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General First nameCyril
LastnameSuk Sr.
GenderMale
CountryCzechoslovakia
Date of birth1942-06-18
Place of birthPraha, Czechoslovakia
Date of death2025-03-25
Place of deathPraha, Czech Republic


About

Cyril Suk, senior, was the husband of Vera Sukova (née Puzejova), who in 1962 reached the women’s singles final at Wimbledon. They were the parents of two other tennis players, Helena Sukova and Cyril Suk, junior. The following article first appeared, in Czech, in 2008. It provides an overview of the life and careers of Cyril Suk (1942-2025.
https://www.sukova.org/old/cl.Suk-cas.tenis6.07.pdf

By Stanislav Burian

This is not the first time I have written about Cyril Suk (born 18 June 1942) and I always like to return to his life and roles in tennis. He entered the tennis public’s consciousness as a player, but above all as a tennis official. In civilian life, he is a leading expert in railway construction.

He started playing tennis at the age of ten, on the courts of Lokomotiva Prague. His parents were also members of that club. His father, also called Cyril, was a renowned designer at the State Institute of Transport Design and his mother, Karolina, was a professor of English and Russian. Cyril was not forced into tennis. The naturally ambitious boy was soon the best player in the club, and at sixteen he had no one to beat at Lokomotiva, so he transferred to Motorlet [aka the 1st Czech Lawn Tennis Club] in Stavnice.

Two years later, in 1960, he won the Pardubice Junior Championship in singles and doubles at his third attempt. With the Motorlet junior team, he also became the champion of Czechoslovakia that same year. In 1963, he transferred to RH Prague, and from there to nearby Sparta Tennis Club. He graduated from the Czech Technical University (Faculty of Railway Construction) and started his first and last job at the Prague Railway Authority. He continued to play for Sparta in the first and second leagues.

In 1968, he went to study and play tennis at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a year, he returned, completed his PhD thesis at the Czech Technical University while working and obtained a BSc degree. At that time, he was in the top ten of the men’s national rankings. “It wasn’t enough for a dizzying career as a world player. I know that,” says Cyril Suk. “I probably wouldn’t have been much better, even if I had trained as much as I could. Every athlete is limited by something, and my physical abilities didn’t allow me to do more.”

Coach

He didn’t coach for long, but it was an interesting period in his life. When he made room in the league team for younger and better players, he took over the management and coaching. It was his second job. The league team became the champion of the republic and included exceptional players such as Jan Kodes, Frantisek Pala, Ivan Jankovsky and Jan Pisecky. He also coached Martina Navratilova and Renata Tomanova for two years. He did not interfere much in his children’s upbringing. There was no need. They were in the best hands with their mother Vera. He ended his career as a coach and a second-class umpire.

An official

Cyril Suk began (and also ended) his admirable career as a tennis official at Sparta. After returning from the USA, he became a member of the committee in 1970, and three years later head of the Czech Tennis Association. Seven years later, in 1980, he became the chairman of the Czechoslovak Tennis Association. He was 38 years old and had no idea that he would remain in this position until 1990.

He worked in top tennis positions for a full 17 years. “As an official, I had the opportunity to demonstrate my organizational skills many times,” says Suk. “My baptism was the preparation of the exhibition involving Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac in the Sparta Hall on Korunovacni Street [in Prague], as well as the preparation of a match between Ken Rosewall and Jan Kodes.

“Later, as the chairman of the Czech and, subsequently, the federal body, I prepared and managed dozens of top tennis events over the course of 17 years. Among the biggest ones I would include the victorious Davis Cup tie in 1980 and the Federation Cup in 1986 – just for fun, 47 teams from all over the world played at Stvanice and the centre court was completely sold out for seven days. The unforgettable ones also include all the Davis Cup and Fed Cup matches played at home, the European Junior Championships in Prague and dozens of others.

“Back then, we organized everything ourselves, without agencies and claims to remuneration. On the organizing committees, I worked with many enthusiastic and modest people who never cheated me and never talked about money. Back then, it was an honour to do something good for our tennis and Czechoslovakia. I also had the same joy from the successes of our players.

“When I became chairman, we organized only 34 youth tournaments a year. In a few years there would be over 200. Among the successful events was the tennis competition at the last ‘Spartakiad’. We managed to attract young people from the countryside to tennis, we were looking for a new Kodes and Sukova.

“We built youth centres and top tennis centres, we nurtured dozens of world-class players and tennis became the first semi-professional and later professional sport in our country. I tried my best to help Slovakian tennis. We also helped Slovakian tennis players by increasing the number of players at federal championships. In this way, we helped them to make progress that bit faster.”

On May 12, 1990, Cyril Suk was replaced as federal president by Dr Jiri Lendl. His failure to be re-elected was ‘helped’ primarily by the Slovakian delegates. “…Of course I was disappointed,” he says. “When I left the meeting room, I suddenly realized how much responsibility I had freed myself from. I realized that, after the summer, I would have weekends for myself and my family and would be able to devote myself exclusively to my other profession. I never went there, even though working in two high positions at the same time was extremely demanding.

“The two positions were parallel to each other and intertwined, but thanks to my position in Czechoslovak tennis, I was able to solve many problems just by picking up the phone. After 1990, I returned to the position of president of Sparta Tennis Club for two more years. But I don’t like to remember this period anymore.

“I will never return to tennis in any form. After all, since the election conference in 1990, no one from the Czech Tennis Association has approached me, invited me anywhere, asked me for anything or offered me anything. I have been out of tennis for seventeen years and it would be stupid to return. Everything has changed so much that I probably wouldn’t even know how to do it anymore. When you are forty-five, you can dare to hold two top positions at the same time, but at sixty-five you can no longer ‘sit on two chairs’.”

Manager

Cyril Suk has been very successful. Just like his father, he has had only one employer his whole life, Czech Railways. After graduating in 1964, he joined the Prague Railway Authority, and although the company’s name has changed over time, he still works there today. As of this year, the construction section has been in operation for 45 years, and Cyril has been working there for 43 years, 23 of them as a manager.

His first construction project was the reconstruction of the upper Liben railway station, then the construction of the departure hall of the main railway station in Prague, and then dozens of others. The authority’s work involves the preparation and implementation of all railway construction projects from Děčín through Prague to Ceska Trebova. It provides administrative services for all railway investments in the ambit of the Prague Railway Authority.

“I have been a manager since 1979, with the exception of 1993 to 1998,” he says. “I have just swapped offices with the production deputy. Our largest current construction is what’s known as the ‘New Connection’. No one can miss this grandiose construction. You only have to look from Stvanice to the statue of Jan Zizka on Vitkov, and everything below it is the ‘New Connection’. This year alone, more than 10 billion koruna will pass through the hands of my 160 employees. I dare not estimate how much it has been over the past 45 years.

“I have known most of my colleagues for decades. They are as loyal to the company as I am and perhaps that is why I have stayed in the position for so long. I have perhaps one last great professional wish: to be at the opening of the first operation of the modernised Prague to Kladno rail line, with a link to Ruzyne Airport. It is a magnificent construction. After its completion, passengers will be able to reach the airport departure hall from Masaryk Station in 20 minutes.”

Grandfather

“Of course I am happy about my grandchildren. Cyril (IV) is an excellent golfer. At the age of 14 he played in the adult tournament in Karlovy Vary, in a club that is already 100 years old. The record for their famous course is 65 strokes and Cyril was only one stroke away from equalling this record. According to golf experts, this is a tremendous result.

“My grand-daughter Natalka [Natalie] plays tennis and is not without talent. I believe, and this is my second great wish, that one day she will continue the famous tennis dynasty of the Suks. I am probably not an ideal grandfather. When they were little, I did not have much time and now they have their own interests. Moreover, the whole family spends half a year in Prague and the other half in Florida. I admit that I have not been to their place in Bradenton yet. I do not like aeroplanes.”

Cyril Suk often mentioned the names of extraordinary personalities of Czech tennis during the interview. He has the greatest respect for Jan Kodes, our first Wimbledon winner, tennis enthusiast, organizer and official, who never left our republic and fought for the glory of Czech tennis at home. He is a tennis role model for many generations and his greatness will perhaps only be appreciated by history.

The birthday man wished me to mention the names of at least three ‘doctors’ – Tyra, Stula and Lendl, the creators of the Czechoslovak tennis legislation, and also the creators of the rankings and other tennis rules, led by M. Dvorak; the great methodologists Safarik and Höhm; and the members of the youth commission, Cefelin, Papousek and Udrzal.

Without them and many other enthusiasts, Czechoslovak and Czech tennis would not be the world phenomenon that it undoubtedly has been in recent years. The truth is that Cyril Suk also deserves a great deal of credit for tennis becoming an Olympic sport and being played essentially according to the rules that he presented to the chairman of the Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, in 1981 at Kramar’s Villa, the official residence of the prime minister, in Prague.

His son and daughter talk about their dad

Cyril

“Dad was and is a classic workaholic. He devoted his whole life to tennis and the railways. Whatever he did, he did it properly and he demanded the same from us. He didn’t have much time for his family, he relied on our mother. He kept telling us that if we wanted to achieve something in life, we had to work hard. He himself has achieved a lot in his life and should slowly think about resting. No one can take away his achievements. But I can’t imagine what he will do with his free time.

“It’s too late for him to read fairy tales to his grandchildren. Dad still lives in the belief that the railways will stop without him. They won’t stop, they will continue without him. He wants to be here with us as long as possible, but he has to do something for his health first and foremost. He misses exercise and a better quality of life. He will never return to tennis in any form. He has done so much for it that he will be disappointed in the end. And in any case, things are different now.”

Helena

“It’s hard to believe that my dad will be 65 this year. I remember when we played family doubles with my dad, mom, and brother Cyra [Cyril] at Sparta. Or how I fought battles with my dad in singles. I remember very well how he could outsmart me during them. He always made sure that schoolwork came first, before tennis. Maybe that’s why ‘white sports’ became mainly a hobby, a type of entertainment, and not an obligatory chore for us. It certainly wasn’t easy for him after my mom died. I still think to myself that everything could have been different if only… But that’s just philosophizing, reality isn’t like that.
“Dad has always reminded me that he was first the chairman of the tennis association and then the father of the player Sukova. We used to argue about it. I know that he took it hard, how our tennis public treated him after the revolution. Most people seemed to have completely forgotten what he had done for our sport, how he had fought for it during the years of totalitarianism, when tennis was on the blacklist. Suddenly, those who had needed him up until then and were not embarrassed to call him late at night asking for advice or help, turned their backs on him.

“By the end, they had even quietly abolished the only position of our representative on the Olympic Commission of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which was in my father’s name, just so that Suk would not be in any position again. In the end, even his home tennis club, Sparta, where my father used to be the chairman, behaved the way it did.

“To this day, if you want to know something specific about the history or present, whether of Czech or Czechoslovak tennis, the only two ‘chroniclers’, as I call them, are my father and Jan Kodes. It is sad that the ‘Czech specialty’ is to get rid of capable and experienced experts who have done a lot for our country.

“Fortunately, my father’s other love – for the railways – has turned out differently. His qualities are still appreciated there. Dad still works as a manager and is highly respected even in the highest positions. His workload sometimes bothers his grandchildren, who do not see him very much, but they can be sure that he is very proud of Cyril and his success at golf, and Natalka [Natalie] and her initial success at tennis. I would like to take this opportunity to wish my father good health and more sporting activity in the years to come.”

Media


Archive statistics Career1958 - 1970
Tournament wins0
Matches19
Match wins5


Tournaments Czechoslovakian International Championships - 1970 Southwest Championships - 1969 Czechoslovakian Test Tournament - 1968 Czechoslovakian Test Tournament - 1967 Czechoslovakian Test Tournament - 1966 Czechoslovakian Nationals - 1966 Vienna International - 1966 Czechoslovakian International Championships - 1965 Czechoslovakian Nationals - 1965 Czechoslovakia National Indoors - 1965 Czechoslovakian International Championships - 1964 Czechoslovakian Nationals - 1964 Sochi - 1961 Czechoslovakian International Championships - 1959 Czechoslovakian International Championships - 1958