Oscar Kreuzer (; 14 June 1887 – 3 May 1968) was a male

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and

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player from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Biography

Kreuzer was born at

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

on 14 June 1887. He played at the 1908 Summer Olympics and at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden where he won a bronze medal in the men's singles tournament. In 1912, he also reached the final at the

World Hard Court Championships World Hard Court Championships was an annual major tennis tournament sanctioned by the International Lawn Tennis Federation and held from 1912 to 1923. It was principally held in Paris, on clay courts of the Stade Français in the Paris suburb of ...

at Paris which he lost to his compatriot Otto Froitzheim. At Wimbledon, he reached his best result in 1913 where he advanced to the semifinals before being stopped by Stanley Doust. Besides tennis, Kreuzer also excelled at

. He won the German championships with his club

SC 1880 Frankfurt The Sport-Club Frankfurt 1880 e.V. (or SC 1880 Frankfurt) is a German sports club from Frankfurt am Main. The club is mainly known for its rugby union team, which currently plays in the Rugby-Bundesliga, the highest level of the league system for ...

in 1910, and played several

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for Germany. At the end of July 1914, he and Otto Froitzheim played the semifinal of the

International Lawn Tennis Challenge The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

against

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. When

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out, the president of the local tennis club kept this from Froitzheim and Kreuzer as he didn't want to disrupt the match. The German team lost 0–5. On their way back to Germany, their Italian steamboat ''America'' was halted off

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

by a British warship and they were placed in a prison in Gibraltar for several months before being sent to detention camps in England. While Kreuzer stayed at a camp near

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, officer Froitzheim was kept at Donnington Hall until the end of the war in 1918. In 1920 he won the International German Championships at the Rothenbaum club in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, defeating Louis Maria Heyden in the final in three straight sets. After he retired from playing tennis tournaments, Kreuzer settled at

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

, near his friend Froitzheim. He died there on 3 May 1968.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kreuzer, Oscar 1887 births 1968 deaths German male tennis players Olympic tennis players for Germany Tennis players at the 1908 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 1912 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in tennis Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics SC 1880 Frankfurt players Tennis players from Frankfurt