Don Budge
Encyclopedia
John Donald Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American
tennis
champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional. He is most famous as the first player, male or female, and only American male to win in a single year the four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam of tennis and second male player to win all 4 Grand Slams in his career after Fred Perry
. He won 10 Majors including six Grand Slams
and four Pro Slams. Budge was considered to have the best backhand in the history of tennis, at least until the emergence of Ken Rosewall
in the 1950s and 1960s.
, Budge was the son of a Scottish
immigrant and former football player - his father had played several matches for the Rangers
reserve team
before emigrating to the United States. Growing up, he played a variety of sports before taking up tennis. He was tall and slim and his height would later help what is still considered one of the most powerful serves of all time. Budge studied at the University of California, Berkeley
in late 1933 but left to play tennis with the U.S. Davis Cup
auxiliary team.
Accustomed to hard-court surfaces in his native California, he had difficulty playing on the grass
surfaces in the east. However, a good instructor and hard work changed all that and in 1937 he swept Wimbledon, winning the singles, the men's doubles title with Gene Mako
, and the mixed doubles crown with Alice Marble
. He then went on to win the U. S. National singles and the mixed doubles with Sarah Palfrey Fabyan.
He gained the most fame for his match that year against Gottfried von Cramm
in the Davis Cup
inter-zone finals against Germany
. Trailing 1–4 in the final set, he came back to win 8–6. His victory allowed the United States
to advance and to then win the Davis Cup for the first time in 12 years. For his efforts, he was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year and he became the first tennis player to ever be voted the James E. Sullivan Award
as America's top amateur athlete.
In 1938 Budge dominated amateur tennis, defeating John Bromwich
in the Australian Open
final, Roderick Menzel in the French Open, Henry "Bunny" Austin at Wimbledon, where he never lost a set, and Gene Mako
in the U.S. Open, to become the first person ever to win the Grand Slam in tennis. He also is the youngest man in history to complete the career Grand Slam (the four majors in one's career). He completed that on the 11th of June, 1938 in winning the French Open, two days before his 23rd birthday.
and Fred Perry
, 22 matches to 17 and 28 matches to 8 (see Tennis male players statistics
). That year he also won two great pro tournaments, the French Pro Championship over Vines and the Wembley
Pro tournament over Hans Nüsslein
. There was no professional tour in 1940 but seven principal tournaments. Budge kept his world crown by winning 4 of these events including the greatest one, the United States Pro Championship. In 1941 Budge played another major tour beating the 48-year-old Bill Tilden
, the final outcome probably being 46–7 plus 1 tie. In 1942 Budge won both his last major tour over Bobby Riggs
, Frank Kovacs
, Perry and Les Stoefen and for a second time the U.S. Pro, crushing Riggs 6–2, 6–2, 6–2 in the final.
to serve in World War II
. At the beginning of 1943 in an obstacle course he tore a muscle in his shoulder. In his book 'A Tennis Memoir' page 144 he said:
This permanently hindered his playing abilities. During his wartime duty he played some exhibitions for the troops in particular during the summer 1945 with the war winding down, Budge played in a U.S Army (Budge-Frank Parker
) - U.S. Navy (Riggs - Wayne Sabin) competition under the Davis Cup format : the main confrontations were the Budge-Riggs meetings knowing that both Americans were the best players in the world in 1942 just before being enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces and again when they came back to the professional circuit in 1945. In the first match, on the island of Guam, Budge trounced Riggs 6–2 6–2. On the island of Peleliu Budge won again 6–4 7–5. Riggs won the next two matches against Budge 6–1 6–1 (island of Ulithi) and 6–3, 4–6, 6–1 (island of Saipan). Budge confided in Parker his disbelief at losing two matches in a row to Riggs. In the fifth and final match on the island of Tinian, scheduled for the first week of August 1945, Riggs defeated Budge 6–8 6–1 8–6. This was the first time Budge had been beaten by Riggs in a series (Riggs also won 3 matches out of 5 against the amateur Parker, both holder and future titlist of the U.S. amateur Nationals at Forest Hills) thereby giving Riggs an important psychological edge in their forthcoming peacetime tours.
where Riggs easily defeated Budge in the last round. Next year Riggs stayed the pro king by defeating again Budge in the U.S. Pro final in five sets. Riggs then established himself as the World No. 1 for those two years. According to Kramer,
According to Riggs, however, Budge still had a very powerful, very deadly overhead and that rather than winning outright very many points with his lobbing, he actually achieved two other goals: his constant lobbing led Budge to play somewhat deeper at the net than he would have otherwise, thereby making it easier for Riggs to hit passing shots for winners; and the constant lobbing helped to wear Budge down by forcing him to run back to the backline time after time. Budge reached two more U.S. Pro finals, losing in 1949 at Forest Hills to Riggs and in 1953 in Cleveland to Pancho Gonzales.
In 1954 Budge recorded his last significant victory in a North American tour with Pancho Gonzales
, Pancho Segura
, and Frank Sedgman
when, in Los Angeles, he defeated Gonzales, by then the best player in the world.
as well as a bar in Oakland. A gentleman on and off the court, he was much in demand for speaking engagements and endorsed various lines of sporting goods. With the advent of the Open era in tennis, in 1968 he returned to play at Wimbledon in the Veteran's doubles. In 1973, at the age of 58, he and former champion Frank Sedgman
teamed up to win the Veteran's doubles championship at Wimbledon before an appreciative crowd.
In December 1999, Budge was injured in an automobile accident from which he never fully recovered. He died on January 26, 2000 at a nursing home in Scranton, Pennsylvania
, aged 84.
Budge was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
at Newport, Rhode Island
in 1964. Don Budge received the honor of being mentioned in a musical. He is known as the tennis instructor in Annie
. His skill is referred to during the song "I think I'm gonna like it here."
.
Jack Kramer himself has written that Budge was, in the long run, the greatest player who ever lived although Ellsworth Vines
topped him when at the height of his game. Kramer said:
In his 1979 autobiography Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines
(at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden
, Fred Perry
, Bobby Riggs
, and Pancho Gonzales
. All of these sources were written after Rod Laver
completed his second, and Open, Grand Slam in 1969.
In early 1986 Inside Tennis
, a magazine edited in Northern California
, devoted parts of four issues to a lengthy article called "Tournament of the Century", an imaginary tournament to determine the greatest of all time. Twenty-five players in all were named by the 37 experts in their lists of the 10 best. The magazine then ranked them in descending order by total number of points assigned. The top eight players in overall points, with their number of first-place votes, were: Rod Laver
(9), John McEnroe
(3), Don Budge (4), Jack Kramer (5), Björn Borg
(6), Pancho Gonzales
(1), Bill Tilden
(6), and Lew Hoad
(1). McEnroe was still an active player and Laver and Borg had only recently retired. In the imaginary tournament Laver beat McEnroe in the finals in 5 sets.
More recently, an Associated Press
poll conducted in 1999 ranked Budge fifth, following Laver, Pete Sampras
, Tilden, and Borg. Even more recently, in 2006, a panel of former players and experts was asked by TennisWeek to assemble a draw for a fantasy tournament to determine who was the greatest of all time. The top eight seeds were Roger Federer
, Laver, Sampras, Borg, Tilden, Budge, Kramer, and McEnroe. In important polls, then, Budge has consistently been ranked in the top five or six. Perhaps only Tilden and Laver can boast such a high and long-standing critical assessment.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional. He is most famous as the first player, male or female, and only American male to win in a single year the four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam of tennis and second male player to win all 4 Grand Slams in his career after Fred Perry
Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...
. He won 10 Majors including six Grand Slams
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
and four Pro Slams. Budge was considered to have the best backhand in the history of tennis, at least until the emergence of Ken Rosewall
Ken Rosewall
Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...
in the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
Born in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, Budge was the son of a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
immigrant and former football player - his father had played several matches for the Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
reserve team
Reserve team
Large professional sports clubs often have far more players under contract than could possibly play in a match. As a result, many of these clubs create second teams composed of players who need playing time, but have little hope of playing on the first team. The players on this second team are...
before emigrating to the United States. Growing up, he played a variety of sports before taking up tennis. He was tall and slim and his height would later help what is still considered one of the most powerful serves of all time. Budge studied at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in late 1933 but left to play tennis with the U.S. Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
auxiliary team.
Accustomed to hard-court surfaces in his native California, he had difficulty playing on the grass
Grass court
A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court. Grass courts are made of rye grass in different compositions depending on the tournament...
surfaces in the east. However, a good instructor and hard work changed all that and in 1937 he swept Wimbledon, winning the singles, the men's doubles title with Gene Mako
Gene Mako
Constantine Mako is a former American tennis player and is also an art gallery owner. He was born in Budapest, capital of Hungary. He won four Grand Slam doubles titles in the 1930s...
, and the mixed doubles crown with Alice Marble
Alice Marble
Alice Marble was a World No. 1 American tennis player who won 18 Grand Slam championships : 5 in Singles, 6 in Women's Doubles, and 7 in Mixed Doubles.-Early life:Born in the small town of Beckwourth, Plumas County, California, Marble moved with her family at the age of...
. He then went on to win the U. S. National singles and the mixed doubles with Sarah Palfrey Fabyan.
He gained the most fame for his match that year against Gottfried von Cramm
Gottfried von Cramm
Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm was a German amateur tennis champion and twice French Open champion.-Birth:...
in the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
inter-zone finals against Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Trailing 1–4 in the final set, he came back to win 8–6. His victory allowed the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to advance and to then win the Davis Cup for the first time in 12 years. For his efforts, he was named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year and he became the first tennis player to ever be voted the James E. Sullivan Award
James E. Sullivan Award
The James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the American Amateur Athletic Union , is awarded annually in April to "the outstanding amateur athlete in the United States". Often referred to as the Oscar of sports awards, it was first presented in 1930. The award is named for the AAU's founder and past...
as America's top amateur athlete.
In 1938 Budge dominated amateur tennis, defeating John Bromwich
John Bromwich
John Edward Bromwich was a male tennis player from Australia who, along with his countryman Vivian McGrath, was one of the first great players to use a two-handed forehand....
in the Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
final, Roderick Menzel in the French Open, Henry "Bunny" Austin at Wimbledon, where he never lost a set, and Gene Mako
Gene Mako
Constantine Mako is a former American tennis player and is also an art gallery owner. He was born in Budapest, capital of Hungary. He won four Grand Slam doubles titles in the 1930s...
in the U.S. Open, to become the first person ever to win the Grand Slam in tennis. He also is the youngest man in history to complete the career Grand Slam (the four majors in one's career). He completed that on the 11th of June, 1938 in winning the French Open, two days before his 23rd birthday.
Professional career
Budge turned professional after winning the Grand Slam and thereafter played mostly head-to-head matches. In 1939 he beat the two reigning kings of professional tennis, Ellsworth VinesEllsworth Vines
Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 for four years in 1932, 1935, 1936 and 1937.-Biography:...
and Fred Perry
Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...
, 22 matches to 17 and 28 matches to 8 (see Tennis male players statistics
Tennis male players statistics
-Professional tennis before the start of the open era:Before the start of the open era in 1968, the professional circuit was much less popular than the traditional amateur circuit. For example, Wimbledon in 1957 was a success despite its being an amateur-only tournament and exclusion of Pancho...
). That year he also won two great pro tournaments, the French Pro Championship over Vines and the Wembley
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
Pro tournament over Hans Nüsslein
Hans Nüsslein
Hans Nüsslein was a German tennis player of the 1930s.Born in Nuremberg, he had almost no background in amateur tennis. In late 1931, as a professional, he played Bill Tilden twice in Europe, taking him to 5 sets each time. Later in the 1930s, as Tilden aged, Nüsslein would beat the far more...
. There was no professional tour in 1940 but seven principal tournaments. Budge kept his world crown by winning 4 of these events including the greatest one, the United States Pro Championship. In 1941 Budge played another major tour beating the 48-year-old Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...
, the final outcome probably being 46–7 plus 1 tie. In 1942 Budge won both his last major tour over Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...
, Frank Kovacs
Frank Kovacs
Frank Kovacs was an American tennis player in the mid-century; he was known as the "Clown Prince of Tennis" for his on-court antics but was a good enough player to be each year from 1940 to 1951 one of the best five in the world. He stood 6 ft 4 inches tall and had a backhand as good as...
, Perry and Les Stoefen and for a second time the U.S. Pro, crushing Riggs 6–2, 6–2, 6–2 in the final.
Military service
He then joined the United States Army Air ForceUnited States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
to serve in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. At the beginning of 1943 in an obstacle course he tore a muscle in his shoulder. In his book 'A Tennis Memoir' page 144 he said:
This permanently hindered his playing abilities. During his wartime duty he played some exhibitions for the troops in particular during the summer 1945 with the war winding down, Budge played in a U.S Army (Budge-Frank Parker
Frank Parker
----Frank "Frankie" Andrew Parker was an American male tennis player. He was coached by Mercer Beasley....
) - U.S. Navy (Riggs - Wayne Sabin) competition under the Davis Cup format : the main confrontations were the Budge-Riggs meetings knowing that both Americans were the best players in the world in 1942 just before being enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces and again when they came back to the professional circuit in 1945. In the first match, on the island of Guam, Budge trounced Riggs 6–2 6–2. On the island of Peleliu Budge won again 6–4 7–5. Riggs won the next two matches against Budge 6–1 6–1 (island of Ulithi) and 6–3, 4–6, 6–1 (island of Saipan). Budge confided in Parker his disbelief at losing two matches in a row to Riggs. In the fifth and final match on the island of Tinian, scheduled for the first week of August 1945, Riggs defeated Budge 6–8 6–1 8–6. This was the first time Budge had been beaten by Riggs in a series (Riggs also won 3 matches out of 5 against the amateur Parker, both holder and future titlist of the U.S. amateur Nationals at Forest Hills) thereby giving Riggs an important psychological edge in their forthcoming peacetime tours.
Post war
After the war Budge played for a few years, mostly against Riggs. In 1946 Budge lost narrowly to Riggs in their U.S. tour, 24 matches to 22. The hierarchy was confirmed at the U.S. Pro, held at Forest HillsWest Side Tennis Club
The West Side Tennis Club is a private tennis club located in Forest Hills, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is currently an oasis within the City with 38 courts in all four surfaces , a junior Olympic swimming pool and many other amenities.It is most notable for hosting...
where Riggs easily defeated Budge in the last round. Next year Riggs stayed the pro king by defeating again Budge in the U.S. Pro final in five sets. Riggs then established himself as the World No. 1 for those two years. According to Kramer,
According to Riggs, however, Budge still had a very powerful, very deadly overhead and that rather than winning outright very many points with his lobbing, he actually achieved two other goals: his constant lobbing led Budge to play somewhat deeper at the net than he would have otherwise, thereby making it easier for Riggs to hit passing shots for winners; and the constant lobbing helped to wear Budge down by forcing him to run back to the backline time after time. Budge reached two more U.S. Pro finals, losing in 1949 at Forest Hills to Riggs and in 1953 in Cleveland to Pancho Gonzales.
In 1954 Budge recorded his last significant victory in a North American tour with Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...
, Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura, born Francisco Olegario Segura , was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player...
, and Frank Sedgman
Frank Sedgman
Frank Arthur Sedgman, born 29 October 1927, in Mont Albert, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was a tennis player who was arguably the world No.1 in 1952. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Sedgman in his list of the 21...
when, in Los Angeles, he defeated Gonzales, by then the best player in the world.
Retirement
After retiring from competition Budge coached and conducted tennis clinics for children. According to Riggs' 1949 autobiography, as of that writing Budge owned a laundry in New York with Sidney WoodSidney Wood
Sidney Wood was an American tennis player.Wood was born in Black Rock, Connecticut. He won the Arizona State Men’s Tournament on his 14th birthday, which qualified him for the French Championship and led to him earning a spot at Wimbledon He attended The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania,...
as well as a bar in Oakland. A gentleman on and off the court, he was much in demand for speaking engagements and endorsed various lines of sporting goods. With the advent of the Open era in tennis, in 1968 he returned to play at Wimbledon in the Veteran's doubles. In 1973, at the age of 58, he and former champion Frank Sedgman
Frank Sedgman
Frank Arthur Sedgman, born 29 October 1927, in Mont Albert, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was a tennis player who was arguably the world No.1 in 1952. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Sedgman in his list of the 21...
teamed up to win the Veteran's doubles championship at Wimbledon before an appreciative crowd.
In December 1999, Budge was injured in an automobile accident from which he never fully recovered. He died on January 26, 2000 at a nursing home in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
, aged 84.
Budge was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The hall of fame and honors players and contributors to the sport of tennis and includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indoor tennis facility, and a court tennis facility.-History:The hall of fame and...
at Newport, Rhode Island
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
in 1964. Don Budge received the honor of being mentioned in a musical. He is known as the tennis instructor in Annie
Annie (musical)
Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and the book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years with a blonde Annie as the poster...
. His skill is referred to during the song "I think I'm gonna like it here."
Assessment
Budge is a consensus pick for being one of the greatest players of all time. He had a graceful, overpowering backhand that he hit with a slight amount of topspin and that, combined with his quickness and his serve, made him the best player of his time. E. Digby Baltzell wrote in 1994 that Budge and Laver "have usually been rated at the top of any all-time World Champions list, Budge having a slight edge." Will Grimsley wrote in 1971 that Budge "is considered by many to be foremost among the all-time greats." Paul Metzler, in his analysis of ten of the all-time greats, singles out Budge as the greatest player before World War II, and gives him second place overall behind Jack KramerJack Kramer (tennis player)
John Albert Kramer was an American tennis player of the 1940s. A World Number 1 player for a number of years, he is a possible candidate for the title of the greatest tennis player of all time. He was considered the father and the leading promoter of the professional tennis tours...
.
Jack Kramer himself has written that Budge was, in the long run, the greatest player who ever lived although Ellsworth Vines
Ellsworth Vines
Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 for four years in 1932, 1935, 1936 and 1937.-Biography:...
topped him when at the height of his game. Kramer said:
In his 1979 autobiography Kramer considered the best player ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines
Ellsworth Vines
Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 for four years in 1932, 1935, 1936 and 1937.-Biography:...
(at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...
, Fred Perry
Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...
, Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...
, and Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...
. All of these sources were written after Rod Laver
Rod Laver
Rodney George "Rod" Laver MBE is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for titles won in career, and was the World No. 1 player for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970...
completed his second, and Open, Grand Slam in 1969.
In early 1986 Inside Tennis
Inside Tennis
Inside Tennis is a sports magazine that covers news from the world of tennis. It is published 10-times a year in Northern California, Southern California, Nevada, and Atlanta....
, a magazine edited in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
, devoted parts of four issues to a lengthy article called "Tournament of the Century", an imaginary tournament to determine the greatest of all time. Twenty-five players in all were named by the 37 experts in their lists of the 10 best. The magazine then ranked them in descending order by total number of points assigned. The top eight players in overall points, with their number of first-place votes, were: Rod Laver
Rod Laver
Rodney George "Rod" Laver MBE is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for titles won in career, and was the World No. 1 player for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970...
(9), John McEnroe
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
(3), Don Budge (4), Jack Kramer (5), Björn Borg
Björn Borg
Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...
(6), Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...
(1), Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...
(6), and Lew Hoad
Lew Hoad
Lewis Alan Hoad was a champion tennis player....
(1). McEnroe was still an active player and Laver and Borg had only recently retired. In the imaginary tournament Laver beat McEnroe in the finals in 5 sets.
More recently, an Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
poll conducted in 1999 ranked Budge fifth, following Laver, Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....
, Tilden, and Borg. Even more recently, in 2006, a panel of former players and experts was asked by TennisWeek to assemble a draw for a fantasy tournament to determine who was the greatest of all time. The top eight seeds were Roger Federer
Roger Federer
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...
, Laver, Sampras, Borg, Tilden, Budge, Kramer, and McEnroe. In important polls, then, Budge has consistently been ranked in the top five or six. Perhaps only Tilden and Laver can boast such a high and long-standing critical assessment.
Wins (6)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1937 | Wimbledon |  Gottfried von CrammGottfried von Cramm Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm was a German amateur tennis champion and twice French Open champion.-Birth:... |
6–3, 6–4, 6–2 |
| 1937 | U.S. Championships U.S. Open (tennis) The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881... |
Gottfried von Cramm |
6–1, 7–9, 6–1, 3–6, 6–1 |
| 1938 | Australian Championships Australian Open The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court... |
 John BromwichJohn Bromwich John Edward Bromwich was a male tennis player from Australia who, along with his countryman Vivian McGrath, was one of the first great players to use a two-handed forehand.... |
6–4, 6–2, 6–1 |
| 1938 | French Championships |  Roderich MenzelRoderich Menzel Roderich Ferdinand Ottomar Menzel was an amateur tennis player and after his active career an author.-Birth:... |
6–3, 6–2, 6–4 |
| 1938 | Wimbledon Championships (2) |  Bunny Austin |
6–1, 6–0, 6–3 |
| 1938 | U.S. Championships (2) |  Gene MakoGene Mako Constantine Mako is a former American tennis player and is also an art gallery owner. He was born in Budapest, capital of Hungary. He won four Grand Slam doubles titles in the 1930s... |
6–3, 6–8, 6–2, 6–1 |
Runner-ups (1)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1936 | U.S. Championships | Fred Perry Fred Perry Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row... |
2–6, 6–2, 8–6, 1–6, 10–8 |
Wins (4)
- French Pro Championship (1939)
- Wembley ProWembley ChampionshipThe Wembley Championship was a tennis event held from 1934–1990 with some periods of inactivity in between and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 - 1967 until the advent of the open era...
(1939) - US Pro Championships (1940, 1942)
Performance timeline for major tournaments
Don Budge joined professional tennis in 1939 and was unable to compete in the Grand Slams tournaments.| Tournament | Amateur career | Professional career | Titles / Played | Career Win-Loss | Career Win % | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| '34 | '35 | '36 | '37 | '38 | '39 | '40 | '41 | '42 | '43 | '44 | '45 | '46 | '47 | '48 | '49 | '50 | '51 | '52 | '53 | '54 | '55 | ||||
| Grand Slam Tournaments: Grand Slam (tennis) The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and... |
6 / 11 | 58-5 | 92.06 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Australian Australian Open The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court... |
A | A | A | A | W 1938 Australian Championships - Men's Singles Don Budge defeated John Bromwich 6–4 6–2 6–1 in the final to win the Men's Singles title at the 1938 Australian Championships.See also:-Seeds:The seeded players are listed below... |
A | A | Not Held | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1 / 1 | 5-0 | 100.00 | ||||
| French | A | A | A | A | W 1938 French Championships - Men's Singles Donald J. Budge defeated Roderich Menzel 6-3 6-2 6-4 in the final to win the Men's Singles title at the 1938 French Championships.See also:-Seeds:... |
A | Not Held | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1 / 1 | 6-0 | 100.00 | ||||
| Wimbledon | A | SF 1935 Wimbledon Championships - Men's Singles Fred Perry defeated Gottfried von Cramm 6–2 6–4 6–4 in the final to win the Gentlemen's Singles title at the 1935 Wimbledon Championships.See also:-Seeds:The seeded players are listed below... |
SF 1936 Wimbledon Championships - Men's Singles Fred Perry defeated Gottfried von Cramm 6–1 6–1 6–0 in the final to win the Gentlemen's Singles title at the 1936 Wimbledon Championships, the last time a British man won the Championship.See also:-Seeds:The seeded players are listed below... |
W 1937 Wimbledon Championships - Men's Singles Don Budge defeated Gottfried von Cramm 6-3 6-4 6-2 in the final to win the Gentlemen's Singles title at the 1937 Wimbledon Championships.See also:-Seeds:... |
W 1938 Wimbledon Championships - Men's Singles Don Budge defeated Bunny Austin 6–1 6–0 6–3 in the final to win the Gentlemen's Singles title at the 1938 Wimbledon Championships.See also:-Seeds:The seeded players are listed below... |
A | Not Held | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 2 / 4 | 24-2 | 92.31 | |||||
| U.S. U.S. Open (tennis) The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881... |
4R | QF | F | W | W | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 2 / 5 | 23-3 | 88.46 |
| Pro Slam Tournaments: | 4 / 17 | 37-13 | 74.00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| French Pro French Pro Championship In 1930 the "Association Française des Professeurs de Tennis " held its first pro tournament, titled "Championnat International de France Professionnel" June 18–22, 1930, and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 to 1967 till the advent of Open Era.From 1930 the French... |
A | A | A | A | A | W | Not Held | 1 / 1 | 3-0 | 100.00 | |||||||||||||||
| Wembley Pro Wembley Championship The Wembley Championship was a tennis event held from 1934–1990 with some periods of inactivity in between and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 - 1967 until the advent of the open era... |
A | A | A | A | A | W | Not Held | SF | SF | A | SF | SF | N.H. | 1 / 5 | 10-4 | 71.43 | |||||||||
| U.S. Pro | A | A | A | A | A | A | W | 1R | W | A | N.H. | A | F | F | SF | F | A | A | SF | F | SF | QF | 2 / 11 | 24-9 | 72.73 |
| Total: | 10 / 28 | 95-18 | 84.07 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Sources
- Sporting Gentlemen: Men's Tennis from the Age of Honor to the Cult of the Superstar, (1994), E. Digby Baltzell
- Tennis: Its History, People and Events, (1971), Will Grimsley
- Tennis Styles and Stylists, (1969), Paul Metzler
- The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis (1979), Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
- Tennis Is My Racket, (1949), Bobby Riggs
Further reading
- Fisher, Marshall Jon (2009). A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. ISBN 978-0-307-39394-4