Béla von Kehrling (Hungarian: Kehrling Béla[ˈkeːrliŋɡ ˈbeːlɒ]; 25 January 1891 – 26 April 1937) was a Hungarian tennis, table tennis, and football player but eventually a winter sportsman familiar with ice-hockey and occasionally competing in bobsleigh.[8] He competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics and the 1924 Summer Olympics.[9][10]
Just like Fred Perry, he played both tennis and table tennis professionally. In 1926 he played in the first table tennis World Championships final in London with Zoltán Mechlovits in doubles but lost to Roland Jacobi (who won the singles title) and . He was also featured in the Hungarian team that won gold in team competition.[11] Originally he wasn't part of the national team. While the Hungarians unanimously swept all of the medals after Roland Jacobi's singles and doubles success he suddenly been reported of the death of his father thus he decided to travel home. The substitute player was Béla von Kehrling who had to beat Munio Pillinger of Austria to have the team medal as well. He did so and completed the flawless victory for Hungary.[8] In the end he took two medals in the table tennis world championships, one gold and one silver.
In 1924 he won the German Tennis Championships (now called German Open Hamburg). The following year he was back in the finals but then lost against Otto Froitzheim. The same year he won Hungarian Tennis Championships (which he did 13 times altogether counting only the singles). In July 1933 Von Kehrling won the doubles and mixed doubles title at the Dutch Championships.[12]
Züricher Sport newspaper ranked Kehrling as No. 10 in the European Top 10 rankings in 1931.[13]
In conjunction with his sports activity he was the vice-president of the [14] and the editor-in-chief of its official magazine the bimonthly Tennisz és Golf (Tennis and Golf).[2]
Béla Kehrling married Magda Schlauch. She occasionally played tennis as well and wrote articles to the newspaper published by her husband. They had one son named Béla Kehrling, Jr, born in 1917 in Budapest who served as an Ensign in the cavalry brigade of the Hungarian Army in 1944.[15] They had another son named Tamás who was born in 1924 and died in 1999.[16]
^Béla Kehrling, ed. (10 November 1929). "Tilden világranglistája"(PDF). Tennisz és Golf (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Bethlen Gábor irod. és Nyomdai RT. I (13): 309. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
^"Christiaan van Lennep". tennismuseum.nl (in Dutch). Hilversum, Netherlands: robertblom.nl marketing- en communicatie. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
^J. Funke, ed. (8 June 1914). "Lawntennis"(pdf). Het Nieuws Van den Dag (in Dutch). Amsterdam, Netherlands: C. Easton (13, 649): 13. Retrieved 24 October 2012.[permanent dead link]
^Béla Kehrling, ed. (1 October 1931). "Külföldi hírek" [International news] (PDF). Tennisz és Golf. III (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Egyesült Kő-, Könyvnyomda, Könyv- és Lapkiadó Rt. 18–19: 377. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
^Béla Kehrling, ed. (28 February 1931). "A hálójáték"(PDF). Tennisz és Golf. III (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Egyesült Kő-, Könyvnyomda. Könyv- és Lapkiadó Rt. 3–4: 5, 12–13, 20. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
^Hungarian Army (20 July 1944). "Személyes Ügyek" [Personal affairs]. Hungarian Armed Forces Bulletin. LXXI. (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Pallas Részvénytársaság Nyomdája. 1: 639. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
^Tomb of Béla Kehrling in Farkasréti Cemetery [7/5-1-30].
^"Szlovenszkó lawntennisz bajnokságai" [Slovakia's International Lawn Championships] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Huszadik század. September 1920. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
^"Kehrling győzelmei Meránban" [Kehrling's victories in Meran] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Huszadik század. October 1923. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
^"Kehrling újabb győzelme Göteborgban" [Kehrling newest victory in Göteborg] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Huszadik század. July 1923. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
^Dániel Sulyok (2009). "Magyarország – Ausztria 2 : 2, 1914.10.04" [Hungary – Austria 2 : 2, 1914.10.04] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Netkert Tech. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
^"Magyarország – Ausztria 2:1" [Hungary – Austria 2:1] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Huszadik század. November 1914. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
^"1915 Osztrák Magyar" [1915 Austria – Hungary] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: WordPress. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
^"Ausztria – Magyarország 3:1" [Austria – Hungary 3:1] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Huszadik század. May 1916. Retrieved 6 March 2011.
^"A magyar jéghockey-csapat győzelme" [Victory of the Hungarian Ice-hockey team] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Huszadik század. March 1915. Retrieved 6 March 2011.