Giorgio de Stefani

Giorgio de Stefani (24 February 1904 – 22 October 1992) was an ambidextrous tennis player competing for Italy.

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 Kuhlmann-H.

Uthmoller in five sets.

It took him several years to repeat his first feat when in 1926 he won the tournament Parc des Eaux Vives in Geneva against Swiss champion Charles Aeschlimann.

He represented his country in the Italy Davis Cup team in 1927 and kept being drafted until the outbreak of World War II.

In the Cup he compiled a 44/22 (66%) winning record.

In 1929 he was a finalist at L.T.C. Beaulieu losing to Italian Uberto De Morpurgo in four sets.

At Cannes he beat Benny Berthet of France for his first riviera title.

He also won the Bordighera championships against Béla von Kehrling but the Hungarian took revenge in the doubles final.

In 1930 he faced and lost to Bill Tilden several times most notably in the Nice final.

and in the earlier rounds of the Italian Internationals.

They also met in the semifinals of the Italian doubles championships Tilden played with Coen, while Stefani chose Count Ludwig von Salm-Hoogstraeten but Tilden's team prevailed in the end.

In Cannes they faced each other two times in a row and Tilden prevailed both times for the Lawn Tennis Club Cannes and New Courts de Cannes titles At his third consecutive Cannes final de Stefani beat Hermann von Artens for the Carlton L. T. C title.

Next year he drafted into the inter-college tennis challenge of Villa d'Este in 1931 featuring the joint Harvard-Yale 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 of 22 he debuted in the Davis Cup as a reserve player.

In 1931 he became Libyan Champion by beating fellow countryman Alberto Del Bono in the Tripoli final and won the doubles title partnering with him.

They'd also won the Campionato Partenopeo doubles title.

In September he claimed his second Montreux trophy.

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.

In 1932 he reached the semifinals of the Pacific Southwest Tournament as the honorary member of the Italian Olympic team.

In doubles he and Ellsworth Vines fell to Gene Mako and Takeo Kubawara in the final.

The same year he won the doubles title at the Italian Internationals partnering Pat Hughes.

and also won the Cannes L.T.C. doubles title.

He was a contender for the Cannes singles title as well but the match against Ignacy Tłoczyński remained unplayed, although their follow up match for the cup of the Nizza L.T.C was finished with De Stefani victorious.

All these achievements earned him the second spot on the top Italian tennis players' list.

In 1933 he was a challenger for another Montreux title but finished second against Gottfried Von Cramm but did win the doubles trophy against the German duo Cramm-Lund.

The following years he clinched and defended successfully the upcoming Dutch Championships four consecutive times, first in 1933, then in 1934, 1935 and 1936.

In 1934, he was ranked the no. 6 amateur in the world by The Literary Digest and no. 9 by A Wallis Myers.

In 1934 he was the finalist for both singles and doubles at the Italian Internationals losing both times to Davis Cup teammate Giovanni Palmieri.

and he also reached the same result in the Monte Carlo Championships.

In 1935 he was crowned Argentine champion after clinching the International tournament in Buenos Aires.

In 1937 he was a runner-up for the Cairo International Championships only losing to Henner Henkel in straight sets.