Sali Nallbani
Sali Nallbani, born on May 5, 1915, in an old Tirana family, was the first Albanian tennis player.
In the early 1930s, Sali received his first tennis lessons from a French high school professor. In 1933, a Swede, the honorary consul of Albania in Stockholm, Franklin Gardlund, at his own expense, took a group of high school students to Stockholm, among whom, besides Sali Nallbani, were also Vedat Kokona, Sadik Kaceli, Xhemal Kallçiu, etc.
Here Sali played his first matches and his talent fell in the eyes of foreign specialists, inviting him to the official tournaments. Thus in 1934 in Stockholm, he reached the final of the student championship taking first place and winning the cup which is the first cup of any Albanian athlete in the international arena.
Afterward, he successfully par...