General Yvon Francois Marie
Petra
Male
France
1916-03-08
Cholon, French Indochina, -
1984-09-12
Paris, France


About

From wimbledon.com: https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/articles/2016-07-15/remembering_yvon_petra_hall_of_famer_wwii_veteran_and_wimbledon_champion.html

By Paul Newman

There have been many champions who were better players and many who won more titles, but was there ever a more remarkable winner of the gentlemen’s singles title at Wimbledon than Yvon Petra? The 1946 champion was the last man to win it wearing long trousers and, at 6ft 5in, the tallest. Most remarkably of all, Petra recovered from a serious knee injury while fighting in the Second World War and spent five years as a prisoner of war in Germany before resuming his career.

Petra, who died in 1984 at the age of 68, was born in 1916 in Cholon, a district of what is now Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. His parents were civil servants working for the French colonial government. He started playing tennis when he was seven but did not start competing regularly on the world stage until he was sent to school in France at the age of eighteen.

He soon emerged as one of the best players in France. Petra used his height to hit powerful serves – one of which actually broke a net during The Wimbledon Championships in 1946 – and big ground strokes. Although not the quickest of players, his long reach enabled him to get to balls that would have beaten almost anyone else and he made some bold volleys.

Petra made his debut at Wimbledon in 1936 at the age of twenty, when he lost in the third round to Don Butler. Another British player, Frank Wilde, beat him in the first round twelve months later. Before the war, doubles was Petra’s forte. In 1937 he won the mixed doubles title at the French Championships alongside Simone Mathieu, and was also runner-up at Wimbledon and New York, where he played with Mathieu and Sylvie Henrotin respectively. In 1938, he secured his first major title, partnering Bernard Destremau to victory over the Americans Don Budge and Gene Mako in the men’s doubles in Paris, 3-6, 6-3, 9-7, 6-1

When Petra suffered a serious knee injury while fighting with the French army in the Second World War he thought his tennis career might be over. “After the battle I was taken prisoner and I had to limp through a terrible prisoner of war (POW) march,” Petra told the Sarasota Journal in 1974. “My knee was completely out of order. I was operated on by a German surgeon, but my left leg remained feeble. I doubted I would ever get back on a tennis court.” After five years as a prisoner of war Petra said he was left “pretty weak”. He added: “It took a long time to come back mentally and physically, but my wife helped me a lot.”

Following the war, it was touch-and-go whether the Wimbledon Championships would be held at all. In 1940, a German bomb had flattened a corner of Centre Court, destroying 1,200 seats, which were not replaced until 1949. The continuing shortages of food, clothing and petrol made life difficult for the Wimbledon committee, but the decision was taken to go ahead with the tournament. Providing food for the players was a big problem because of rationing. For several years after the war some overseas competitors imported steaks, which they kept in their hotel refrigerators to supplement the meagre meals which were all that the All England Club could offer.

The 128-strong field for the gentlemen’s singles included forty-seven British players and four Irishmen, many of whom were returning to normality after serving in the war. The favourite to win the gentlemen’s singles in 1946 was the American Jack Kramer, a former U.S. junior champion who had won his country’s national doubles title in 1940, 1941 and 1943. However, he developed blisters on his right hand during the Wimbledon Championships, which saw him resort to playing in a glove. He was beaten by the Czech-born player Jaroslav Drobny in five sets in the fourth round.

Yvon Petra beat the number one seed, Australia’s Dinny Pails, in four sets in the quarter-finals, and in the semi-finals he had to come from two sets down to overcome the tall Californian, Tom Brown, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 8-6. His opponent in the final was Geoff Brown. The powerful Australian, who played double-handed on both sides, wore shorts, which had become the norm in the men’s game, while Petra was still wearing the long trousers that were quickly fading into tennis fashion history. Petra won the first two sets but Brown fought back to take the match into a decider. Petra, however, broke serve in the opening game of the fifth set and went on to win 6-2, 6-4, 7-9, 5-7, 6-4 to become the first French men’s singles champion since Henri Cochet in 1929.

In 1946, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon. Returning to Paris, Petra claimed his fourth and last major trophy when he won his second men’s doubles title alongside Marcel Bernard, beating Enrique Morea of Argentina and Pancho Segura of Ecuador, 7-5, 6-3, 0-6, 1-6, 10-8.

Tom Brown earned his revenge over Petra in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 1947, when the Frenchman made his last appearance at the All England Club. The following year Petra turned professional. He had spells as a teaching pro in Belgium and the Bahamas, played Fred Perry on exhibition tours in Britain and eventually went to work as a coach in Chicago, Connecticut and Florida. He later went back to France and died in Paris in 1984.



Media


Archive statistics 1934 - 1955
29
289
218


Tournament wins 1951 - Nice Professionals (Professional)
1946 - Wimbledon (Grandslam)
1946 - Monte Carlo Easter Tournament (Amateur)
1946 - Deauville (Open)
1946 - Paris International Championships (Open)
1945 - Paris International Championships (Open)
1945 - Coupe Albert Canet (Amateur)
1945 - Barcelona International Christmas (Amateur)
1945 - Tournoi de France (Amateur)
1944 - French Occupied Zone (Amateur)
1944 - Tournoi de France (Amateur)
1943 - Tournoi de France (Amateur)
1943 - Coupe de Noel (Amateur)
1942 - Coupe Albert Canet (Amateur)
1942 - French Unoccupied Zone (Amateur)
1942 - Cannes Club Tournament (Amateur)
1942 - Juan-Les-Pins (Amateur)
1942 - Monte Carlo Easter Tournament (Amateur)
1942 - Barcelona International (Amateur)
1939 - Côte d'Azur Championships (Amateur)
1938 - French International Covered Court Championships (Amateur)
1937 - Championships of Strasbourg (Open)
1937 - Coupe de Noel (Amateur)
1937 - Lille (Amateur)
1937 - Coupe Albert Canet (Amateur)
1936 - Coupe Stade-Racing (Amateur)
1936 - Saint-Quentin (Amateur)
1936 - Saint Quentin Covered Courts (Amateur)
1935 - Cauterets (Amateur)


Tournaments US Pro Clay Courts - 1955 Florida Professional - 1954 Florida Professional - 1953 Menton Professional - 1951 Nice Professionals - 1951 US Pro Championships - 1950 Philadelphia Pro Championships - 1950 Slazenger Professional - 1948 Wimbledon - 1947 Roland Garros - 1947 French International Covered Court Championships - 1947 San Remo - 1947 Viareggio - 1947 Rapallo - 1947 Coupe Marcel Poree - 1947 Villars - 1947 Wimbledon - 1946 Monte Carlo - 1946 Roland Garros - 1946 US Open - 1946 Paris International Championships - 1946 Newport Casino - 1946 Pacific Coast Championship - 1946 French International Covered Court Championships - 1946 Pacific Southwest Championships - 1946 South of France Championships - 1946 Deauville - 1946 International Club Matches - FRA - 1946 Lisboa New Years Tournament - 1946 Monte Carlo Easter Tournament - 1946 Paris International Championships - 1945 Tournoi de France - 1945 Coupe Albert Canet - 1945 Barcelona International Christmas - 1945 Coupe de Noel - 1944 Nice - 1944 Tournoi de France - 1944 Monegasque Championships - 1944 French Occupied Zone - 1944 Coupe de Noel - 1943 Paris International Championships - 1943 Tournoi de France - 1943 The Great Roland-Garros-Tournament - 1943 Cannes Carlton - 1942 Tournoi de France - 1942 Barcelona International - 1942 Cannes Club Tournament - 1942 Juan-Les-Pins - 1942 French Unoccupied Zone - 1942 Coupe Albert Canet - 1942 Megeve - 1942 Monte Carlo Easter Tournament - 1942 Monte Carlo - 1939 Beaulieu - 1939 Côte d'Azur Championships - 1939 Roland Garros - 1938 US Open - 1938 Newport Casino - 1938 French International Covered Court Championships - 1938 British Hard Court Championships - 1938 King's Cup - First Round - 1938 London vs. Paris - 1938 Richmond County Exhibition - 1938 Wimbledon - 1937 Monte Carlo - 1937 Roland Garros - 1937 US Open - 1937 Coupe de Noel - 1937 Newport Casino - 1937 German International Championships - 1937 Lille - 1937 Championships of Strasbourg - 1937 Wimbledon Plate (Consolation) - 1937 Coupe Albert Canet - 1937 Le Mans - 1937 Monte Carlo Easter Tournament - 1937 Sporting Club Paris - 1937 Trestraou - 1937 Wimbledon - 1936 Roland Garros - 1936 US Open - 1936 Newport Casino - 1936 Queens Club Tournament - 1936 Pacific Southwest Championships - 1936 Westende Tournament - 1936 Oostende - 1936 Team Match (Informal) US vs. France - 1936 Toulon - 1936 US vs. France Exhibition - 1936 US vs. France Exhibition #2 - 1936 Saint-Quentin - 1936 Saint Quentin Covered Courts - 1936 Coupe Stade-Racing - 1936 Roland Garros - 1935 Paris International Championships - 1935 Le Touquet Second Meeting - 1935 Coupe Albert Canet - 1935 Bagneres de Bigorre - 1935 Tennis Club de France - 1935 Coupe des Jeunes - 1935 Cauterets - 1935 Critérium de France - 1935 Criterium de France Indoor - 1935 Coupe de Noel - 1934

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