Ladislav Žemla

Ladislav Žemla played in five Olympic tennis tournaments (1906, 1908, 1912, 1920, 1924), and was the first tennis player to do so. In fact, Žemla held the record for most appearances in tennis until Arantxa Sánchez Vicario played her fifth Olympics in 2004, and the record was not broken until Leander Paes played in his sixth Olympic tournament at London in 2012. For more than a century it was believed that Václav Vohralík was the nation’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony of the 1920 Antwerpen Games, but following research by the Czech Olympic Committee in 2021, it was discovered that the Žemla had this honour.

Žemla was twice a winner of the Budapest Championship, in 1906 and 1909. He also won the 1921 Hainz Memorial. In the 1900s he played at the Austrian International, and the Praha Invitational, making the semis in Austria in 1905. Žemla played once at Wimbledon, in 1926, losing in the third round of singles, the third round of doubles, and the second round of mixed. He also played at the 1922-23 World Hard Court Championships, losing in the third round in 1923.