Gail Falkenberg

Last updated

Gail Falkenberg
Country (sports)Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Born (1947-01-06) January 6, 1947 (age 78)
PlaysRight-handed
Singles
Highest rankingNo. 360 (Dec 7, 1987)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open Q2 (1988)
Doubles
Highest rankingNo. 430 (Feb 2, 1987)

Gail Falkenberg (born January 6, 1947) is an American professional tennis player. Possibly the oldest tournament tennis player of all time, she has competed in ITF Women's World Tennis Tour tournaments as recently as 2023, aged 76. [1]

Raised in Westfield, New Jersey, Falkenberg attended University of California, Los Angeles in the 1960s, where she played on the basketball, tennis and volleyball varsity teams and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in filmmaking. [1] [2]

After graduation she worked as a documentary filmmaker and didn't join the professional tour until she was 38 years of age. She made her Virginia Slims main draw debut at the 1986 Brazilian Open and featured in qualifying at the 1988 Australian Open. Retiring from full-time tennis in 1990, she achieved a career high singles world ranking of 360. [1]

During the 1990s she was the men's and women's tennis head coach at the University of Central Florida and even had a season in charge of the women's basketball team as an acting coach. [3]

Falkenberg has continued to compete on and off in ITF tournaments since the 1990s. In 2013, as a 66-year old, she came up against Naomi Osaka in the qualifying draw for the Rock Hill ITF event. Osaka, 50 years her junior, won 6–0, 6–0. She defeated 22-year-old Rosalyn Small 6–0, 6–1 in the first qualifying round in Alabama in 2016 then she also played against the world's number one junior Taylor Townsend, which received considerable media attention. Townsend conceded only 12 points to her 69-year old opponent. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgie Gent</span> English tennis player (born 1988)

Georgina Gent is an English tennis player. She won two singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 178. The AEGON Award-winning former professional player was coached by Damien Roberts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arina Rodionova</span> Russian-Australian tennis player (born 1989)

Arina Ivanovna Rodionova is a Russian-born Australian tennis player. On 5 February 2024, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 97. On 27 July 2015, she peaked at No. 41 in the doubles rankings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anett Kontaveit</span> Estonian tennis player (born 1995)

Anett Kontaveit is an Estonian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), which she first achieved on 6 June 2022 to become the highest-ranked Estonian tennis player in history. She also attained a career-high ranking of No. 95 in doubles on 2 March 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taylor Townsend</span> American tennis player (born 1996)

Taylor Townsend is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 46 in singles by the WTA on 19 August 2024, and in doubles as No. 5 on 12 June 2023. Townsend won her first Grand Slam title at the 2024 Wimbledon with Kateřina Siniaková. In addition, she has won six WTA Tour doubles titles and also reached two other major finals, the 2022 US Open and the 2023 French Open.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asia Muhammad</span> American tennis player

Asia Muhammad is an American professional tennis player who is a doubles specialist. She has been ranked as high as world No. 14 in doubles by the WTA, achieved on 28 October 2024, and No. 124 in singles, achieved on 24 April 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belinda Bencic</span> Swiss tennis player (born 1997)

Belinda Bencic is a Swiss professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 4 by the WTA which she achieved in February 2020. Bencic has won eight career singles titles, including a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sachia Vickery</span> American tennis player

Sachia Vickery is an American professional tennis player. She reached a career-high of No. 73 in the WTA rankings on 30 July 2018. Vickery, a former USTA junior national champion, has also won three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

The 2013 John Newcombe Women's Pro Challenge was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the second edition of the John Newcombe Women's Pro Challenge, which was part of the 2013 ITF Women's Circuit, offering a total of $50,000 in prize money. It took place in New Braunfels, Texas, United States, on October 28 – November 3, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimberly Birrell</span> Australian tennis player (born 1998)

Kimberly Birrell is an Australian professional tennis player. Birrell reached a career-high WTA ranking of world No. 99 on 6 January 2025 and a doubles ranking of No. 162 on 9 September 2024. She has won six singles and two doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Routliffe</span> Canadian-New Zealand tennis player (born 1995)

Erin Hope Routliffe is a New Zealand professional tennis player who previously represented Canada. She became world No. 1 in doubles on 15 July 2024. Routliffe won a major doubles title at the 2023 US Open partnering Gabriela Dabrowski. She became the second New Zealand woman to win a major in the Open Era, after Judy Connor won the women's doubles title at the 1979 Australian Open. Routliffe was a two-time NCAA doubles champion with Maya Jansen for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tessah Andrianjafitrimo</span> French tennis player (born 1998)

Tessah Andrianjafitrimo is a French professional tennis player of Malagasy descent. She was born in Montpellier, France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marta Kostyuk</span> Ukrainian tennis player (born 2002)

Marta Olehivna Kostyuk is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 16 in singles, achieved on 17 June 2024 and No. 27 in doubles, achieved on 8 May 2023. On the WTA Tour, she has won one singles title and two doubles titles. Her best major singles performance is reaching the quarterfinals of the 2024 Australian Open.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitney Osuigwe</span> American tennis player (born 2002)

Whitney Osuigwe is an American tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 105 and a doubles ranking of No. 117 achieved in August 2019 and 2024 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Dolehide</span> American tennis player (born 1998)

Caroline Dolehide is an American professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 41 on 2 October 2023 and a doubles ranking of No. 9 on 26 August 2024. Dolehide has won two WTA Tour and one WTA 125 doubles titles, and also 17 titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, eight in singles and nine in doubles.

Naomi Osaka defeated Daria Kasatkina in the final, 6–3, 6–2 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2018 Indian Wells Masters. It was her first WTA Tour title. This was the first time two players under 21 had contested the final since Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams in 2001. At 20 years old, Osaka was the youngest Indian Wells champion since Ana Ivanovic in 2008, and the youngest at any Premier Mandatory event since Caroline Wozniacki at the 2010 China Open. She was also only the third unseeded player to win the tournament after Serena Williams (1999) and Clijsters (2005), and the first Japanese player to win a Premier Mandatory title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriella Taylor</span> British tennis player

Gabriella Patricia Taylor is a British former tennis player.

Valentina Sergeyevna Ivanov is a New Zealand tennis player, although she has lived in Sydney since she was two years old.

The 2019 LTP Charleston Pro Tennis was a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the third edition of the tournament which was part of the 2019 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour. It took place in Charleston, South Carolina, United States between 29 April and 5 May 2019.

Naomi Osaka defeated Jennifer Brady in the final, 6–4, 6–3 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2021 Australian Open. It was her second Australian Open title and fourth major title overall. With the win, Osaka extended her winning streak to 21 matches, dating to the 2020 Cincinnati Open. She only lost one set during the tournament, to Garbiñe Muguruza in the fourth round; she also saved two match points in that match, making her the eighth woman to win the Australian Open after saving match points. Osaka became the third player in the Open Era, after Monica Seles and Roger Federer, to win their first four major finals.

Danielle Collins defeated Elena Rybakina in the final, 7–5, 6–3 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2024 Miami Open. It was her first WTA 1000 title, and her third WTA Tour title overall. Collins became the second unseeded woman to win the tournament, after Kim Clijsters in 2005. Ranked as the world No. 53, Collins became the lowest-ranked women's singles champion, the second lowest-ranked finalist in the tournament's history, and the oldest first-time WTA 1000 champion since Elena Vesnina at the 2017 Indian Wells Open. Collins lost only one set en route to the title, in the first round against Bernarda Pera. Rybakina lost 69 games en route to the final, the most on record.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Blevins, James (September 10, 2021). "Still Swinging at 74: Gail Falkenberg may be the oldest tournament tennis player of all time". Ocala Gazette.
  2. ↑ "At 41, Woman Chases Dreams of Professional Tennis Circuit", St. Louis Post-Dispatch , July 24, 1988. Accessed January 31, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Gail Falkenberg, a former producer-director from Hollywood, might have the makings of a blockbuster hit for the 1990s.... Falkenberg was an only child growing up in Westfield, N.J. Her parents divorced when she was 8."
  3. ↑ White, Russ (November 26, 1991). "Falkenberg Will Coach UCF Women". Orlando Sentinel .
  4. ↑ Perrotta, Tom (April 11, 2016). "Meet the 69-Year-Old Tennis Pro Who Took on Taylor Townsend". Wall Street Journal .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.