Marlene Gerson (born June 1940) is a female former

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

who was active in the late 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. Her best singles result at 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 ...

was reaching the third round in 1959. Partnering Australian Eva Duldig, she reached the quarterfinal of the doubles event in 1961. At the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel, she won

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

s in women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Career

In 1962 Gerson won the All England Plate, a competition held at the

consisting of players who were defeated in the first or second rounds of the singles competition. Gerson had lost in the first round of the singles event against Kaye Dening in straight sets after having qualified for the 1962 Wimbledon Championships at a grass court tournament in

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. At the All England Plate event she won all five rounds in straight sets, including the final against Margaret Hellyer. Her best singles result at Wimbledon was reaching the third round in 1959 which she lost in straight sets to

Rosie Reyes Rosa María Reyes Darmon (''née'' Reyes; 23 March 1939 – 4 January 2024) was a Mexican tennis player who was active in the 1950s and 1960s. Career Most of her success came on clay on which she won the women's doubles title at the 1958 Fren ...

. Partnering Australian Eva Duldig she reached the quarterfinal of the doubles event in 1961, in which they were beaten by the fourth-seeded team of Sally Moore and Lesley Turner. Gerson is Jewish, and at the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel, she won a gold medal in women's doubles, and playing with South African Rod Mandelstam she won the mixed doubles gold medal. In singles, she won a silver medal. At the Dutch Open in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

she reached the semifinal of the singles event in 1962 which she lost to compatriot Sandra Price in two sets. Together with Price she won the doubles final against Judy Tegart and Eva de Jongh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerson, Marlene 1940 births Jewish South African sportspeople Jewish tennis players South African female tennis players Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Maccabiah Games gold medalists for South Africa Maccabiah Games silver medalists for South Africa Maccabiah Games medalists in tennis Competitors at the 1961 Maccabiah Games