Umberto DE MORPURGO

A real cosmopolite, Hubert De Morpurgo was born in Triest, which was part of Austria at the time. Although his mother was English, he had a Czech passport. He studied at Oxford, lived in Paris, but travelled the world playing tennis.

He was "recruited" to play for Italy by Giorgio De Stefani, who became an IOC member in 1951. Now styled Umberto, he became Italy's top player of the decade, powered by a formidable kick serve, and played in the country's Davis Cup squad until 1933, captaining it from 1922-1931. He reached the Wimbledon quarters in 1928 and the French semi-finals in 1930, losing to Henri Cochet. Morpugo won the Italian mixed doubles with Lili Álvarez in 1930, and reached the 1925 Wimbledon mixed doubles final with Liz Ryan.