Kuban Oblast
Mikhail Sumarokov-Elston was born in 1893 to Count Nicholai Felixovich Sumarokov-Elston reserve Lieutenant of the Cavalry Regiment and Countess Sofia Mikhaylovna Koskul. He was the great-great-great-great-grandson of poet Alexander Sumarokov and the great-great-grandson of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov. He was the nephew of tennis player Count Pavel Sumarokov-Elston, who was his first coach and doubles partner, grandson of Count-General Felix Sumarokov-Elston, Governor of Kuban Oblast, and cousin of the infamous Prince Felix Yussupov, who later became known as one of the collaborators who conspired to kill Grigori Rasputin, cult leader and mentor of Empress consort of Russia Alexandra. Felix provided his own palace for the murder spot and also shot Rasputin once before murdering him with the help of his accomplices. Mikhail had a sister Elena and a brother Nicholas. At the age of twelve he had surgery on his right hand, which as a result was rendered unsuitable for tennis and he later switched to left-hand play. First he moved to Dresden and was trained by Kurt Bergmann and George K. Logie. In 1906 he entered the second-class tournament of the Bad Homburg Championships, where he defeated Jack Hillyard amongst many to claim his first title. With this he set a record of being the youngest winner ever at the time in the history of the tournament. In 1908 his father and brother died within two weeks of each other. He moved back to his homeland and graduated first at the Annenschule then at the Law Faculty of the St. Petersburg University.