1951 — Eric Sturgess, who had rallied from 1-4 down in the final fifth set to win his semifinal against Australian Ken McGregor, goes down to his Czech-born doubles partner Jaroslav Drobny of Egypt 3-6 3-6 3-6 in the final of the French championships in Paris. Drobny, who won an Olympic ice hockey silver playing for Czechoslovakia in 1948, retained the French championship the following year and went on to win a Wimbledon title, the only man with African citizenship to do so. For Sturgess, 31 at the time, it was his last singles final in a grand slam, having lost in Paris in 1947 and at the US Open in 1948. Sturgess, an accountant, was a Spitfire pilot in World War 2 and was captured after bailing out during a sortie. He spent the last seven months of the war in the Stalag Luft III camp made famous by the Steve McQueen movie The Great Escape...