player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameIstvan Pecs
LastnameGulyas
GenderMale
CountryHungary
Date of birth1931-10-14
Place of birthPécs, Hungary
Date of death2000-07-31
Place of deathBudapest, Hungary

About

The following piece was translated and adapted from the Wikipedia entry in Hungarian on Istvan Gulyas, which can be viewed here:
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guly%C3%A1s_Istv%C3%A1n_(teniszez%C5%91,_1931)

Istvan Gulyas was born in the city of Pecs on 13 October 1931. In 1957, he was awarded a degree in architectural engineering by the University of Technology in Budapest. During his time as a tennis player, he worked in the construction department of the Ministry of the Interior.

Gulyas competed for the Voros Meteor sports club in Pecs until 1952. Due to his talent, he was invited to join the Dózsa sports club in Budapest, where he was registered as a tennis player from 1953 until 1986. He was a quiet, hardworking and successful player who achieved considerable domestic and international success. He prepared for tournaments by training hard and achieved most of his success because of his precise baseline play and speed about the court.

Gulyas won the men’s singles title at the Hungarian National Championships for the first time in 1954. His international career took off three years later, after he had obtained a degree in architectural engineering. In 1957, he won the men’s singles event at the Universiade in Paris. In the same year he began an unparalleled run of success Hungarian National Championships, where he won the men’s singles title every year from 1957 to 1971, except in 1969, when Szabolcs Baranyi took the title.

Gulyas won a record total of sixty-six titles at the Hungarian National Championships: fifteen times in singles, nine times in men’s doubles (from 1957 to 1959 with Zoltan Katona; and from 1962 to 1967 with Andras Szikszay) and also nine times in mixed doubles (in 1959 with Gyulane Erdodi; in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1966 with Klara Bardoczy; and in 1967, 1969 and 1970 with Katalin Borka). Gulyas was also a member of the winning team at the Hungarian National Championships 27 times.

At the Hungarian International Championships, Gulyas won the men’s singles event four times, the men’s doubles three times and the mixed doubles once. In 1966, he was runner-up to Tony Roche in the men’s singles event at the French International Championships. Roche won the match 6-1 6-4 7-5 after it had been postponed for a day because the Australian was suffering from an ankle injury. For his magnanimity in this respect, Gulyas received the UNESCO International Fair Play Award in 1967.

In 1967, Gulyas reached the semi-finals in the men’s singles at the French International Championships for the second year in a row. He was beaten at that stage by the top seed and eventual champion Roy Emerson, who won 6-3 6-4 6-2. In 1969, partnering Szabolcs Baranyi, Gulyas won the silver medal in the European Amateur Championships in Turin. In the 1960s, Gulyas was ranked among the top ten players in the world, and as high as no. 2 in Europe.

After finishing his sports career, he served as president of the Hungarian Tennis Association for ten years (1977-87). At the end of the 1980s, he went to Germany, where he found a job as a tennis coach. In 1987 and 1988, he played and coached at the Rochusclub in Dusseldorf; in 1988 and 1989, he was active at the DUWO 08 Tennis Club in Hamburg.

Between 1982 and 1990, Gulyas regularly took part in senior and other veteran competitions, winning the men’s singles title eight times at the World Championships, and the same title fifteen times at various European Championships.

Gulyas was a member of the Hungarian national team between 1954 and 1973. He played a total of 44 singles matches, finishing with a record of 27-17; and a total of 17 doubles matches with various partners, finishing with a record of 10-17. Gulyas was also twice a member of the Hungarian team that won the Mitropa Cup. Between 1953 and 1981, he won the team competition with Ujpest Dozsa no less than 27 times.

Istvan Gulyas died in Budapest on 31 July 2000 at the age of 68.

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