Don Budge
John Donald Budge was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first player — of any nationality, male or female, and still only American male — to win the four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam of tennis in a single year. Budge was the second male player to win all four Grand Slam events in his career after Fred Perry, and is still the youngest to achieve that feat. He won ten majors, of which six were Grand Slam events and four Pro Slams, the latter achieved on three different surfaces. 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, although most observers rated Budge's backhand the stronger of the two.
Early life
Budge was born in Oakland, California, the son of Scottish immigrant and former soccer player John "Jack" Budge, his father had played several matches for the Rangers reserve team before emigrating to the United States, and Pearl Kincaid Budge. Growing up, he played a variety of sports before taking up tennis. He was tall and slim, and his height would eventually 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.Amateur career
Accustomed to hard-court surfaces in his native California, he had difficulty playing on the grass courts in the east. However, a good instructor and hard work changed that, and in both 1937 and 1938 he swept Wimbledon, winning the singles, the men's doubles title with Gene Mako, and the mixed doubles crown with Alice Marble, a feat which he repeated at the 1938 U.S. Championships. Budge became the first man in history to have achieved the "Triple Crown" at a Grand Slam event three times, eclipsing Bill Tilden who won consecutive Triple Crowns at the U.S. Championships.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 US team 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 ever to 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 final, Roderick Menzel in the French final, Henry "Bunny" Austin at Wimbledon, where he never lost a set, and Gene Mako in the U.S. Championships final, 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". He completed that on June 11, 1938 in winning the French singles, two days before his 23rd birthday.
Professional career
Budge turned professional in October 1938 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 Vines, 22 matches to 17, and Fred Perry, 28 matches to 8. That year, he also won two major pro tournaments, the French Pro Championship over Vines and the Wembley Pro tournament over Hans Nüsslein. He also finished in first place on the European tour in the summer that also featured Vines, Tilden and Stoefen. There was no World series professional tour in 1940 but seven principal tournaments. Budge kept his world crown by winning four of these events: the Southeastern Pro at Miami Beach, the North & South Pro at Pinehurst, the National Open at White Sulphur Springs and the United States Pro Championship. In 1941, Budge played another major tour beating the 48-year-old Bill Tilden, the final outcome being 47–6 plus one 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.Military service
In 1942, Budge joined the United States Air Force 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 US Army ' – US Navy ' 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 and 6–3, 4–6, 6–1. 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 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 Hills where Riggs easily defeated Budge in the last round. There was a tournament circuit in 1946. Budge won events at Memphis in June, Richmond in June, Philadelphia in July and San Francisco in October. Budge finished second in the points table behind Riggs.In 1947 Riggs stayed the pro king by defeating 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 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. In April 1955 Budge won the U. S. Pro Clay Court Championships at Fort Lauderdale beating Riggs in the final.
Later years and honors
After retiring from competition, Budge turned to coaching and conducted tennis clinics for children. According to Riggs' 1949 autobiography as of that writing, Budge owned a laundry in New York with Sidney Wood 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.Budge was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, Rhode Island in 1964. He is referenced in the 1977 Broadway musical, Annie, in the song "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here." The reference is technically an anachronism, as the story is set in 1933, at which time Budge was an undergraduate at Berkeley and had not yet achieved prominence. The tennis courts at Bushrod Park in north Oakland are named for Budge where he played as a youth.
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.
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 Kramer.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 or Ellsworth Vines. 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. 25 players in all were named by the 37 experts in their lists of the ten 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, John McEnroe, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Björn Borg, Pancho Gonzales, Bill Tilden, and Lew Hoad. 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 five 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.
Major finals
Grand Slam tournaments
Singles: 7 (6 titles, 1 runner-up)
Doubles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups)
Pro Slam tournaments
Singles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)
Performance timeline
''Don Budge joined professional tennis in 1939 and was unable to compete in the Grand Slam tournaments.Single titles
Amateur era
Singles : 26 titlesRecords
- These records were attained in pre-Open Era of tennis.
- Records in bold indicate peer-less achievements.
| Championship | Years | Record accomplished | Player tied | Ref |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1938 | Calendar Year Grand Slam winning all 4 Major singles titles | Rod Laver | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1937–38 | 6 consecutive Grand Slam singles titles | Stands alone | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1938 | Youngest men's player in tennis history to achieve the Grand Slam | Stands alone | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1937–38 | Youngest men's player in tennis history to achieve the Career Grand Slam | Stands alone | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1937–38 | 3 times achieved the "Triple Crown" winning singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles at one Grand Slam event Wimbledon US Championships | Stands alone | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1937–38 | 37 match win streak in consecutive tournaments | Stands alone | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1934–38 | 92.06% Career winning percentage | Stands alone | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1938 | 100% Single Season winning percentage | Rod Laver Jimmy Connors | |
| Grand Slam tournaments | 1934–38 | 91.22% Career Grass Court winning percentage | Stands alone | |
| All tournaments | 1937–38 | 14 consecutive tournament wins | Stands alone |