50th anniversary of Alberta Estonian tennis champion Gert Lukk

Helgi Leesment

The summer of 2008 marks 50 years since Estonian Gert (Gerhard) Lukk earned the 1958 title of Alberta men’s singles tennis champion. This is likely the highest level achieved by any Estonian tennis player in Canada. He was also the Alberta provincial men’s doubles champion four times: in 1958, 1960, 1962 and 1963, with different partners.

Gert’s tennis career began in Estonia when his parents gave him a tennis racquet for his tenth birthday. It was a tradition in the Lukk family that all the children receive a tennis racquet on their tenth birthday. Pre-teen Gert’s great admiration for the famous Kristjan Lasn, eight-time tennis champion of Estonia in 1939, motivated him to pursue tennis seriously even at a young age.

The dangers and disruptions of WWII propelled Gert to Germany, then briefly to England before immigrating to Canada in 1948. Despite hardships, he enrolled in the engineering physics program at the University of Toronto where he was able to play tennis again after a gap of seven years. There, in singles matches he played against Calgarian Ken Lawson, and in doubles matches played with him as partner. Gert took the intercollegiate men’s singles in 1951 and 1953. In 1952 Ken Lawson earned that title. Also in 1953 the two became the intercollegiate doubles champions. As fate would have it, eventually both worked in Calgary where that same tennis rivalry/partnership continued for many years.

Beyond university, Gert captured the South Western Ontario singles and doubles titles in 1951. Gert Lukk and Ken Lawson defeated the Canadian Davis Cup doubles pair of Jim Macken and Jerry La Fortune to win the 1962 Alberta provincial men’s doubles championship. Nevertheless, Gert counts the win over his brother George in the 1951 South Western Ontario final as one of the highlights of his tennis career; and he was pleased to win the doubles title with brother George.

Gert’s early career as a geophysicist/seismologist at various oil fields prevented him from wielding the racquet on a regular basis for several years. However, upon settling into Calgary, he became a long term Calgary city champion, winning first place five years in a row 1959 to1964. He and his wife Greta won many local mixed doubles tournaments in addition to his victories in men’s doubles. They were members of both the Calgary Tennis Club and Glencoe Club tennis teams.

In the mid 1960’s the couple moved to Australia, partly to benefit from the longer tennis season afforded by the favourable climate there as Calgary had no indoor tennis facilities at that time.

Naturally, tennis match wins continued as a major part of the couple’s lives in the Southern Hemisphere. Retiring after a long geophysics/seismologist career in Australia, Gert and Greta Lukk now reside in Calgary.