Liesl Herbst

Liesl Herbst
Liesl Herbst, Tennis Champion of Austria 1930/31
Born	Liesl Westreich (1902-11-08)November 8, 1902 Jaegerndorf, Silesia
Died	February 25, 1990(1990-02-25) (aged 87) London, England
Nationality	Austrian
Occupation	Tennis player
Spouse(s)	Dezso (David) Herbst
Children	Dorrit (Dorli) Mills née Herbst

Liesl Herbst (born November 8, 1902, Jaegerndorf, Silesia; died February 25, 1990, London, England) was an Austrian championship tennis player.

Biography

Liesl Herbst (née Westreich) was born on November 8, 1902 in the town of Jaegerndorf (now called Krnov) in Silesia where her family owned the Gessler distillery. She lived in Villa Westreich with her parents and two older sisters. Her father Leo Westreich ran the company together with his brother-in-law Siegfried Gessler. During World War 2, her mother and one sister were killed at Theresienstadt/Terazin concentration camp. It is not know what happened to her eldest sister.

Career

Herbst became Tennis Champion of Austria in 1930 and the main part of her career spanned the years between 1929 and 1937, when she participated in more than 70 tournaments in Austria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, France, Switzerland, Germany, Greece and Egypt. She also represented Austria in many international tennis matches. She won at least 15 singles tournaments during her career.

Between 1930 and 1936, when she took prominent places in the national rankings, the Austrian Lawn Tennis Association didn't send any female representatives to Wimbledon or to the French Open Championships. Although she didn't compete in any Grand Slam tournaments at the time she lived in Austria, she played matches against several Grand Slam champions and international stars: Helen Jacobs of U.S., Simone Mathieu of France and Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling of Germany and Denmark. She won singles matches against former, current and future champions of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary and Italy. In the mixed doubles (when they were popular in the 1930s) she partnered almost every Austrian Davis Cup player of that era.

She didn't participate in any tournaments in 1938, because after the Anschluss, she and her 13-year-old daughter Dorrit Herbst (later to become a tennis player too) left to live in England where they were joined on March 29, 1939 by her husband Dezso (David) Herbst. She returned to competitive tennis in England in 1939, although there were no tournaments in the country until 1946 due to World War II.

She played at Wimbledon in 1939.^[1] As well as playing singles she also partnered her daughter Dorrit in the 1946 Wimbledon doubles tournament.^[2]

Retirement

She gave up tennis in her 60s and became a keen golfer, playing at Wentworth Club several times a week for the rest of her life. She was also a talented skier and ice skater - she only gave up skiing in her 70s when her favourite ski boots fell apart and she didn't like the idea of wearing modern boots! During her skiing days she went to many different resorts all over the Alps and competed in several amateur races, gaining the Swiss Gold Test in St Moritz in 1955. Her daughter Dorrit (Dorli) Mills pre-deceased her in 1978 and her husband David in 1987. She died in London on February 25, 1990.

References

2. "Biographies of Female Tennis Players:. Tennis Forum website.