player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameWilli
LastnameHannemann
GenderMale
CountryGermany
Date of birth1892-02-03
Place of birthBerlin, Germany
Date of death1971-00-00
Place of deathMunchen, Germany

About

From Alexander Schwartz:

On 15.V.1906 he became a professional tennis coach at the early age of 14 when he was hired by the Oldenburger Tennisverein.Shortly thereafter
his talent was the discovered by Otto von Müller,a prussian officer and one of the best german tennis players,who persuaded him to shift his activities from
the rural Grandduchy of Oldenburg to the more populated and lucrative Prussian Rhine Province.In the following years he worked as the professional coach of the
THC Rot-Weiss in Cologne (a position which was later held by the more famous Hans Nüsslein).His most important pupil there was Cilly Aussem,the 1931 French and
Wimbledon Singles Champion.
In 1911 he was one of the founding members of the Verein Deutscher Tennislehrer (VDT-Association of German Professional Tennis Coaches).This association
was the first of its kind in the world and helped to set standards in the education of professional coaches and amateur players.In 1912 and 1920 he also won the Singles title of the German Professional Championships which were organized by the VDT.He was President of this association in 1919-1920.
During the First World War he served in the Prussian Army.When he returned from the war he had to discover that the economical conditions for professional coaching had aggravated (Large parts of the german population were impoverished during the war or the following years up to 1923;many tennis courts were
converted to gardens to produce food during the terrible allied hunger blockade which lasted until spring 1919).To survive these hardships,Hannemann had to open a sporting goods store in Cologne.Furthermore,he petitioned his reamateurisation from the German Tennis Federation.Although this caused fierce arguments inside the
federation,his request was finally granted in 1920 under the condition of a waiting period of three full years.
In 1924 he started his amateur career with the singles and doubles title of the German International Covered Court Championships.In 1925 he also won the singles and doubles title of the Swiss International Championships.In 1926 he managed to win the German Team Championships with his club THC Rot-Weiss Cologne.
His playing style is described in the Tennis Handbuch 1926 as being a baseliner with powerful groundstrokes,especially a dominating forehand,effective but unorthodox volleys and a disappointingly a weak serve.
From 1924 to 1926 he was classified as Number 4 in the German National Rankings below players like Froitzheim,Landmann and Moldenhauer.
He celebrated the biggest success of his amateur career when he reached the singles and doubles finals of the German International Championships in 1927.
Since economic conditions had improved in the second half of the 1920ies,he decided to return to professional coaching in the same year and practised his profession
in Berlin.In the following years he was hired by the German Tennis Federation to coach the Davis Cup Team and especially junior players.His most famous pupils were Gottfried von Cramm and Henner Henkel.During these period he is frequently decribed as Reichstrainer,although there never was an official position of this name up to 1969.The federation still hired professional coaches if the necessity and the occasion arrived.
After the Second World War Hannemann lived and worked in Munich.

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