Felicisimo Ampon (October 27, 1920 – October 7, 1997) was a tennis player from the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. He is considered to be the greatest Filipino tennis player in history, and at only 5 foot 3 inches tall, was once considered the best tennis player in the world, pound for pound. He represented the country in several

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

competitions for almost 30 years, and holds the Philippine all-time record for the most singles (34-26) and total wins (40-35) in Davis Cup history. He was known for winning the

1934 Far Eastern Games The 1934 Far Eastern Championship Games was the tenth edition of the regional multi-sport event, contested between China, Japan and the Philippines, and was held from 16 to 20 May in Manila, the Philippines. A total of eight sports were contested ...

tennis gold medal, the 1950

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

tennis singles gold medal, the

1958 Asian Games The 1958 Asian Games, officially the Third Asian Games () and commonly known as Tokyo 1958 (), were a multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 May to 1 June 1958. It was governed by the Asian Games Federation. A total of 1,820 athletes repr ...

tennis doubles gold medal, and 1968 Chinese Recreational Club Open Tennis doubles title.

Career

Felicisimo Ampon was the son of former tennis player Felix Ampon and the brother of Desideria Ampon, who at her time dominated women's tennis in Asia. Ampon made a good start of his career in the

Far Eastern Games The Far Eastern Championship Games (also known as the Far Eastern Championships, Far Eastern Games or Far East Games) was an Asian multi-sport event considered to be a precursor to the Asian Games. History In 1913, Elwood Brown, president o ...

, winning the tennis singles gold medal in the 1934 edition. He twice played in the Philippines Amateur Tennis Championships and was beaten in the play-offs on both occasion. In 1936, he lost to eventual finalist Juanito Gavia in the quarterfinals. In 1937, he defeated Sam Ang and Alfredo Diy, and made it to the finals of the Philippines Championship but lost to Leonardo Gavia Jr. After a disappointing Philippines Championships campaign, Ampon bounced back. After the war, Ampon made history by winning the Wimbledon Plate Championship in 1948, a trophy for the 96 players who made an early exit in the first and second rounds of the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

. In 1948 he won an International tournament in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1949 he won

Welsh Championships The Welsh Championships ( Welsh: Pencampwriaethau Cymru) its original name until 1970 was also known as the Championship of Wales (1951), the Welsh Open ( Welsh: Cymraeg Agored) (1947–50) the Green Shield Welsh Championships and Green Shield W ...

singles title, defeating South African

Syd Levy Sydney Levy (17 October 1922 – 22 November 2015) was a South African tennis player. He competed at Wimbledon, the French Championships, the U.S. Open, and Davis Cup, and won a silver medal at the Maccabiah Games in Israel. Biography Levy at ...

in the final, the Bristol Championships, again defeating Levy in the final, and in 1951 he became the singles champions at the Swedish Hard Court Championships on clay after defeating Deyro on the final. Ampon participated in the 1950 Pan American Tennis Championships in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and won the singles event, his finest career title. Defeating Davis Cup legend

Bill Talbert William Franklin Talbert (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 1999) was an American tennis player and administrator. Tennis career He was ranked in the U.S. top 10 from 1941 to 1954, and he was ranked World No. 3 in 1949 by John Olliff of ''The D ...

(

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

) in the semi-finals and two-time Grand Slam finalist

Tom Brown Tom Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Brown (satirist) (1662–1704), English satirical writer *Tom Brown (trombonist) (1888–1958), American jazz trombonist and bandleader *Tom Brown (actor) (1913–1990), American film and televi ...

(USA) in the finals. That victory, earned Ampon the first ever Philippines Sportswriters Association (PSA) Athlete of the Year award in 2000. In 1952, Ampon made it to the quarter-finals of the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

at Roland Garros but narrowly lost to world number one

Frank Sedgman Francis Arthur Sedgman (born 29 October 1927) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Over the course of a three-decade career, Sedgman won five Grand Slam singles tournaments as an amateur as well as 9 Grand Slam doubles tourname ...

( AUS) he reached the final of the Scottish Championships losing to Ian Ayre. In 1953, he returned to Roland Garros and made impact, defeating the 1950 champion

Budge Patty Edward John Patty (February 11, 1924 – October 4, 2021), better known as Budge Patty, was an American world no. 1 tennis player whose career spanned a period of 15 years after World War II. He won two Grand Slam singles titles in 1950. He wa ...

(USA) in the fourth round before losing to eventual champion

Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall (born 2 November 1934) is an Australian former World number one male tennis player rankings, world No. 1 professional tennis player. Rosewall won 147 singles titles, including 23 majors: a record 15 Major professional te ...

(AUS) in the quarter-finals. Both quarter-finals was the highest finished by a Filipino in Grand Slam tennis. He also becomes the shortest player ever to play in Wimbledon history and won over 30 European trophies throughout his career. The same year Ampon lost an all-Filipino final in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

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, to Reymundo Deyro, arguably his greatest rival and partner in Philippine tennis history. In

, he was defeated again by Deyro in the finals of men's singles tennis and finished with a silver medal. He then partnered with Deyro to capture the men's doubles gold medal and with his sister Desideria Ampon captured the mixed doubles bronze medal. In the Davis Cup he went on to lead the country in the Eastern Zone for more than a decade and made a prolific partnerships with other Filipino tennis legends Raymundo Deyro, Johnny Jose and

Cesar Carmona Cesar Carmona was a Filipino tennis player. Carmona played for the Philippines Davis Cup team between 1946 and 1951, mostly as the doubles partner of Felicisimo Ampon. The team made the semi-finals of the 1951 Davis Cup Europe Zone. While on ...

. Ampon represented his country for the last time in 1968. He ended his Davis Cup career holding the Philippine record for the most singles (34-26) and total wins (40-35) in history. He also won his last title, teaming up with

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

's Kenneth Tsui to capture the Chinese Recreational Club (CRC) Open men's double title.

Achievements

Singles events

* 1934 Far Eastern Games champion (gold) * 1936 Philippines Amateur Tennis Championship, quarter-finalist * 1937 Philippines Amateur Tennis Championship, finalist * 1937 Davis Cup singles champion * 1940 Philippine Indoors champion * 1946 Pennsylvania Clay Court Championships champion * 1948 Wimbledon Plate champion * 1948 Copenhagen International (clay) champion * 1948

Midland Counties Championships The Midland Counties Championships also known as the Midland International was a grass court tennis tournament held at Edgbaston Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club, Edgbaston Edgbaston () is a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Mi ...

champion * 1949

champion * 1949 Philippine Indoors champion * 1949

West of England Championships West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

champion * 1949 Antwerp International champion * 1950 Pan American Championships champion * 1950

Indian International Championships Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

champion * 1950

All India Championships All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and profe ...

champion * 1950

Northern India Championships The Northern India Championships or formally the Northern India Lawn Tennis Championship and, also known as the Northern India Tennis Championships, was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament founded as the North India Championship c. 1899 ...

champion * 1950 Philippines Championships finalist * 1950 Madrid finalist * 1951 Eastern Mediterranean Championships (Athens-Greece) champion * 1951 International Championships of Egypt - Cairo finalist * 1951

British Hard Court Championships The British Hard Court Championships was a Grand Prix tennis and WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament, played in the Open Era from 1968 to 1983 and again (albeit not named as such) from 1995 to 1999. History As an amateur tournament, the inaug ...

finalist * 1952 French Open, quarter-finalist * 1952 Scottish Championships finalist * 1953 French Open, quarter-finalist * 1958 Asian Games men's singles, 2nd place (silver)

Doubles events

* 1958 Asian Games men's doubles champions (gold) with Reymundo Deyro

Mixed events

* 1951 Eastern Mediterranean Tennis Championship (Athens-Greece) finalist with Beryl Bartlett * 1958 Asian Games mixed doubles, 3rd place (bronze) with Desideria Ampon

Team events

* 1957 Davis Cup Eastern Zone champion * 1958 Davis Cup Eastern Zone champion * 1960 Davis Cup Eastern Zone champion * 1964 Davis Cup Eastern Zone champion

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ampon, Felicisimo 1920 births 1997 deaths Asian Games gold medalists for the Philippines Asian Games silver medalists for the Philippines Asian Games bronze medalists for the Philippines Asian Games medalists in tennis Filipino male tennis players Medalists at the 1958 Asian Games Sportspeople from Manila Tennis players at the 1958 Asian Games Philippine Sports Hall of Fame inductees Filipino expatriates in the United States 20th-century Filipino sportsmen