Hans The German
Hans the German, that’s what we call him out here at the Los Gigantes Tennis Centre.
Firstly, because his name is Hans, and secondly he comes from Germany.
Now this all sounds rather silly, but when he first came to Los Gigantes a few years ago, he was asked to play with the famous 9 0’clock tennis group organised by Dave Cressey.
Since that date, Dave has always asked me “when is Hans the German coming”, because myself being the owner of this famous web site, tend to get e-mails sent notifying me when certain folk are on their way to these sunny isles.
When I first met Hans,he for me was a typical well dressed German tennis player, predominately dressed in white “proper” tennis clothing, not like the average Brit who wears outfits brought from Millets or the local second hand shop! See Hans below – a properly dressed tennis person.
So one day, Hans asked me for a lesson/hit, and so after about 1 minute I could see he was a little bit good, despite his 81 years.
So,I decided to ask him about his tennis and what he has achieved in his life.
Now, I have in my many years as a tennis coach been told some tall stories when asking about their tennis..“I once played for my County”..“I used to hit with Bjorn Borg”…“I used to be a coach” etc etc – and after seeing them hit a ball for 2 minutes, you know its all rubbish.
So when Hans started to tell me about his tennis, I was amazed, and with my amazing skills in using Google found out it was all true.So I asked him to send me some details of his tennis life, and so here is the amazing story of Hans Walter Ovenhausen, born 20th December 1930,in his own words, some changed by myself.
Dear John,
You asked me to write some words about my life/sport of tennis, so I will start now with short words because the complete story would need books.
It began in 1947, in my town of Witten, at the end of the !st World War, when I would stand at the back of the local tennis club, and watch the American soldiers playing tennis.
One day they asked me if I wanted to have a hit, and I can tell you must first time I was terrible, but they could see I was interested so they allowed me to keep joining in.Then when they left they passed the tennis club over to the German people on the understanding that I was to be made a member.And that is how it started.So I started at the age of seventeen.
Now I will give you a rough list of my achievements:
1949 – I was selected to play in the clubs B-team.
1950: I was No 2 player in the A team.
1951: Regional Champion (upto 22 years) and WittenChampion
1952: Started playing in the A team where I played as No 1 for the next 25 years.A-
The because of my job and the fact I was now mariried and had 3 children (all boys) I did not play so much, but then started again in 1976 in Senior tennis
1977 I won the German Championships in doubles.
1978 My first game with the German National Team against Sweden and from this date I was in the German Veteran team until 2011 and in the last years I was asked to be captain.
My best rankings:
No.1Germany
No.1 European Master (ETA)
No. 9 World (ITF) Best Results:
Many times German Champion indoor/ outdoor in single and double. European – Champion singles and doubles indoor.
Runner up World- Championship with the Germann team and in the singles. With my female tennis partner the formally No 1 World Ranking Ilse Michael aslo from Germany, we won all title in Mixed Competition all around the World!
Some funny titles: Champion of the State Gujarat/ India and Thorun/ Poland. During my Job as a Start up Manager in the chemical industry my tennis racket has always been with me, all over the World.
So that’s it – not bad eh, and if you want to check out his current ITF details, click the tenniszoo link.
So a big THANKYOU to Hans the German, a real gentleman, and a great tennis player.
The photo below shows Hans receiving a present from his Witten tennis club for 60 years service.
