in December. [4] The tournament was not held permanently and was last played in April 1967 when it was discontinued. [5]

Contents

Finals

Note events sometimes referred to as the Brussels Professional Spring or Autumn Championships. [6]

Singles (Spring)

Round robin and elimination events played in April.
YearChampionsRunners-upScore
1938 Flag of Germany (1935-1945).svg Hans Nusslein (1st) Flag of the United States.svg Bill Tilden (2nd)3-0 matches
1939 Flag of the United States.svg Ellsworth Vines Flag of the United States.svg Don Budge RR 3-1 matches
1960 [7] Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ken Rosewall Flag of Peru.svg Alex Olmedo 7-5, 6–2
1967 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Fred Stolle Flag of the United States.svg Dennis Ralston 6-3, 6–4

Singles (Autumn)

Round robin and elimination event played in October.
YearChampionRunners-upScore
1938 Flag of Germany (1935-1945).svg Hans Nusslein (1st) Flag of the United States.svg Bill Tilden (2nd)3-0 matches
1959 [8] Flag of the United States.svg Tony Trabert Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ken Rosewall 6-8, 9–7, 6–4

Singles (Winter)

Elimination event played in December
YearChampionRunners-upScore
1938 Flag of the United States.svg Ellsworth Vines Flag of the United States.svg Bill Tilden 6-4, 6–8, 7–5, 1–6, 6–3

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Perry</span> British tennis player (1909–1995)

Frederick John Perry was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors, including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship, in 1936, and the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title, until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lew Hoad</span> Australian tennis player

Lewis Alan Hoad was an Australian tennis player whose career ran from 1950 to 1973. Hoad won four Major singles tournaments as an amateur. He was a member of the Australian team that won the Davis Cup four times between 1952 and 1956. Hoad turned professional in July 1957. He won the Kooyong Tournament of Champions in 1958 and the Forest Hills Tournament of Champions in 1959. He won the Ampol Open Trophy world series of tournaments in 1959, which included the Kooyong tournament that concluded in early January 1960. Hoad's men's singles tournament victories spanned from 1951 to 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Rosewall</span> Australian tennis player (born 1934)

Kenneth Robert Rosewall is an Australian former world top-ranking professional tennis player. Rosewall won 147 singles titles, including a record 15 Pro Majors and 8 Grand Slam titles for a total 23 titles at pro and amateur majors. He also won 15 Pro Majors in doubles and 9 Grand Slam doubles titles. Rosewall achieved a Pro Slam in singles in 1963 by winning the three Pro Majors in one year and he completed the Career Grand Slam in doubles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pancho Segura</span> Ecuadorian-American tennis player (1921–2017)

Francisco Olegario Segura Cano, better known as Pancho "Segoo" Segura, was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but moved to the United States in 1940. Throughout his amateur career he was listed by the USTA as a "foreign" player resident in the U.S. As a professional player, he was referred to as the "Ecuadorian champ who now lives in New York City". After acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1991 at the age of seventy, Segura was a citizen of both countries.

Before the advent of the Open era of tennis competitions in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tournaments, including the four majors. There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. However many top tennis players turned professional to play legally for prize money in the years before the open era. They played in separate professional events, mostly on tours involving head-to-head competition, but also in professional tournaments as the biggest events on the pro tour. Professional tournaments, in particular the professional majors, usually only had a men's draw.

Hans "Hanne" Nüsslein was a German tennis player and coach and former World professional number 1 tennis player who won four professional Majors singles titles during his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrés Gimeno</span> Spanish tennis player (1937–2019)

Andrés Gimeno Tolaguera was a Spanish tennis player. His greatest achievement came in 1972, when he won the French Open and became the oldest first-time Grand Slam champion in the Open era at 34 years of age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken McGregor</span> Australian tennis player

Kenneth Bruce McGregor was an Australian tennis player from Adelaide who won the Men's Singles title at the Australian Championships in 1952. He and his longtime doubles partner, Frank Sedgman, are generally considered one of the greatest men's doubles teams of all time and won the doubles Grand Slam in 1951. McGregor was also a member of three Australian Davis Cup winning teams in 1950–1952. In 1953, Jack Kramer induced both Sedgman and McGregor to turn professional. He was ranked as high as World No. 3 in 1952.

The U.S. Pro Tennis Championships was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999 and is considered to have been a professional major from 1927–1967 until the advent of Open Era. In 1953, 1955, 1956, and 1960, the Cleveland World Pro had a women's draw, with Pauline Betz winning the first three of these, and defeating the reigning U.S. women's champion Doris Hart in the 1956 final. Althea Gibson defeated Pauline Betz in the 1960 women's final.

This article is concerned with the major tennis achievements of tennis male players of all tennis history.

The Wembley Championships was a men's professional tennis tournament held from 1934–1990 with some periods of inactivity in between and is often considered to be one of the three major professional tennis tournaments from 1927–1967 until the advent of the open era. Ken Rosewall's and Rod Laver's six singles titles are the record for this event. The tournament only had a men's draw.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Laver career statistics</span>

This is a list of the main career statistics of Australian former tennis player Rod Laver whose playing career ran from 1956 until 1977. He played as an amateur from 1956 until the end of 1962 when he joined Jack Kramer's professional circuit. As a professional he was banned from playing the Grand Slam tournaments as well as other tournaments organized by the national associations of the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF). In 1968, with the advent of the Open Era, the distinction between amateurs and professionals disappeared and Laver was again able to compete in most Grand Slam events until the end of his career in 1977. During his career he won eleven Grand Slam tournaments, eight Pro Slam tournaments and five Davis Cup titles.

The French Pro Championship was a major tennis tournament founded in 1930 by the "Association Française des Professeurs de Tennis (AFPT)" and ran annually until 1968 when it was discontinued.

The Tournament of Champions was a prominent professional tennis tournament series held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y. and at Kooyong Stadium, Melbourne and White City Stadium, Sydney in Australia in 1957, 1958, and 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1967 Men's World Tennis Circuit</span>

The 1967 Men's World Tennis Circuit was an annual series of 217 tournaments composed of two subsidiary circuits the 41st Pro Tennis Tour (professional) and the 54th ILTF World Circuit (amateur). The season began in February in Sydney, Australia, and ended in December in Melbourne, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 Men's National Tennis League</span>

The 1968 Men's National Tennis League (NTL) was the inaugural series of professional tennis tournaments founded by George McCall, among others: Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Ken Rosewall, Andrés Gimeno, Pancho Gonzales and Fred Stolle.

For many years before the Open Era of tennis in 1968, the usual format for the handful of touring tennis professionals was a series of two-man one-night stands across the United States and often in other countries as well. The most notable of these tours were the "World Series" or "World Professional Championships", in which the reigning world champion went head-to-head against a challenger, most often the leading amateur of the previous year who had just turned pro. Promoters would attempt to sign the leading amateur to a contract with a minimum guarantee against a percentage of gate receipts, making a similar type of deal with the reigning professional champion and sometimes giving smaller percentages to undercard players. The winners of the tours were described as being the "world champion".

The Florida Pro Championships was a professional tennis tournament first held in 1932. The tournament was part of Pro Tennis Tour from inception. It was played in various locations in Florida, United States until 1972.

The Paris Pro Championships was a professional tennis tournament first held in April 1898. Also called the NTL Paris Pro Championships. It was first played at the Tennis Club de Paris, Paris, France until 1968.

The South Texas Pro Championships or officially the South Texas Professional Championships was a men's and women's professional tennis tournament founded in 1968. It was first played on outdoor hard courts at the HEB Tennis Center, Corpus Christi, Texas, United States. The event ran for TWO editions and was usually staged in October, before moving to February annually until 1970.

References

  1. "TENNIS ROUND UP: BRUSSELS". Corpus Christi Times . Corpus Christi, Texas: NewspaperArchive. 17 April 1967. p. 21. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  2. McCauley, Joe (2003). "Professional Tennis Results Section". The History of Professional Tennis. Windsor, Berkshire, England: Short Run Book Company. pp. 177–255. ASIN   B001EOVE56.
  3. McCauley,Joe (2003)
  4. McCauley,Joe (2003)
  5. "Fred Stolle Wins Belgian Pro Tourney". Pittsburgh Post Gazette . 17 April 1967. p. 30. Retrieved 26 January 2025 via Google News Archive.
  6. "Tournaments - Search - Brussels". Tennis Archives. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  7. "Rosewall Wins Pro Net Tourney". Schenectady Gazette via Google News Archive . 7 April 1960. p. 20. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
  8. "Cooper Easily Beats Anderson - In Brussels". The Age via Google News Archive. 22 October 1959. p. 14. Retrieved 26 January 2025.