[Jakeev]

I came across an old tennis magazine of mine in which I guess when the World University Games where held in Bucharest, Romania in 1981, hometown girl Virginia Rucizi actually won the gold medal.

I'm kinda confused about that cause unlike Olympic tennis, The WUG is an amatuer event. The Tennis article even said it was but never elaborated how Rucizi got into the event.

So does anyone know how Virginia got into the games? I also don't think she is the first pro to win a WUG medal because a friend says that Japan's Rika Hiraki also won the event as a professional.

I'm asking you guys here because I can't seem to find any WUG archives for tennis.

Thanks for any info!!

 

[Jem]

As I recall, most of the Eastern Europeans (in the Soviet era) were always considered amatuers. I believe their prize money technically went to their Federations. I'm not sure if it was 1981 or not, but I believe Ruzici may have been forced to sit out the U.S. Open one year to play the World Games. It was a requirement of the Romanian Federation. The Soviets were banned completely after the 1977 season, save for Federation Cup. And I recall that Mima Jausovec was recalled to Yugoslavia to attend Tito's funeral one year, which caused her to miss a pretty big claycourt event, maybe the Italian Open in 77 or 78. I can't remember when Tito died.

 

[Jakeev]

As I recall, most of the Eastern Europeans (in the Soviet era) were always considered amatuers. I believe their prize money technically went to their Federations. I'm not sure if it was 1981 or not, but I believe Ruzici may have been forced to sit out the U.S. Open one year to play the World Games. It was a requirement of the Romanian Federation. The Soviets were banned completely after the 1977 season, save for Federation Cup. And I recall that Mima Jausovec was recalled to Yugoslavia to attend Tito's funeral one year, which caused her to miss a pretty big claycourt event, maybe the Italian Open in 77 or 78. I can't remember when Tito died.

Virginia did play the open in 1981.

And thanks for the info.

It didn't even occur to me that she had to play the event. But you would think Tennis magazine would have done its homework at that time before calling Virginia's win a "hollow" victory.

 

[Andy T]

On the broad subject of results from Eastern Europe in the cold war years, I would be really interested in seeing results from the European Amateur event which started in the late 60s and was still going strong in the early 80s plus the Czechoslovak, Hungarian and Russian (& any other) "Internationals" which were played during the same period. From what I understand, heavy pressure was placed on the leading eastern bloc players to compete in these events and as they accounted for a good chunk of the top 20 at the time, the fields may have been pretty strong. Among the possible entrants there could have been: Morozova, Chmyreva, Kroshina, Kodesova-Vopickova, Neumannova-Pinterova, Navratilova (till 75), Tomanova, Marsikova (Hana and Helena a bit later), Ruzici, Simionescu, Jausovec, plus Mamma Maleeva from Bulgaria.

 

[Jakeev]

On the broad subject of results from Eastern Europe in the cold war years, I would be really interested in seeing results from the European Amateur event which started in the late 60s and was still going strong in the early 80s plus the Czechoslovak, Hungarian and Russian (& any other) "Internationals" which were played during the same period. From what I understand, heavy pressure was placed on the leading eastern bloc players to compete in these events and as they accounted for a good chunk of the top 20 at the time, the fields may have been pretty strong. Among the possible entrants there could have been: Morozova, Chmyreva, Kroshina, Kodesova-Vopickova, Neumannova-Pinterova, Navratilova (till 75), Tomanova, Marsikova (Hana and Helena a bit later), Ruzici, Simionescu, Jausovec, plus Mamma Maleeva from Bulgaria.

Either way though, many pros from non-cold war countries have played the World University Games.

Kaoru Shibata and Rika Hiraka were the Champion and finalist in the mid-90s from one sight I found, (saw other pros in it too but can't remember names right now) and last year, Yoon Jeung Cho was a silver medalist to Eva Hrdinova's gold medal.

There were a lot of lower-ranked pro's that competed last year too like Stanlislava Hrozenska, Petra Russeger and Petra Omzen.

So I have to assume these "amatuer" events have lessened the rules about professionals playing.