ANT KATZ

Marlene Bethlehem, partnered by her daughter Lael, won their fifth consecutive ladies doubles club championships earlier this month at the prestigious Parkview Lawn Tennis Club. Marlene – who will be 75 in June – is presently chairman of the club.

Marlene is also a past president of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, still sits on the national SAJBD board and co-chairs their Country Communities portfolio.

RIGHT: CHAMPS BY A LONG SHOT – Mother and daughter pair Marlene and Lael Bethlehem are the unbeatable ladies doubles club champs. Lael will play in the ladies singles final this weekend

Says Marlene: “It is such a privilege and a pleasure to play with my daughter.”

Parkview Lawn Tennis Club is one of the oldest tennis clubs in Johannesburg. Eric Sturgess, one of the greatest male tennis players in SA tennis history, was a member and club champion several times during the forties and fifties.

Eric, who passed away in 2004, won eleven South African singles titles and was runner- up in major grand slams three times. In 1947 and 1951 he reached the men’s singles final in the French Championship and in 1948 he reached the finals of the United States open. He also won two Wimbledon mixed titles.

Flattered

When she was just 19, Eric Sturgess asked Marlene to partner him in the mixed doubles at the South African Open. It was “a memory to cherish”, Marlene  told Jewish Report this week.

The number one court at Parkview is named after Sturgess and it was on this court that Marlene and Lael won their fifth consecutive ladies doubles club championships earlier this month. 

It is also the court on which Lael will try to take the club’s singles title in the final to be played next weekend.

And, as if she wasn’t busy enough, serial-communal worker Marlene is also president of the Jewish Women’s Benevolent.