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ITFWORLD WINTER 2017 39 www.itftennis.com Alan Little, Honorary Librarian at the All England Club, Wimbledon, passed away in October at the age of 89. Little held the position of Honorary Librarian for 40 years, having been asked by the club to start the library in 1967. The Library opened as the Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library in 1977 Former Top 10 player and two-time Davis Cup by BNP Paribas champion Radek Stepanek, 39, has announced his retirement from tennis. Stepanek reached a career-high ranking of No. 8 in singles in 2006 and No. 4 in doubles in 2012. He was twice a Grand Slam doubles champion, at the US and Australian Opens, and reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in singles in 2006, but his biggest triumphs came when competing for his country. Stepanek won decisive live fifth rubbers WINTER 2017 NEWS ROUND-UP STEPANEK BOWS OUT GRIFFIOEN RETIRES OBITUARY: ALAN LITTLE Paralympic champion Jiske Griffioen announced her retirement from wheelchair tennis in October. The Dutch 31-year-old won gold medals in both singles and doubles at Rio 2016 to take her total Paralympic medal haul to five, having competed in wheelchair tennis at four Games and before that in wheelchair basketball as a teenager at Sydney 2000. "I knew that the Paralympics in Rio were going to be my last. I dedicated a lot of years to the sport. I still love tennis for sure. But I also want a career after tennis in sport and media. So at a point I had to quit," Griffioen said. She won 59 singles and 106 doubles titles on the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, including four Grand Slam singles titles and eight major doubles titles. Griffioen spent 106 weeks at No. 1 in the women's wheelchair rankings, and was ITF World Champion in 2015 and 2016. She was part of 11 BNP Paribas World Team Cup-winning teams representing Netherlands. OBITUARY: PANCHO SEGURA Tennis legend Pancho Segura died in November at the age of 96. Segura played throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s, initially as an amateur before joining the emerging professional circuit in 1948. He held both Ecuadorian and American nationality. Prior to turning professional, Segura reached four Grand Slam finals: in men's doubles at the 1944 US Championships and at 1946 Roland Garros, and in mixed doubles at the US Championships in 1943 and 1947. As a pro, he won four titles at the professional majors — the highest honours on the circuit at that time — and also reached the No. 1 ranking. His short stature (he was 1.68 metres tall) was no barrier to his Jana Novotna, Grand Slam champion, Olympic medallist and member of the victorious 1988 Czechoslovakian Fed Cup team, passed away at the age of 49 in November due to cancer. Novotna played Fed Cup for her nation — firstly Czechoslovakia and then Czech Republic — for 11 years, winning 33 of her 45 matches in the competition. In 1988 she was part of the Czechoslovakian team which defeated USSR 2-1 in the final in Melbourne. A world No. 1 in doubles, Novotna won 12 Grand Slam women's doubles titles and four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She also won two Olympic silver medals in women's doubles — at Seoul in 1988 and Atlanta in 1996, where she also won a bronze medal in women's singles. At Wimbledon, after losing an emotional final to Steffi Graf in 1993 and falling again to Martina Hingis in 1997, she finally claimed her first and only Grand Slam singles crown in 1998, defeating Nathalie Tauziat in the final. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 2 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. "I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jana Novotna. Jana was an inspirational person, a wonderful tennis player and a superb champion, both on and off the court," said ITF President David Haggerty. "She was a true Fed Cup great, honoured with the Fed Cup Award of Excellence at the 2012 final." See also Photo Feature on page 15. OBITUARY: JANA NOVOTNA alongside a new museum. During the 1980s, Little attended the library twice a week, developing its collections and answering thousands of enquiries. He also wrote 35 books and created the Wimbledon Compendium, which he compiled for 27 years. Little first visited The Championships in 1946, and attended every year from 1948 to 2017. In recognition of his dedication to the library, Little was made an Honorary Member of the AELTC in 1985. achievements, and his unique two-handed forehand was a ferocious weapon. Following his playing career, Segura took up coaching and worked with Jimmy Connors during the early part of his career. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984. in the 2012 and 2013 Davis Cup finals — becoming the first man in history to achieve the feat in consecutive years — to hand the Czechs victories over Spain and Serbia and claim their first and second titles in the competition as an independent nation. He compiled a 35-18 record in singles and doubles from 26 Davis Cup ties played starting in 2003. Stepanek also won an Olympic bronze medal in mixed doubles at Rio 2016 alongside Lucie Hradecka.

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