John Donald Budge “Don”
Born: June 13, 1915
Died: January 26, 2000
Hometown: Oakland, California, United States
Citizenship: United States
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1964
Grand Slam Record
Australian Singles 1938
French Singles 1938
Doubles finalist 1938
Wimbledon Singles 1937-38
Doubles 1937-38
Mixed 1937-38
Mixed finalist 1936
U.S. Singles 1937-38
Singles finalist 1936
Doubles 1936, 1938
Doubles finalist 1935, 37
Mixed 1937-38
Mixed finalist 1936
Tournament Record
Davis Cup Team Member 1935-38
In sheer achievement, John Donald Budge accomplished what nobody before 1938 had been able to do–he won the Grand Slam of tennis, capturing the championships of Australia, France, Wimbledon and the United States in the same year. People were suddenly speaking of Budge in the same breath with the already immortal Bill Tilden.
Born June 13, 1915, in Oakland, CA, Budge had been less interested in tennis than in baseball, basketball and football while growing up in the California City where his Scottish-born father, a former soccer player, had settled.
When the 6-foot-1, 160-pound right-hander turned to tennis, his strapping size enabled him to play a game of maximum power. His service was battering his backhand considered perhaps the finest the game has known, his net play emphatic his overhead drastic. Quick and rhythmic, he was truly the all-around player and, what is more, was temperamentally suited for the game. Affable and easygoing, he could not be shaken from the objective of winning with the utmost application of hitting power.
The red-haired young giant was a favorite wherever he played, and he quickly moved up the tennis ladder. At the age of 19, he was advanced enough to be named to the Davis Cup team. The next year, 1936, he lost at Wimbledon and Forest Hills to Fred Perry, the world’s No.1 amateur, but beat Perry in the Pacific Southwest tournament.
In 1937 Perry turned pro and Budge became the world’s No. 1. He won at Wimbledon and Forest Hills and led the U.S. to its first Davis Cup in 11 years, 4-1 over Britain. The most brilliant act therein was his famous revival in the fifth set of the fifth match against Germany in the person of the stylish Baron Gottfried von Cramm to win the interzone final at neutral Wimbledon. He had already beaten Henner Henkel and won the doubles with Gene Mako over Henkel-von Cramm, so, with the score knotted, 2-2, up came the decisive test, another of his classic jousts with von Cramm. Not only was Budge far back, by two sets, but he had to rise from 1-4 in the fifth to win on a sixth match point, 6-8, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 8-6, and tip the series to the U.S., 3-2.
After that the Challenge Round against Britain, also at Wimbledon, was relatively easy, though Don had to beat lefty Charlie Hare in a rugged first set, and take him, 15-13, 6-1, 6-2, to offset Frank Parker’s lead-off loss to Bunny Austin. Budge and Mako won the doubles, and Don beat Austin on the third day, his 18th successive singles win on his seeming home turf. Culminating a fantastic year, Budge received the Sullivan Award as America’s top amateur athlete, the first tennis player to be so honored.
The high regard in which Budge was held by fellow players, spectators and officials was reflected by the loyalty he demonstrated in 1937. He was a big attraction for pro tennis but decided against leaving the amateur ranks for another year. The United States had the Davis Cup and he decided that, in return for all tennis had done for him, he must help in the defense of the Cup for at least another year.
So he turned down the professional offers, aware that poor fortunes in 1938 could hurt, if not end, his earning power as a pro. As it turned out, 1938 would be his most glorious year. He defeated John Bromwich, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1, in the Australian final, losing only one set in the entire tournament. In the French championship he beat Roderich Menzel of Czechoslovakia in the final, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, and yielded three sets in the tournament. At Wimbledon he did not lose a single set, beating Bunny Austin of Britain, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3, for the title, and at Forest Hills he gave up but one set-to Gene Mako in the final–in winning the U.S. crown, 6-3, 6-8, 6-2, 6-1.
Budge had won the Grand Slam and was the toast of the tennis world. After helping the U.S. retain the Davis Cup over Australia, beating Adrian Quist and Bromwich, and after four years in the World Top Ten, No. 1 in 1937-38, and five years in the U.S. Top Ten, he left the amateur ranks. He did so with the blessing of the USTA president, Holcombe Ward, and the Davis Cup captain, Walter L. Pate, who wished him well in his pro career.
Budge’s 1938 season was limited to eight tournaments, of which he won six on 43-2 in matches. His incredible 92-match, 14-tournament winning streak that began after a January 1937 loss to Bitsy Grant was ended by Quist in four sets at the Pacific Southwest. His farewell to amateurism was a defeat by Bromwich in his home territory, Berkeley, in the Pacific Coast tourney.
He made his professional debut at Madison Square Garden in New York early in 1939 and, before a crowd of 16,725, defeated Ellsworth Vines, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. On tour, Budge defeated Vines, 21 matches to 18, and also defeated Perry, 18-11. On tour with the 47-year-old Tilden, Budge beat him, 51-7.
Budge won two U.S. pro titles at Forest Hills before entering the Air Force in 1942: 1940 over Perry, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, and 1942 over Bobby Riggs, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. A shoulder injury suffered in military training reduced his post-war effectiveness, and he lost the pro tour hegemony to challenger Riggs in a close journey of one-nighters, 24-22. Still, he battled to the U.S. Pro tourney finals of 1946,’47,’49, and ’53, losing the first three to Riggs and the last to 25-year-old Pancho Gonzalez, 13 years his junior, and left little doubt as to his greatness. “I consider him,” said Bill Tilden, “the finest player 365 days a year who ever lived.” He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1964.
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