Wilhelm Paul Bungert (born 1 April 1939) is a former
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
tennis player
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 cov ...
best known for reaching the
1967 Wimbledon final. He participated in the
1970 Davis Cup
The 1970 Davis Cup was the 59th edition of the Davis Cup, the most important tournament between national teams in men's tennis. 31 teams entered the Europe Zone, 11 teams entered the Americas Zone, and 11 teams entered the Eastern Zone. Hong Kong ...
final as a player and in the
1985 Davis Cup final as team captain.
Tennis career
In 1962 the right-handed Bungert reached the quarterfinals of the
International Australian Championships, the doubles finals of the
International French Championships and the
International Tennis Tournament of Monte Carlo.
Bungert was ranked as high as World No. 4 for 1964 by
Lance Tingay
Lance Tingay (15 July 1915 – 10 March 1990) was a British sports journalist, historian, and author of several tennis books. For many years his annual ranking of top tennis players was "the only one that counted" before ATP rankings were introduc ...
of
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
.
After reaching the semifinals in 1963 (beating
Roy Emerson
Roy Stanley Emerson (born 3 November 1936) is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam titles. He is the only male player to have completed a car ...
before losing to
Chuck McKinley
Charles Robert McKinley Jr. (January 5, 1941 – August 11, 1986) was an American former world no. 1 men's amateur tennis champion of the 1960s. He is remembered as an undersized, hard-working dynamo, whose relentless effort and competitive spi ...
)
and 1964 (losing to Emerson), the unseeded Bungert was the second German player (thirty years after
Gottfried von Cramm
Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm (; 7 July 1909 – 8 November 1976) was a German tennis champion who won the French Open twice and reached the final of a Grand Slam on five other occasions. He was ranked number 2 in ...
) to reach the
Wimbledon men’s finals in 1967 when he beat
Roger Taylor in five sets. Bungert's victories in the quarterfinal and round of 16 had also been five-set affairs.
[The 100 greatest Wimbledon players ever – Times Online]
/ref> However, he lost the final in straight sets against the Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
n John Newcombe
John David Newcombe AO OBE (born 23 May 1944) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He is one of the few men to have attained a world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. At the majors, he won seven singles titles, a fo ...
.
In 1970 he (with Christian Kuhnke) was part of the German Davis Cup
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 organi ...
team which lost the finals against the U.S. 0–5. In July of the same year he won his only career singles title in Düsseldorf.
In the eighties Bungert was captain of the German Davis Cup team (Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker (, ; born 22 November 1967) is a German former world No. 1 tennis player. Becker was successful from the start of his career, winning the Wimbledon Championships at the age of 17. He ultimately won six Grand Slam singles tit ...
and Michael Westphal
Michael Westphal (19 February 1965 – 20 June 1991) was a male tennis player from West Germany.
Westphal participated for his native country in the 1984 Summer Olympics, making it as far as the quarter-finals. The right-hander reached his highes ...
) which lost the finals against Sweden 2–3. Nikola Pilić became his successor as captain.
Today, Bungert owns a tennis and golf center in Hilden
Hilden is a town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is situated in the District of Mettmann, west of Solingen and east of Düsseldorf on the right side of the Rhine. It is a middle sized industrial town with a forest and nume ...
. Adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacture ...
named one of their tennis shoes after him
Grand Slam finals
Singles (1 runner-up)
Doubles (1 runner–up)
Career finals
* Singles titles (1): 1970 Düsseldorf
* Doubles titles (1): 1968 Kitzbuehel (w/Jurgen Fassbender)
* Singles finalist (3) 1967 Wimbledon, 1968 Kitzbuehel, 1968 Düsseldorf
References
External links
*
*
*
1939 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Mannheim
West German male tennis players
German tennis coaches
Tennis people from Baden-Württemberg
{{Germany-tennis-bio-stub