Zdeněk Bárta was the son of Vojtěch Barta, who owned a glass factory in Bohemia. Zdeněk studied at the German Academy of Commerce in Praha, where he played tennis, golf, and competed as a rower and fencer. Fencing became his best sport and he competed for CSK Riegel. After he completed his studies he was sent to England and the United States to study glassworks and he inherited the family company after his father’s death. Unfortunately World War I severely affected the business which went bankrupt in 1919, but Bárta later settled in Libochovice where he ran another glass factory which was quite successful. He retired after World War II and built a tennis court in his hometown, where Ivan Lendl occasionally trained.
Bohemia