David Penberthy: Old tennis player’s challenge is an inspiration

In 30 years of journalism, not many stories have made me happier than the one I tell here, writes David Penberthy.

In my 30 years as a journo I cannot think of many stories that have made me happier than the one I am about to share here. One of the many great things about it is that it involves an idea that sounds totally crazy, but just might work.

Last week I had the honour of meeting a 98-year-old man by the name of Henry Young. He is a mad keen tennis player who still plays three or four times a week. Henry is a member of the Memorial Drive Tennis Club and plays almost every other day on those beautiful lawn courts behind the Adelaide Oval.

On the other side of the world, hailing from the war-ravaged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, is a bloke called Leonid Stanislavskyi. Leonid is also 98, and like Henry, a tennis nut. He plays a few times a week and has become quite famous for it, honoured last year by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest player. As a result of his fame, Leonid even played a friendly match again Rafael Nadal last October.

Rafael Nadal with Leonid Stanislavskyi, quite possibly the world’s oldest tennis player. A Ukrainian, Stanislavkyi has survived at home despite the Russian attack.

When news filtered through from Ukraine to Adelaide last year about Leonid’s Guinness honour, Henry’s mates at the Memorial Drive club told him that he had wrongly pipped for the world title. This is because Henry was born on September 26, 1923, while Leonid was born on March 22, 1924, making Henry a full six months older than the man recognised as the world’s oldest tennis player.

But Henry says that he has no intention of depriving Leonid of an honour he received without the knowledge that, half a world away, there was another tennis-loving chap in a small city called Adelaide who was slightly older than him.

Henry says that conviction has become even stronger in light of the brutal actions of Russia against the sovereign state of Ukraine, especially when he reflects on the manner in which Leonid responded to that brutality.

Henry Young, 98, plays at Adelaide’s Memorial drive grass courts. Mr Young was going to nominate for world's oldest tennis player in the Guinness Book of Records, but he doesn't want to pip the current titleholder who is also 98, Ukrainian Leonid Stanislavski. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

When the bombing started in Ukraine six weeks ago, with the eastern city of Kharkiv being one of the key targets for Russian attacks, Leonid made it clear he had no intention of leaving.

He did an interview with Reuters where he said he would never surrender to Russia and that he had to survive the war to achieve his two remaining goals in life – living to 100, and playing against Roger Federer.

“I have to survive this frightening situation,” Leonid said. “But I have supplies. The fridge is full. I’m sitting at home, not going anywhere. Last night there were bombings, in the morning there were air-raid sirens again. But I decided to stay here. I have bad hearing so I sleep at night and don’t hear anything.”

In the past three weeks, Leonid’s Poland-based daughter Tanya finally talked her father into leaving, especially as he started to run out of friends and neighbours in Kharkiv as the bombing intensified. He has now made it to the Polish city of Lublin where the first thing he did on arrival was join the Lublin Tennis Club, where he was presented with a 98th birthday cake on the court by his new friends at the club last month.

Meanwhile, back in Adelaide, Henry Young got to thinking.

He has now recorded a video message which has been sent to the Ukrainian Embassy in Canberra in which he challenges Leonid to a match on neutral territory overseas, which he is billing as “The Clash of the Centenarians”.

The deal is that if Leonid wins the match, he keeps his Guinness title, but if Henry wins, they will be a co-entry in Guinness’ world records as the world’s oldest tennis doubles combination.

Henry told me last week that he had been so moved by Leonid’s stoicism and so appalled by Russia’s violence that we wanted to use the match as a fundraiser for Ukrainian victims of the war and to promote to cause of peace.

“If I could speak to Leonid I would first say how appalled I am that his country, and his people, should be subjected to such tyranny and, if there is anything within my power to help, it would give me much pleasure.

“When all this is over it would give me much pleasure to play a competition match with you. You are a hero, I am not, but we are both role models, and we should both do all we can to inspire those who follow us.”

Henry is too modest to say he’s a hero, but he is, of course. This is a genuinely heroic idea, and it’s a testament to the character of people of this generation. It is worth noting that both these men grew up in the aftermath of the Great War and had a front row seat for World War II, and also that both have a military background. Leonid was an army engineer in what was known then as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Henry was a naval pilot flying bombers and combat planes before becoming a soldier-settler farmer in western Victoria.

Since the Clash of the Centenarians idea was first floated publicly a few days ago, there are moves afoot for it to be staged as a curtain-raiser for an ATP tournament.

Leonid is about to fly from Poland to Miami to play at a masters tournament there, but it is unclear whether he has yet seen Henry’s video challenge, which was only posted online last week. A subtitled Ukrainian version is now being made, and will be forwarded to Leonid in Poland.

At a time when the world is desperate for good news stories, and the horror of Ukraine grows worse by the day, the story of these two old blokes is genuinely inspirational. And at a time when tennis is so often marred by boorish behaviour by the young and self-centred, a lesson in gentlemanly conduct from the aged and selfless could also be the tonic the game needs.