Teimuraz Irakleivich Kakuliya ( ka, თეიმურაზ კაკულია, tr, ; 26 April 1947,

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Georgia, the Georgian SSR, or simply Georgia, was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its second occupation (by the Red Army) in 1921 to its independence in 1991. Cotermin ...

— 25 August 2006, Tbilisi,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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 and Soviet/Georgian tennis coach.

Tennis career

Teimuraz Kakulia started playing tennis at the age of 11. For the most part of his tennis career, he remained in the shadow of his colleague and friend

Alex Metreveli Alexander Irakliyevich Metreveli ( ka, ალექსანდრე მეტრეველი, tr, ; ; born 2 November 1944) is a retired Soviet tennis player of Georgian background. Personal info Metreveli is an honorary citizen of Aust ...

, losing to him five times in the singles finals of the USSR tennis championships. Together they took five men's doubles titles at the Soviet championships, and Kakulia won the tournament once with Marina Chuvyrina in mixed doubles.Individual USSR Championships
at the Encyclopedia of Russian Tennis Other highlights of Kakulia's career were winning bronze medals in the mixed doubles exhibition event at the 1968 Olympic Games at the age of 21; winning the tennis tournament at the 1973 Summer Universiade in singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles; and reaching

1972 Australian Open The 1972 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Australia and was held from 26 December 1971 to 3 January 1972. It was the 60th edition of the Australian Open and the first ...

semifinals in men's doubles (with Metreveli). In singles, his best achievements were reaching the fourth round at the 1976 US Open as well as victories over

Eddie Dibbs Eddie Dibbs (born February 23, 1951) is a retired American tennis player also nicknamed "Fast Eddie". He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1978, winning 22 titles and being a runner-up another 20 times. Dibbs holds t ...

and

Mark Edmondson Mark Edmondson (born 28 June 1954 in Gosford, New South Wales) is a retired Australian professional tennis player. Edmondson won the 1976 Australian Open while ranked 212th in the world, and remains the lowest-ranked winner of a Grand Slam ...

. He also won the Wimbledon Plate. In addition, Kakulia has played an integral part in the Soviet Davis Cup team victories at the Europe Zone in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

and

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

after which the team advanced to the Inter-Zonal stage. As a team member, Kakulia was also a four-time European amateur champion. In 1977, Teimuraz Kakulia was awarded the Distinguished Master of Sport of the USSR rank, the highest in the Soviet sports classification. He was only the second Soviet tennis player to join WCT, with Metreveli's being the first. After finishing his active playing career, Kakulia focused on coaching. He was a member of the Soviet national team coaching group.

Leila Meskhi Leila Meskhi ( ka, ლეილა მესხი, tr, ; born 5 January 1968) is a retired Georgian professional tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles ...

, bronze medalist at the

1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to: *1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain *1992 Winter Olympics The 1992 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVI Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Albertville '92 (Franco-Provença ...

, was the most successful among his trainees. During the last 10 years of his life, illness prevented from coaching.

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kakulia, Teimuraz 1947 births 2006 deaths Male tennis players from Georgia (country) Tennis players from Tbilisi Soviet male tennis players Tennis coaches from Georgia (country) Tennis players at the 1968 Summer Olympics Summer World University Games medalists in tennis FISU World University Games gold medalists for the Soviet Union Medalists at the 1973 Summer Universiade