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One of my favorite memories from childhood. My father was always a really good tennis player. Not professional level, but he held his own against some tough opponents, her were not far off that level. It is something that he might have been able to do if he pursued it.
However, his passion was always for agricultural science... that is why we lived in Bangladesh for 14 years and why he lived in Asia for pretty much all of his working life. Anyway, back to this memory.
Sometime in the middle of the Cold War there was an expat tennis tournament in Dhaka. The Americans refused to play with the Russians, so the tournament was structured in such a way that they never had to meet.
My dad, being my dad, joined the International Club team rather than Australian team... because he couldn't stand the diplomats. He played his way into the Men's singles, Men's doubles and Mixed doubles finals . . . the games were all to be held at the USSR Embassy.
This was well before Glasnost, there was no thawing of relations at that time. So... there was a bit of mystery and excitement about the whole experience. We went ... first he took the men's singles title.
Then he and his men's doubles partner, Ozaki Takashi, who is credited with two summits of Everest, including the first assent from the North Face, took out that final. Then he and Takashi's wife, Frederique, took out the mixed doubles.
Takashi died some years ago--on Everest. He was young, but had lived an amazing life. I keep in touch with a couple of his children.
