Giorgio de Stefani
Giorgio de Stefani was an ambidextrous tennis player competing for Italy. In 1934, he was ranked the no.amateur in the world by The Literary Digest and no.by A Wallis Myers. In 1932 he was the second best Italian player, and after the retirement of Umberto de Morpurgo he was the top Italian player from 1933 to 1936 and in 1938. He was active before World War II, winning 85 singles titles. Apart from being Italian champion, he was the Argentine, Dutch, Libyan and Swiss champion as well. After his tennis career he was elected to the International Olympic Committee and was also the head of the Italian and the International Tennis Federation on several occasions.
Giorgio de Stefani was born in Verona in 1904, son of a Minister of Government. He learned tennis from his mother on the courts of their family house at Lake Garda. He started his amateur career by competing in and winning the Montreux tournament in 1920 at the age of 15. During his student years he won the world university championships in Darmstadt where he defeated Fritz Kuhlmann without losing a set. Although he and Emanuelle Sertorio lost the doubles final to the German student team of KuhlmannH. Uthmoller in five sets. Next year he drafted into the intercollege tennis challenge of Villa dEste in 1931 featuring the joint HarvardYale team against the Italian student players where he won one singles match against Robert Ryan and lost one singles against Bill Breese and two doubles. The Americans defeated the Italians nine rubbers to five. At the age ofhe debuted in the Davis Cup as a reserve player.
Source: Wikipedia