Obituary: Judith Elian
Judith Elian, the long-time tennis reporter for French sports newspaper L’Equipe and the first female journalist to cover the sport internationally, has died at the age of 89.
Elian served as L’Equipe’s tennis correspondent from the 1960s until the 1990s, initially combining the role with work as a translator for the International Olympic Committee at the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games, and continued to follow the tennis circuit following her official retirement from the newspaper, notably reporting on behalf of the German press agency DPA.
Fluent in multiple languages including French, English, German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian, Elian was a popular figure with players and press colleagues alike. She was particularly close with Monica Seles and the Romanian greats Ilie Nastase, Ion Tiriac and Virginia Ruzici, having Hungarian-Romanian roots of her own.
During the course of her career, Elian forged emotional ties with the generation of Australian greats that included Tony Roche and John Newcombe, and later the family of Bjorn Borg. Paying tribute to her on Twitter, Martina Navratilova described her as “always a fair and fun writer.”
“But her personal favourite was probably Yannick Noah,” wrote compatriot and colleague Yannick Cochennec, the former deputy editor of Tennis Magazine who went on to report for L’Equipe.
“Until fairly recently, she continued to attend Wimbledon, Monte-Carlo and Rome, three of her preferred tournaments. She spent her life exploring the world not only because of her work but also because she loved embarking a ship for a cruise of several weeks.
“Judith was always welcoming to young journalists starting on the circuit,” Cochennec added on Twitter. “That was the case with me in 1988. Since then the conversation had never stopped. A real character as they say. Thank you to her for her energy and her passion.”
“’My darling, my darling, how are you darling!’ I will never forget the sound of her voice, nor her way of rolling her ‘r’,” wrote Isabelle Langé, senior reporter for RTL Sport in France. “Judith Elian, the woman who, in a heatwave in ’76, dared to do like her colleagues and work shirtless!”
American tennis writer Sandra Harwitt also paid tribute to her long-time colleague: “Judith was an inspiration as the first woman to cover tennis full-time and with her fluency in at least 6-7 languages was a true citizen of the world. Rest in peace my friend.”