The amateur years
West Germany · born Berlin, 1939 · left-handed · twice a Wimbledon quarter-finalist and Eastbourne champion 1969
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2
Wimbledon singles quarter-finals, 1963 and 1964
8
World ranking for 1964 by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph
1969
Eastbourne singles title, beating Manuel Orantes
32
Davis Cup appearances for West Germany
1970
Davis Cup final with Wilhelm Bungert
Kuhnke was born in Berlin on 13 April 1939 and in 1959 completed a bank apprenticeship in Hamburg. With Wilhelm Bungert he was the leading German player for more than fifteen years. He won the German doubles championship in 1959, 1962 and 1963, reached the Australian quarter-finals in 1961 and, with Bungert, the 1962 French doubles final, which they lost to Roy Emerson and Neale Fraser 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. He reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1963 and 1964, and Lance Tingay ranked him eighth in the world for 1964.
He played on into the open era. In 1969 he won at Eastbourne, beating Manuel Orantes 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 in the final, and in 1970 he won in Kingston, Jamaica. That year he and Bungert took West Germany to the Davis Cup final, which they lost 5-0 to the United States; it was the best German Davis Cup result to that date, and he received the Silver Laurel Leaf, the federal sports award. He retired in 1974, took a doctorate in law and practised as a lawyer in Munich.
| Wimbledon 1963 | Beat Jean-Claude Barclay, Mark Cox, Billy Knight 12-10, 6-3, 6-4 and Jan-Erik Lundqvist 6-4, 6-3, 6-2, then lost the quarter-final to Manuel Santana 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 1964 | Beat Bobby Wilson, Ken Carpenter and Abe Bey, then the French champion Manuel Santana 6-3, 7-5, 6-8, 6-4 in the fourth round; lost the quarter-final to Fred Stolle 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. Also a doubles quarter-finalist that year |
| Eastbourne 1969 | Beat Manuel Orantes 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 in the final |
| Eastbourne | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Men's singles†South of England Championships | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon 1964
Kuhnke had lost to Manuel Santana in the 1963 quarter-finals. A year later, with Santana the new French champion, Kuhnke beat him in four sets. The Guardian wrote that Kuhnke was the kind of opponent who "bored" Santana.
Source: Wikipedia, citing The Guardian, 29 June 1964Hamburg, 1959
In 1959 Kuhnke completed an apprenticeship at a bank in Hamburg. After tennis he took a doctorate in law and became a lawyer in Munich.
Source: German WikipediaMunich, 1990s
Known as "Kiki", he was called the most elegant German player since Gottfried von Cramm. In 1995 the Berlin club Rot-Weiss wanted him as chairman; weighing the risks of its building plans as a lawyer, he declined: "nein danke, das mache ich nicht mit" (no thanks, I won't go along with that).
Source: Der Tagesspiegel, 1998Davis Cup, 1970
Wilhelm Bungert was often called "the difficult one". Kuhnke, his partner through the 1970 Davis Cup run, said: "Ich kann mich nicht daran erinnern, daß ich jemals ein Problem mit Wilhelm hatte" (I can't recall ever having a problem with Wilhelm).
Source: Der Tagesspiegel, 1998Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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