Davis Cup Controversy Proves Not All Records Age Gracefully

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Gadonfin Yaka of Togo, who now lives in Maryland, competed at 60. His record fell to a 66-year-old who played briefly before retiring with an injury.

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Matt Roth for The New York Times

For years, two tennis players with little in common other than their love for the sport held records that seemed unlikely to be broken.

Kenny Banzer is a 30-year-old wealth planner from Liechtenstein, one of the world’s richest countries. Gadonfin Yaka, 75, is a maintenance man at a post office in Germantown, Md., who grew up in a thatched-roof dwelling in a remote village in Togo with no electricity or running water.

In 2000, Banzer was a seventh grader, five days past his 14th birthday, when he became the youngest player to compete in the Davis Cup.

A year later, Yaka played in the Davis Cup for Togo at 60, setting the record for the oldest Davis Cup participant.

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