Anita Kanter

Medal record
Representing   United States
Maccabiah Games
Women's tennis
	1953 Israel	Women's Singles
	1953 Israel	Mixed Doubles
	1953 Israel	Women's Doubles

Anita Kanter (born 1933) is a former amateur tennis player from the U.S. who played in the 1950s. In singles, Kanter was ranked # 6 in the United States (and # 10 in the world by World Tennis magazine) in 1952, and # 9 in the US in 1953. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Kanter was born in Santa Monica, California, and is Jewish. ^{[4] [5]} She attended Santa Monica High School. ^[6]

Kanter won the 1949 US Girls National Hard Court Singles Championship. ^[3] She won the US girls tennis championship in 1951 as an 18-year-old sophomore at the University of California-Los Angeles, as well as the 1951 National Hard Court Doubles and Mixed Doubles championships. ^{[7] [3]}

In 1952, she won the U.S. Women's Clay Court Championships, and was the runner-up at the Foothills Cup. ^{[7] [3]} That year at the Cincinnati Masters, she won both the singles and doubles titles. ^[8]

In 1953 she won the US National hard court tennis championship, ^[5] successfully defended her doubles title, ^[3] and reached the singles final. She was seeded no. 1 in singles and doubles in both appearances in Cincinnati. In doubles in those two years, she paired with Joan Merciadis in 1952 and with Thelma Long of Australia in 1953. ^[9]

Kanter, who is Jewish, competed in Israel in the 1953 Maccabiah Games—the "Jewish Olympics". ^[10] At the Games, Kanter, ranked #9 in the US at the time, lost the women's singles title to Angela Buxton and ended up with the silver medal, ^{[11] [12] [13]} but won two gold medals, one as she won the mixed doubles title with Grant Golden and one as she won the women's double title with Toby Greenberg - beating Angela Buxton and Carol Levy of Britain in the final. ^{[7] [14] [3]}

In 2014, she was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. ^{[15] [3]}

• List of select Jewish tennis players

• Jews in Sports bio