It was a searing day in June 1954, when a cool and collected man in dark sunglasses triumphed in tennis. The London crowd could not stop celebrating the new champion of Wimbledon. To the Western world, he was a beacon of democratic liberalism; to the East, he was an evil Communist exile. On paper, he was an Egyptian national – to this day, the only Egyptian to ever champion Wimbledon. His name was Jaroslav Drobný. He was the furthest thing from being Egyptian, yet only found glory through his Egyptian naturalization. Born as a Czechoslovakian in Prague in 1921, Drobný was a child of many athletic talents. Besides making his Wimbledon debut at the tender age of 16 in 1938, he was also a cornerstone of Czechoslovakia’s national ice hockey team. Despite his smooth talents, his youth was not as smooth. The German invasion of Czechoslovakia introduced the sport prodigy to the horrors of war. Drobný spent World War Two working at a factory in Prague, witnessing torture and segregation in his community. By the end of the war in 1945, Drobný saw a return to both tennis and ice…
Jaroslav Drobný: The Exile Who Triumphed in Tennis Through Egypt
April 14, 2022
