Gail Falkenberg
Country (sports) United States
Born (1947-01-06) January 6, 1947
PlaysRight-handed
Singles
Highest rankingNo. 360 (Dec 7, 1987)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenQ2 (1988)
Doubles
Highest rankingNo. 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

  1. 1 2 3 Blevins, James (September 10, 2021). "Still Swinging at 74: Gail Falkenberg may be the oldest tournament tennis player of all time". Ocala Gazette.
  2. ↑ "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."
  3. ↑ White, Russ (November 26, 1991). "Falkenberg Will Coach UCF Women". Orlando Sentinel.
  4. ↑ Perrotta, Tom (April 11, 2016). "Meet the 69-Year-Old Tennis Pro Who Took on Taylor Townsend". Wall Street Journal.
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