Kirmire, Carlus

Carlus Kirmire began to play tennis at the age of four. At age 11, he first participated in the Brazilian junior championship (under the age of 12), where he reached the final. At the age of 17, he went to the USA, where he studied and played tennis for four years for teams from Modesto College and the University of California at San Jose ^[1] .

Since 1971, Kirmire has been a member of the Brazil national team in the Davis Cup , for which he spent 28 matches until 1986 , having won 34 victories (17 in doubles) with 22 defeats (15 in singles and 7 in doubles). On an individual level, he attracted attention in 1975 , defeating Alexander Metreveli at the French Open - at that time the 22nd racket of the world. The following year, Kirmayr achieved his first major success in professional tennis, winning three Grand Prix tournaments in a doubles season and reaching the tournament finals in Santiago (Chile) in singles.

The next two years passed for Kirmire without any particular achievements, in the ranking he balanced on the verge of the first hundred of the strongest players, gaining a foothold in it by the end of 1978 ^[2] . In 1979, Kirmire entered the final of the Grand Prix tournaments four times and won two of them, defeating compatriot Cassiu Motta to such strong couples as Peter McNamara - Paul McNami and Heinz Günthardt - Bob Hewitt . In singles, he reached the finals in the Grand Prix tournament in Cairo , and later won the representative Challenger in Zell am See , where he was seeded third. He ended the year on the outskirts of the Top 50 world ranking.

In 1980, on the way to the semi-finals of the Austrian Open Championship, Kirmayr defeated the former first racket of the world Ilie Nastase , and in Bogota he reached the third single in his career Grand Prix finals in singles. In pairs, he reached the final three times, winning in Bogota, and in the semi-finals in Santiago, defeating the first seeded Hans Guildemeister and the future first racket of the world, Andres Gomez, with Juan Suaris .

Kirmire showed his best singles results in the first half of 1981 . As part of the Challenger in Sao Paulo, he beat Eddie Dibbs and Elijah Nastase, one of the ten strongest players in the world. Then, in May, he reached the finals of a major WCT tournament in New York , defeating John McEnroe in the second round, two months later becoming the Wimbledon champion. Finally, at the French Open, he entered the fourth round, showing his best result in Grand Slam singles. After reaching the third round at Wimbledon and the semifinal of the Grand Prix tournament in Gstaad, he reached the 36th line in the ranking by August - the highest in his solo career ^[2] .

In 1982, Kirmire last reached the final of the Grand Prix tournament in singles. This happened in Guaruja (Brazil) at the beginning of the season, and at the end of it he reached the semi-finals three times in a row at the Grand Prix tournaments in other Brazilian cities, ending the season in 52nd place in the ranking. In doubles, he, like six years before, three times celebrated his victory in Grand Prix tournaments, but this time three lost finals were added to three titles. Among the defeated couples were Czechs Pavel Sklad and Tomasz Schmid , finalists of the WCT Final tournament Victor Amaya and Hank Pfister , as well as Ilie Nastase and Argentinean Jose Luis Clerk . By the end of the year, Kirmayr rose to 26th place among the players in the doubles category ^[2] . The following year, he developed success: although he managed to win only one tournament in the spring, at the French Open, he reached the quarter finals with Cassiu Motta, and then reached the final of two major tournaments in Indianapolis and Cincinnati . In October, he rose in the ranking of doubles players to sixth place. In January of the following year, he and Motta took part in the Masters tournament - the final competition of the year, where the six best couples of the world gathered - but lost in the first round.

In the future, Kirmaira’s career declined. In 1985, for the last time in his career, he reached the final of the Grand Prix tournament - in September 1985 in Geneva , already taking the place in the ranking in the middle of the third hundred. Reaching the finals after defeating Motta over two of the strongest pairs in the world (first over Folded and Schmid, and then over Heinz Günthardt and Balazs Tarotsi ) allowed him to make a breakthrough in the top hundred. There he managed to stay throughout the next season, winning four “Challengers” in Brazil over the year with Motta and reaching the third round at the US Open . For a similar result in singles he had only one won “challenge” and two defeats in the finals. In 1987, Kirmire sharply reduced activity, although he continued to participate in a limited number of minor professional tournaments until 1989 , ending his career in December with a defeat in the first round of the Challenger in his native São Paulo.

Singles (5)

Lost (5)

Doubles (24)

Victories (10)

Lost (14)

After completing his appearances in professional tournaments, Kirmire took up coaching and administrative work. He was the captain of the Brazil national team (4 years) and the UK national team (in 1986) in the Davis Cup. Among his students were Gabriela Sabatini , who won with him the 1990 US Open ; one of the best duets in the history of women's tennis - Arancha Sanchez and Conchita Martinez ; Cedric Piolin , Cassiu Motta and Nicolas Pereira . Kirmire heads the training and sports center in Serra Negra , on the courts of which 12 thousand people play a year. He also heads the first tennis clinic in Brazil, which he opened back in 1976, and leads a tennis column in Lance magazine ^[1] .

In addition to coaching, Carlus Kirmayr does not stop playing tennis. He continues to perform in veteran tournaments.

• Biography (inaccessible link) on the website of the Training Center Carlos Kirmaira (port.)
• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on the Davis Cup website