Teimuraz Kakulia ( ka, თეიმურაზ კაკულია, tr, ; 26 April 1947,

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

— 25 August 2006, Tbilisi,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

tennis 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 c ...

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, ; russian: Александр Ираклиевич Метревели ; born 2 November 1944) is a retired Soviet tennis player of Georgia ...

, 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 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 t ...

. 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 President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom K ...

and

1976 Events January * January 3 – 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 11 – The 1976 Phil ...

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 player. Meskhi has won five singles and doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She has also won one singles and two doubles titles ...

, bronze medalist at the

1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to: *1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain *1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 ...

, 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) Sportspeople from Tbilisi Soviet male tennis players Tennis coaches from Georgia (country) Tennis players at the 1968 Summer Olympics Universiade medalists in tennis Universiade gold medalists for the Soviet Union Medalists at the 1973 Summer Universiade