Iván Balás
{{short description|Yugoslav tennis player}}
{{Infobox tennis biography
|name = Iván Balás
|fullname =
|image =
|caption =
|country = {{flag|Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes}} (1922–1928)
{{HUN|1920}} (1930–1944)
|birth_date = 1894
|birth_place = Elemir, Banat, Austria-Hungary
|death_date = {{death year and age|1971|1894}}
|turnedpro = 1922 (amateur tour)
|retired = 1951
|plays = right-handed
|Team = yes
|DavisCupresult = 2REU
|Othertournaments = yes
|Olympicsresult = 1R (1924)
|doublesrecord = 2R (1924 Olympic Games)
}}
Iván Balás ({{langx|sr|Iván Balaž, Иван Балаж}} {{IPA|sh|ǐʋan balâːʒ|}}; {{langx|hu|Balázs Iván}} {{IPA|hu|ˈbɒlaːʒ ˈivaːn|}}; 1894 – 1971) was a Yugoslav tennis player of Hungarian ethnicity. He was one of the first to play for the Yugoslavian team at the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, and later the Davis Cup in 1927. Technically, his match was the second rubber of the tie. Apart from team competitions, he clinched international championships for Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Romania and Slovakia in various events.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}}
Early life and family
Iván Balás was born in 1894 in Elemir, Bečkerek (renamed Zrenjanin in 1946), Banat, then part of Austria-Hungary and now Serbia. He was born into a wealthy landowner family of ethnic Hungarians, the son of Iván Balás, Sr. (1866, Tápióbicske – 1909, Budapest and Erna Koronghy (1874, Baracháza – 1850, Budapest).{{cite web|title=BALÁS Iván, sipeki|url=http://www.macse.org/gudenus/mcsat/fam.aspx?id=16610|publisher=Magyar Családtörténeti Adattár|access-date=10 August 2017|language=hu}} His family's wealth contributed to his rapid growth in tennis. His Hungarian father, built two tennis courts in Elemir where his son Iván learned tennis. Iván attended the Nagybecskerek high school.{{cite journal|last1=László|first1=Táborosi|title=Balázs Iván és Nagy István|journal=Hungarians of Vojvodina in the Olympic Team of SZHSZ and Royal Yugoslavia 1924-1936|url=https://www.magyarszo.rs/hu/3010/sport/143721/Bal%C3%A1zs-Iv%C3%A1n-%C3%A9s-Nagy-Istv%C3%A1n.htm|access-date=10 August 2017|language=hu}} He continued his studies in Budapest.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}}
Tennis career
In college Balás played tennis as well as basketball, hockey, football and athletics.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}} He began to win club and international tournaments in Nagybecskerek.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}} Balás' first public triumph was recorded in 1922 in the men's singles of the National Championship in Novi Sad.
At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, he played both singles in doubles. In the men's singles, he was defeated in the first round by Jack Nielsen (Norway). And in doubles, he and Đorđe Dunđerski advanced to the second roundbut lost to Jacques Brugnon/Henri Cochet (France).
In 1926, he was crowned the champion of Yugoslavia. He was drafted into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Davis Cup team for the first-ever Davis Cup match against India in Zagreb in May 1927, joined by Đorđe Dunđerski.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251}} Although they didn't win a game or set, both of them provided strong resistance. Balás even had two balls to have a chance to serve out the first set in the match against Hassan-Ali Fyzee, but did not succeed, as the Indian player came back to claim the match. On the third ball, the game was suspended due to bad weather, and so the match was decided after the first two days' results. The organizers agreed not to wait on Monday, but to pass the remaining two dead rubbers and the victory to India.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}}
Balás next represented Hungary, debuting in a match against Austria.{{sfn|Tennisz és Golf II/12, pp.215-217}} At the time, he was fifth/sixth on the Hungarian rankings.{{sfn|Tennisz és Golf II/12, pp.215-217}} In 1930, he earned the second place in mixed doubles at the Bucharest International Championship (lost to Ghica Poulief and Nini Golescu){{sfn|Tennisz és Golf II/12, pp.215-217}} In Cluj-Napoca he lifted the doubles' trophy with partner Béla Kehrling, defeating Romanian champion Constantin Cantacuzino and Alexandru Botez; he also finished third in singles and mixed contest.{{sfn|Tennisz és Golf II/15, p.295}} In 1931, he reached four doubles finals, including the Hungarian Covered Courts tournament mixed and men's doubles, and the Warsaw International Championships doubles and mixed doubles.{{sfn|Tennisz és Golf III/5-6, pp.74-75}}{{sfn|Tennisz és Golf III/11–12, pp.201-202}}
Personal life
In 1928, Balás was engaged in Hungary, and he was no longer in the Davis Cup team of Yugoslavia.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}} He mostly played and practised in Budapest and joined the Magyar Atlétikai Club.{{sfn|Tennisz és Golf II/12, pp.215-217}} In 1944, he moved to Austria, where he continued his tennis career and married Zita Kremmel in 1950. On April 11, 1951, their daughter Charlotte was born. As of 1951 he lived and worked in France, where he was a devoted tennis player and coach for the rest of his life.
Balás died in Paris in 1971. The tennis club Galeb in Zrenjanin organizes a traditional tournament each year that bears his name.{{sfn|Šoškić|2012|pp=251-252}}
Footnotes
{{reflist|30em}}
Works cited
{{refbegin|40em}}
=Primary=
- {{cite book|url=http://www.tennispress.rs/knjiga.pdf|script-title=sr:Тениски савез Србије Тенис без граници 1922–2012.|year=2012|last1=Šoškić|first1=Čedomir|website=tennispress.rs|access-date=25 December 2013|language=Serbian|trans-title=Tennis Association of Serbia, Tennis without borders 1922-2012|pages=251–252|location=Belgrade, Serbia|publisher=Tennis Association of Serbia|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234517/http://www.tennispress.rs/knjiga.pdf|archive-date=30 December 2013|url-status=dead}}
=Secondary=
- {{cite journal|editor=Béla Kehrling|editor-link=Béla Von Kehrling|url=http://epa.oszk.hu/02100/02127/00027/pdf/EPA02127_tennis_es_golf_1930_2_012.pdf|issue=12|volume=II|page=215|journal=Tennisz és Golf|title=Külföldi hírek|trans-title=International news|date=28 June 1930|publisher=Bethlen Gábor írod. és Nyomdai Rt|location=Budapest, Hungary|language=Hungarian|access-date=19 July 2013|ref={{sfnRef|Tennisz és Golf II/12, pp.215-217}}}}
- {{cite journal|editor=Béla Kehrling|editor-link=Béla Von Kehrling|url=http://epa.oszk.hu/02100/02127/00041/pdf/EPA02127_tennis_es_golf_1931_3_005_6.pdf|issue=5–6|volume=III|pages=74–75|journal=Tennisz és Golf|title=Külföldi hírek|trans-title=International news|date=18 March 1931|publisher=Egyesült Kő-, Könyvnyomda, Könyv- és Lapkiadó Rt|location=Budapest, Hungary|language=Hungarian|access-date=11 November 2012|ref={{sfnRef|Tennisz és Golf III/5-6, pp.74-75}}}}
- {{cite journal|editor=Béla Kehrling|editor-link=Béla Von Kehrling|title=Párizsi Nemzetközi Bajnokságok|trans-title=French International Championships|url=http://epa.oszk.hu/02100/02127/00046/pdf/EPA02127_tennis_es_golf_1931_3_011_12.pdf|volume=III|issue=11–12|pages=201–202|journal=Tennisz és Golf|date=6 June 1931|publisher=Egyesült Kő-, Könyvnyomda. Könyv- és Lapkiadó Rt.|location=Budapest, Hungary|language=Hungarian|access-date=15 July 2013|ref={{sfnRef|Tennisz és Golf III/11–12, pp.201-202}}}}
- {{cite journal|editor=Béla Kehrling|editor-link=Béla Von Kehrling|url=http://epa.oszk.hu/02100/02127/00030/pdf/EPA02127_tennis_es_golf_1930_2_015.pdf|volume=II|issue=15|page=295|journal=Tennisz és Golf|date=22 August 1930|title=A Kolozsvári A. C. nemzetközi versenye|trans-title=The International Tournament of the AC Cluj-Napoca|publisher=Bethlen Gábor Irod. és Nyomdai RT|location=Budapest, Hungary|language=Hungarian|access-date=21 July 2013|ref={{sfnRef|Tennisz és Golf II/15, p.295}}}}Cluj-Napoca
{{refend}}
External links
- {{ITF profile}}
- {{Davis Cup player|800170106}}
- {{Olympedia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balas, Ivan}}
Category:Yugoslav male tennis players
Category:Hungarian male tennis players
Category:Sportspeople from Central Banat District
Category:French male tennis players
Category:Tennis players at the 1924 Summer Olympics
Category:Olympic tennis players for Yugoslavia
Category:Date of birth missing
Category:Date of death missing
Category:Hungarian emigrants to France