Oscar Kreuzer
Oscar Kreuzer (German pronunciation: [ˈɔskaːɐ̯ ˈkʀɔɪ̯ʦɐ]; 14 June 1887 – 3 May 1968) was a male tennis and rugby player from Germany.
 | ||||||||||||||
| Country (sports) | Germany | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 14 June 1887 Frankfurt am Main, German Empire | |||||||||||||
| Died | 3 May 1968 (aged 80) Wiesbaden, West Germany | |||||||||||||
| Plays | Left-handed (one-handed backhand)[1] | |||||||||||||
| Singles | ||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam Singles results | ||||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | SF (1913) | |||||||||||||
| Other tournaments | ||||||||||||||
| WHCC | F (1912) | |||||||||||||
| Doubles | ||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam Doubles results | ||||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | 3R (1913) | |||||||||||||
| Other doubles tournaments | ||||||||||||||
| WHCC | W (1912) | |||||||||||||
| Olympic Games | 1R (1908) | |||||||||||||
| Mixed doubles | ||||||||||||||
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | ||||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | 2R (1913, 1927) | |||||||||||||
| Team competitions | ||||||||||||||
| Davis Cup | SF (1913, 1914) | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small}
.svg.png.webp){kind=icon}
Biography
Kreuzer was born at Frankfurt am Main on 14 June 1887.[1]
He played at the 1908 Summer Olympics and at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden where he won a bronze medal in the men's singles tournament.[2] In 1912, he also reached the final at the World Hard Court Championships at Paris which he lost to his compatriot Otto Froitzheim. At Wimbledon, he reached his best result in 1913 where he advanced to the semifinals before being stopped by Stanley Doust.
Besides tennis, Kreuzer also excelled at rugby. He won the German championships with his club SC 1880 Frankfurt in 1910, and played several caps for Germany.[1]
At the end of July 1914, he and Otto Froitzheim played the semifinal of the International Lawn Tennis Challenge at Pittsburgh against Australasia. When World War I broke out, the president of the local tennis club kept this from Froitzheim and Kreuzer as he didn't want to disrupt the match. The German team lost 0–5. On their way back to Germany, their Italian steamboat America was halted off Gibraltar by a British warship and they were placed in a prison in Gibraltar for several months before being sent to detention camps in England. While Kreuzer stayed at a camp near Leeds, officer Froitzheim was kept at Donnington Hall until the end of the war in 1918.[3][4][5]
In 1920 he won the International German Championships at the Rothenbaum club in Hamburg, defeating Louis Maria Heyden in the final in three straight sets.
After he retired from playing tennis tournaments, Kreuzer settled at Wiesbaden, near his friend Froitzheim. He died there on 3 May 1968.[1]
References
- Kaiser, Ulrich. "Der zweite Mann". In Deutscher Tennis Bund (ed.). Tennis in Deutschland. Von den Anfängen bis 2002 [Tennis in Germany. From the beginnings to 2002.] (in German). Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 78–79. ISBN 3-428-10846-9.
- "Oscar Kreuzer Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- "Friotzheim, Tennis Star, is Heard From". The Pittsburgh Press. 16 January 1916.
- "Tennis Men Interned" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 February 1915.
- Gillmeister, Heiner. "Kleine und große Geschichte – Davis Cup". In Deutscher Tennis Bund (ed.). Tennis in Deutschland. Von den Anfängen bis 2002 [Tennis in Germany. From the beginnings to 2002.] (in German). Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 53–54. ISBN 3-428-10846-9.
