Wimbledon SF (1911, 1912) Highest ranking No. French Open 1R (1925) Grand slams won (singles) 8 | Career titles 33 Role Tennis player Career record 241–64 (79.02%) Name Max Decugis | |
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Full name Maxime Omer Mathieu Decugis Born 24 September 1882Paris, France ( 1882-09-24 ) Olympic medals Tennis at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Mixed doubles, Tennis at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Men's doubles Similar People Maurice Germot, Suzanne Lenglen, Laurence Doherty, Reginald Doherty, Kathleen McKane Godfree | ||
Max Décugis, le père du tennis francais ?
Maxime "Max" Omer Mathieu Decugis or Décugis ([maksim dɔkyʒiz/dekyʒiz]; 24 September 1882 – 6 September 1978) was a male tennis player from France who held the French Championships/French Open record of winning the tournament eight times (a French club members only tournament before 1925), a feat that was surpassed by Rafael Nadal in 2014. He also won three Olympic medals at the 1900 Summer Olympics (Paris) and the 1920 Summer Olympics (Antwerp), his only gold medal coming in the mixed doubles partnering French legend Suzanne Lenglen.
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Life
Decugis' father was a merchant at Les Halles, the company's name was Omer Décugis et fils, however the accent mark on the é is missing from Max Decugis' birth certificate, and appears inconsistently in later English-speaking sources such as the Ayres' Almanacks edited by Arthur Wallis Myers, but apparently never in any French-speaking sources. The origin of the family name Décugis, spelled with accented é in an 1842 source, is "from Cuges-les-Pins."
In 1905 he married Marie Flameng, the daughter of painter François Flameng, in Paris. After the death of Marie in 1969, Max married Suzanne Louise Duval in October.
Career
Max Decugis won the French Championships in 1903, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1912, 1913, and 1914 (also 14 times in doubles and seven times in mixed). The interruption of World War I denied Décugis the opportunity to defend his 1914 title. Décugis was also a four-time runner-up, having lost the final in 1902, 1906, 1920, and 1923. He won the International German Championship in 1901 and 1902.
In major tournaments, Decugis reached the semi-finals of both the 1911 and 1912 Wimbledon Championships and the 1913 and 1914 World Hard Court Championships (WHCC) and the final of the World Covered Court Championship (WCCC) in 1919. He won the mixed doubles title at the WHCC on four occasions (1912, 1913, 1914, 1921) and at the WCCC on two (1913, 1919).
In May 1910 Décugis twice defeated Anthony Wilding at Wiesbaden, first in the final of the Wiesbaden Cup, in four sets, followed by a victory in the final of the Wiesbaden Championship in three straight sets.
He was ranked World No. 6 for 1910 by Karoly Mazak, whilst A. Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph ranked Decugis as World No. 10 in both 1913 and 1914.