A. György
Dungyersky
Male
Yugoslavia
1902-00-00
Srbobran, Austro-Hungary, Austria
1983-00-00
Futog, Yugoslavia
Adapted slightly from Wikipedia, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90or%C4%91e_Dun%C4%91erski
Đorđe Dunđerski was a Yugoslavian tennis player. In 1927, he became the first member of the Yugoslavian team to take part in the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, (aka the Davis Cup). He was also the first and only Yugoslavian tennis Olympian until the reinstatement of tennis to the Olympic programme in 1988.
Đorđe Dunđerski, better known by the nickname Goga, was from the prestigious Serbian family of Dunđerski, the roots of which go far back to Herzegovina, from where his ancestors moved to Srbobran in the 17th century, fleeing the Ottoman occupation. The most prominent members of the Dunđerski family lived in Vojvodina before the First World War, and up to the Second World War occupied important positions in small businesses.
Dunđerski was born in 1902, in Srbobran, to father Jaša and mother Vera, the latter being the daughter of a lawyer in Novi Sad, a town to which they had moved in 1907. The young Dunđerski was well-educated and spoke French better than his mother tongue; he spoke Serbian with a French accent. He attended the Dugonics András Piarista Gimnázium [high school] in Szeged in order to learn Latin and Hungarian.
To avoid conflicts in the First World War, the family escaped to Geneva, where he graduated in 1922. It was in Switzerland that he began to play tennis, becoming a high school champion. The family returned to Novi Sad immediately after the war. Dunđerski began law studies at the University of Zagreb, but left during the second semester to focus on tennis.
Dunđerski’s breakthrough in tennis came in 1924, when he won the men’s singles event at the international tournament held in Gstaad. He subsequently became the best overseas tennis player based in Switzerland. During this period, he played for the national team of Switzerland. He also occasionally played in his home country and was a member of the HAŠK, the Croatian Academic Sports Club.
In 1924, he participated in the tennis events at the Summer Olympics in Paris, losing to Brian Gilbert in the first round of the men’s singles event. In the men’s doubles event he and Iván Balás advanced to the second round, where they were beaten by the French pair of Jacques Brugnon and Henri Cochet.
In 1925, partnering Jean Wuarin, Dunđerski was a finalist in the men’s doubles event at the tournament held in Campel in Brittany; they lost to Jean Borotra and a Swiss player called Kyburz. In 1926, Dunđerski was runner-up in the men’s singles event at the second meeting held at the Nice Lawn Tennis Club, losing to Umberto de Morpurgo in straight sets.
Dunđerski took part in the first official Davis Cup match featuring Yugoslavia in 1927, teaming up with Iván Balás, from Bečkerek, to represent the Kingdom of Yugoslavia team against India in Zagreb. India won the tie by 3 rubbers to 0, the reverse singles matches not being played.
After retiring from tennis, Dunđerski became a tennis instructor in Geneva, and was a partner to many famous diplomats, including Arthur Balfour. In 1939, Dunđerski returned to Novi Sad, but was never able to enter elite society because he was considered a foreigner and an extravagant person, although he had inherited a large estate from his father and thus had the status of a landowner.
After World War II he was stripped of all of his assets in Srbobran by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia government. He could not get a job as he had done no work apart from playing tennis full-time. He was only permitted occasional access to tennis clubs in exchange for his part-time assistance to the Tennis Association when it needed to exploit his ability to speak, write and read in five languages by having him act as an international liaison.
Dunđerski married in 1951 but divorced in 1969. He supported himself by selling parts of his estate until the remainder was nationalised. He was permitted to keep two apartments and lived in them until he sold them, whereupon he became homeless. He moved from town to town, finding shelter in the homes of old friends. Eventually, his social security expired and he died in a poorhouse in Futog in Novi Sad in 1983.
1917 - 1927
3
18
5
1926 - Yugoslavian International Championships (Amateur)
1924 - Gstaad (ATP)
1924 - Château-d'Œx (Amateur)
Round 1
Christian Boussus 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-3
7-9
1-6
6-2
Round 1
Gerald Sherwell 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-8
6-3
6-4
6-2
Round 1
A. György Dungyersky 1 *
Hector Cosmo Fisher
7-5
2-6
6-0
6-4
Round 2
A. György Dungyersky 1 *
Prince Carlo D' Avalos
6-4
6-1
7-5
Round 3
Jean Washer 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-0
8-6
6-3
Quarterfinals
Jan Kozeluh 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-4
6-2
Final
Umberto de Morpurgo 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-4
6-1
6-4
Unknown
Hans Moldenhauer 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-1
2-6
6-3
Final
Augustos G. Zerlendis 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-1
6-2
6-1
Final
Pablo Debran 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-4
6-3
8-6
Final
Umberto de Morpurgo 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-0
6-4
6-3
Semifinals
A. György Dungyersky 1 *
A. Michel
6-1
6-0
Final
A. György Dungyersky 1 *
Mr. Arabiani
6-3
6-0
6-4
Final
A. György Dungyersky 1 *
Einar Christian Bache
4-6
6-4
1-6
7-5
6-2
Final
Hector Cosmo Fisher 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
?
Final
Umberto de Morpurgo 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-3
6-0
6-4
Round 2
Giovanni (Mino) Balbi de Robecco 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-1
6-1
Final
Major Edmund Bela Joseph Harran 1 *
A. György Dungyersky
6-4
2-6
7-5