Gail Falkenberg
| Country (sports) |  United States |
|---|---|
| Born | January 6, 1947 |
| Plays | Right-handed |
| Prize money | US$ 10,830 |
| Singles | |
| Career record | {{#property:P564}} |
| Highest ranking | No. 360 (Dec 7, 1987) |
| Grand Slam singles results | |
| Australian Open | Q2 (1988) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | {{#property:P555}} |
| Highest ranking | No. 430 (Feb 2, 1987) |
Gail Falkenberg (born January 6, 1947) is an American professional tennis player. Possibly the oldest tournament tennis player of all time, she has competed in ITF Women's World Tennis Tour tournaments as recently as 2023, aged 76.[1]
Raised in Westfield, New Jersey, Falkenberg attended University of California, Los Angeles in the 1960s, where she played on the basketball, tennis and volleyball varsity teams and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in filmmaking.[1][2]
After graduation she worked as a documentary filmmaker and didn't join the professional tour until she was 38 years of age. She made her Virginia Slims main draw debut at the 1986 Brazilian Open and featured in qualifying at the 1988 Australian Open. Retiring from full-time tennis in 1990, she achieved a career high singles world ranking of 360.[1]
During the 1990s she was the men's and women's tennis head coach at the University of Central Florida and even had a season in charge of the women's basketball team as an acting coach.[3]
Falkenberg has continued to compete on and off in ITF tournaments since the 1990s. In 2013, as a 66-year old, she came up against Naomi Osaka in the qualifying draw for the Rock Hill ITF event. Osaka, 50 years her junior, won 6–0, 6–0. She defeated 22-year-old Rosalyn Small 6–0, 6–1 in the first qualifying round in Alabama in 2016 then she also played against the world's number one junior Taylor Townsend, which received considerable media attention. Townsend conceded only 12 points to her 69-year old opponent.[4]
References
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- ^ "At 41, Woman Chases Dreams of Professional Tennis Circuit", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 24, 1988. Accessed January 31, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Gail Falkenberg, a former producer-director from Hollywood, might have the makings of a blockbuster hit for the 1990s.... Falkenberg was an only child growing up in Westfield, N.J. Her parents divorced when she was 8."
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Gail Falkenberg at the Women's Tennis AssociationLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Gail Falkenberg at the International Tennis FederationLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Gail Falkenberg at ESPN.comLua error in Module:EditAtWikidata at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- 1947 births
- Living people
- American female tennis players
- Filmmakers from California
- Sportspeople from Westfield, New Jersey
- UCLA Bruins women's basketball players
- UCLA Bruins women's tennis players
- UCF Knights women's tennis coaches
- UCF Knights women's basketball coaches
- American women's basketball coaches
- Tennis players from Union County, New Jersey
- Tennis coaches from New Jersey
- UCF Knights men's tennis coaches
- Basketball coaches from New Jersey
- Tennis coaches from California
- Basketball coaches from California
- 20th-century American sportswomen