player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameLéonce Jacques
LastnameAslangul
GenderMale
CountryFrance
Date of birth1898-10-27
Place of birthParis, France
Date of death1939-11-19
Place of deathParis, France

About

Adapted and expanded from the Wikipedia article in French on Léonce Aslangul, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9once_Aslangul

Léonce Jacques Aslangul was born in Paris in October 1898, the son of a merchant of Armenian origin. Léonce studied at the Lycée Saint-Louis before transferring to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, another prestigious high school in Paris. He later worked as a company administrator.

In the years immediately after World War One, Aslangul was one of the hopes of men’s tennis in France. In April 1919, in the magazine La Vie au Grand Air, fellow French tennis player William Laurentz wrote about Aslangul as follows:

“In France, there is only one player whom we can hope to see among the future champions – Léonce Aslangul. While not having the facility nor the varied game of the great champions, Aslangul can nevertheless hope to acquire the strength that would allow him to be ranked after the top four or five French players. His game is based on consistency and on waiting for his opponent to make an error.

“His drive is excellent and his backhand, which at first can seem somewhat laboured, is nevertheless very good and is usually well placed down the line. But Aslangul’s real strength is his gumption, if I can express myself so. His movement is remarkable and he gets to balls which seem impossible to reach, smiling broadly as he does so, as if his frantic efforts were to be recompensed by his winning the point.”

Aslangul regularly took part in the tennis tournaments held in Paris at Easter and Christmas, as well as those which took place at the Tennis Club de Paris, of which he was a member. He notably reached the round of 16 of the men’s singles event at the French Internationl Championships in 1925, 1926 and 1930. At Wimbledon in 1926, he reached the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles event with Jean Borotra. They were beaten 8-6 in the final set by Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet, the eventual champions.

In 1927, Aslangul took part in the Australian Championships tournament, which that year was held at Kooyong in Melbourne. He reached the last 16 of the men’s singles event before losing in four sets to Gerald Patterson, the eventual champion. Together with Richard Schlesinger, he reached the semi-finals of the men’s doubles event, where they were beaten in four sets by Patterson and Jack Hawkes, the eventual champions, 8-10, 9-7, 6-4, 6-1.

In 1921, Léonce Aslangul married Nena Ephinni (Gladys) Lucas (1898-1987), daughter of Anthony John Jerus Lucas (aka Antonios Yiannis Lekatsas), the Greek Consul in Melbourne, and Margaret Wilson, who was Australian by birth. Aslangul had met Nena Lucas while taking part in a Davis Cup tie in Australia. Together, they had two children, a son and a daughter: Anthony George (1923-2000), who later represented Australia at the Winter Olympics, and June Nena Gladys (1926-96), who became a speech therapist. Both children were born in Paris.

In 1935, Léonce Aslangul appeared before the Paris criminal court for assault and battery on an industrialist. In 1937, he was seriously injured with his wife and daughter following a car accident on the RN 19 near Provins. He died in Paris in November 1939 at the age of 40. His children were subsequently sent from occupied France to Australia, where they stayed with their mother’s family in Melbourne. Nena Aslangul joined them there in 1941.

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