The French Switzerland Championships or Championnats de Suisse romande was a men's and women's open international clay court tennis tournament founded in 1905. It was first staged at the Le Montreux Palace Lawn Tennis Club, Le Montreux Palace Hotel,

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The championships ran until 1946.

History

The French Switzerland Championships were established in September 1905 and first played at the Tennis Club du Montreux Palace. In 1908 the event was moved to the Tennis Club de Montreux. During World War I the tournament was only held two times, then resuming fully in 1920. During World War II it was not held from 1939 to 1941, but resumed thereafter. Hosting of this event was shared between both venues, but the majority of time was played at the Montreux Lawn Tennis Club. The championships were discontinued in 1948. Former winners of the men's singles title included;

Robert Wallet Robert Wallet was a tennis player competing for France. Wallet finished runner-up to Max Decugis in the singles final of the Amateur French Championships The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized b ...

, Roy Allen,

Max Decugis Maxime Omer Mathieu Decugis or Décugis (; 24 September 1882 – 6 September 1978) was a French tennis player. He won the French Championships eight times (a French club members-only tournament before 1925). He also won three Olympic medals at ...

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Uberto De Morpurgo Uberto De Morpurgo (11 January 1896 – 26 February 1961) was an Italian tennis player. Uberto De Morpurgo was born in Trieste when it was part of Austria, but became an Italian citizen when the city changed hands after World War I. His world ...

Otto Froitzheim Otto Froitzheim (; 24 April 1884 – 27 October 1962) was a German tennis player. He won the singles and doubles titles at the World Hard Court Championships in 1912. He also won an Olympic Silver medal in singles in 1908 and was a finalist a ...

Henry Mayes Henry George Mayes, MBE (14 February 1880 – 1928) was a British-Canadian tennis player, military figure and businessman. He was a quarter finalist at the 1920 World Covered Court Championships, and the 1921 Wimbledon Championships. He wa ...

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and Gianni Cucelli. Previous winners of the women's singles championship included; Aurea Farrington Edgington, Germaine Régnier Golding,

Cilly Aussem Cilly Aussem (; 4 January 1909 – 22 March 1963) was a German tennis player. She was the first German, male or female, to win the singles title at Wimbledon, which she did in 1931. She also won the women's single titles at the French Champions ...

, Ilse Friedleben,

Lolette Payot Lolette Payot-Dodille (; 17 April 1910 – February 1988) was a Swiss-French tennis player. Biography Payot was born on 17 April 1910 at Lausanne. She learned to play tennis age 8 on the courts of the Montchoisi tennis club. At the age of 13, ...

Hilde Krahwinkel Hildegard Krahwinkel Sperling (née Krahwinkel; 26 March 1908 – 7 March 1981) was a German-Danish tennis player. She won three consecutive singles titles at the French Championships from 1935 to 1937. Krahwinkel Sperling is generally regarded ...

Alice Weiwers Alice Weiwers was a tennis player from Luxembourg. Weiwers 4 titles at the Tournoi de France, the French Championship tournament held in Vichy France Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was ...

and Annelies Ullstein Bossi.

Tournament names

The tournament sometimes carried the title of the Montreux Palace Hotel Autumn Championships or Montreux Autumn Meeting.

Venues

The event was first held at the Le Montreux Palace Hotel in 1907 the following year in 1908 it was held at the Montreux Lawn Tennis Club founded in 1890, in the grounds of the

Hôtel des Alpes-Grand Hôtel The Hôtel des Alpes-Grand Hôtel or Résidence des Alpes is an assemblage of former palace (hotel), palace buildings in the village of Territet, which is a part of Montreux in Switzerland. History In March 1840, the town of Territet bought a pa ...

Territet Territet (Montreux) is a locality which is part of the Montreux commune, in the Vaud canton, Switzerland. Geography Territet is located between the city center of Montreux and the village of Veytaux, within the municipality of Montreux, o ...

both venues held the event at various times.

Past finals

Men's singles

References