Paul C. Kunkel was an American amateur tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 player in the early part of the 20th Century.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

, Kunkel played tennis at Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 in Washington D.C. and graduated in 1924.

At the tennis tournament in Cincinnati

Cincinnati Masters

The Cincinnati Open is an annual outdoor hardcourts tennis event held in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio, USA. The event started on September 18, 1899 and is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city., Between...

, Kunkel made six finals appearances between 1922 and 1927, winning the doubles title in 1927. Of the remaining five finals, two were in singles (1923 and 1924) and the other three were in doubles (1922, 1924 and 1926). He lost the 1923 singles final to Louis Kuhler

Louis Kuhler

Louis Edwin Kuhler, Jr. was a promising young American tennis player who was ranked as high as No. 26 in the United States before he died at age 22....

, and the 1924 final to future International Tennis Hall of Fame enshrinee George Lott

George Lott

George Martin Lott was an American tennis player and tennis coach who was born in Springfield, Illinois, United States. Lott is mostly remembered as being one of the greatest doubles players of all time. He won the U.S. title five times with three different partners: John Hennessey in 1928; John...

. To reach his doubles finals appearances, he paired with his brother Ray Kunkel in 1922 and 1926, and with future Hall of Famer Charles Garland in 1924.

Kunkel also won the West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

 state tennis title in 1930, was a semifinalist in both singles and doubles at the 1927 Western Championship. Kunkel was enshrined into the Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

Athletic Hall of Fame. He died in March, 1977.

Sources

• From Club Court to Center Court by Phillip S. Smith (2008 Edition; ISBN# 978-0-9712445-7-3)
• 1931 Wright & Ditson's Lawn Tennis Annual