Roderich Ferdinand Ottomar Menzel (German pronunciation: [ˈrɒdərɪk ˈmɛnʦəl]; 13 April 1907 – 17 October 1987) was a Czech-German amateur tennis player and, after his active career, a writer.

During his studies at a business high school he started playing football as a goalkeeper for RSK Reichenberg – at the age of 16 (1923) he joined the senior team.

Shortly before he had to cope with a large family tragedy, when his father died of a heart attack due to complicated double pneumonia.

Among his memorable Davis Cup performances belongs a couple of five set battles against Gottfried Von Cramm, his great rival at the time.

In 1931, he won one of the most prestigious tournaments at the time, the German Open Tennis Championships, over Gustav Jaenecke and Monte-Carlo Masters just one year later, over George Rogers.

Only few weeks later he achieved his big first Grand Slam result when he made it to the French Championships semifinals, where he lost to Giorgio de Stefani.

But at the same place he teamed up with Kay Stammers to be the Mixed Doubles runner-up, losing in the finals to Sarah Palfrey / Enrique Maier.

A major achievement was reaching the final at the Pacific Southwest Tournament in Los Angeles same year, where he was beaten by Don Budge.

After Menzel won the first game of the fifth set and von Cramm continued to suffer, he received a strange offer at his home bench while changing sides.

In September 1938, on the basis of the Munich Agreement, it was decided that Czechoslovakia had to lose a part of its territory (Sudetenland) to Nazi Germany.

After the outbreak of World War II, Menzel started working as a journalist in a foreign broadcast of Großdeutscher Rundfunk.

After the war, Menzel tried to build on his pre-war tennis achievements, but with the exception of a few victories in tournaments of only regional significance, his career came to an end.

Roderich Menzel had at that time an unusually tall physique (6 ft 3in), which directly predetermined him to a serve and volley style of play.

It certainly had something to do with a conflict that happened during one doubles match, when the audience didn't want to allow the players to leave the court, even though it was becoming dark; "Play on – we paid" they shouted.

In the summer of 1935 Menzel came to India – Kolkata, Mumbai, elephants ride, expedition into the jungle, meeting with the Maharajah of Mysore.

Before World War II, Menzel mostly contributed to Prager Tagblatt, where his colleagues were such names as Egon Erwin Kisch or Max Brod.

In his new home, Bavarian Landshut, Menzel wrote books not only about his most favourite sports (tennis and football), but he also began to wonder about the other genres.

Menzel met there his future wife, illustrator Johanna Sengler, who gave him an idea to start writing books for children.

Since the early 60's he published (some under the pseudonym Clemens Parma) number of books for the youngest readers – fairy tales, poems and legends, often from his native land.