Ladislav Hecht

Ladislav Hecht ( born August 31, 1909 in Žilina, Austria - Hungary, † 27 May 2004 New York City, New York, United States ) was a Czechoslovak tennis player of Jewish origin. In the interwar period he was considered one of the most successful tennis players in Europe.

Career

With tennis Hecht began the age of eleven, learned mainly from books. In the years 1931-1938 he played for Czechoslovakia in the Davis Cup. Hecht played 37 games, including 29 times in an individual ( 14 wins, 15 defeats) and 8 games in double ( 4 wins, 4 losses ). Pike won the first Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv in 1932. Eight times he played at Wimbledon, his best result was the quarterfinals in singles in 1938. In doubles, he came in 1937 along with Roderich Menzel 1937 to the semi-finals. After 46 years pike was invited to Wimbledon, to take a seat in the royal box. Pike was invited in 1938 by Adolf Hitler personally in the German Davis Cup team since Hitler did not know that Pike was of Jewish descent. Roderich Menzel could play for Germany, Pike refused and fled the next year in the U.S., where he worked in a munitions factory during the Second World War. After the war, Pike a factory for toys and painting materials had.

In Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, in 1996 a stadium was named after him. In 2005, Hecht was entered into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and in 2007 to the newly established Hall of Fame Slovak tennis.