The first tennis courts in Slovakia were built in the 1880s – in Grassalkovich (today’s President's) palace in Bratislava, and on Kúpeľný ostrov (Spa Island) in Piešťany. More tennis courts were built and tennis clubs founded (Bratislava, Banská Bystrica, Žilina, Piešťany, Trenčianske Teplice) after the formation of the First Czechoslovak Republic. In 1931, the No. 1 in the national list of tennis players was held by Ladislav Hecht from Žilina, who had played 36 Davis Cup matches by 1938. After the decline followed by the accession to power of the communists whose ideologists considered tennis a "gentry sport", tennis in Czechoslovakia...