Tennis history in Kharkov

Tennis in the first capital of Ukraine was born at the beginning of XX century when the representatives of "Fenix" club not only organized their competitions but also took part in unofficial matches with other clubs representatives.

Kharkivian Vasiliy Sheleketinskiy, the member of "Fenix" club, was the prize-winner of the Russian competitions.

In 20-30's the courts of the Pioneers Palace became the center of Kharkiv tennis: M. Glauberman founded strong enough collective of like-minded persons.

It was he who opened such names for the Ukrainian tennis as Tatyana Vaschinina and Nadezhda Bayrachnaya. The first became history as absolute champion of the first All-Union work Sports and athletics meeting of the peoples of USSR on gymnastics.

The same year she also became the champion of Ukraine on tennis. The second won the championship of Ukraine in singles three times

In the post-war years the center of tennis life moved to "Dynamo" courts where the talent of the famous coach M. Chernitskaya revealed.

It was she who brought N. Bayrachnaya to her best results, trained repeated champion of Ukraine, the member of the combined team of USSR, Valeriy Burko, one of the strongest tennis players of Ukraine Vitaliy Krytov.

But Kharkiv sportsmen achieved the greatest success when on the base of Kharkiv state university courts Children's and youthful sport school had been founded. Dmitriy Kostin and Eugeniya Burich became prize-winners of junior championships of USSR and were the members of the combined teams of the country many times.

But the greatest prosperity accounted for the end of 80's and the beginning of 90's. Dmitriy Polyakov won the championship of USSR (by the way, this last championship was held in Kharkiv), became a part of the world men's tennis elite having won the Grand-Prix tournament in Umag (Yugoslavia) with $300, 000 prize-money. Men's combined team of the region had been winning all titles of the Ukrainian tennis by winning the Sports and athletics meetings of the peoples of Ukraine, junior and youthful games, team championship of the republic and the trade-union competition of USSR during five years.

The foundation of the tennis club "Unicourt" in 1990 was the significant event in Kharkiv tennis world. The president of the club is Yuriy Poyarkov, twice Olympic champion on volleyball. The pupils of the club are: T. Perebeynos, E. Vasilyeva, Y. Petrenko, N. Smirnova, R. Dolzhenko, Rudenko. They stand for the colours of adult and junior combined teams on international arena with dignity.

International ties grow stronger. Tennis delegations from the UK, Belgium, Israel, Ireland, Yugoslavia and the USA became the guests of Khatkivians. Kharkiv is the center of tennis life of the eastern region of Ukraine without saying. Ten official tournaments included in the national and international calendar are held in our city.