Constantine Gene Mako “Gene”
Born: January 24, 1916
Hometown: Budapest, Hungary
Citizenship: United States
Handed: Right
Inducted: 1973
Grand Slam Record
U.S. Singles finalist 1938
Doubles 1936, 38
Doubles finalist 1935, 37
Mixed 1936
French Doubles finalist 1938
Wimbledon Doubles 1937, 38
Tournament Record
Intercollegiate Singles 1934
Doubles 1934
Davis Cup Team Member 1935-38
Though brief, the career of Hungarian-born Constantine Gene Mako was one of the most remarkable in that he achieved his foremost results after sustaining a devastating and painful right-shoulder injury that would have finished most men as competitors. As a teenager he had one of the most powerful serves, but he injured himself by overdoing it. This was compounded by a 1936 tumble in London that finished the job of wrecking his right (playing) shoulder, and kept him out of Wimbledon that year.
“I continued only because my friend and doubles partner, Don Budge, asked me to do so,” Mako says. “I told him I’d be serving like a little old lady and would have to shovel the ball around, but it was okay with him.”
Despite the sometimes puny appearance of his strokes, 6-foot, 170-pound Mako, in the right court alongside Budge, was a canny playmaker, a man who knew the angles and where to put the ball–and competed fiercely–as they became one of the greatest teams. They won Wimbledon in 1937 and 1938, and were in four successive U.S. finals from 1935, triumphing in 1936 and 1938.
A formidable singles player as well, he performed on four Davis Cup teams (two winners), seizing the go-ahead point with Budge in the 1937 lifting of the Cup from Britain, 4-1, to end a l0-year U.S. dry spell. They beat Charles Tuckey and Frank Wilde, 6-3, 7-5, 7-9, 12-10. Just as vital was their go-ahead win in the previous round, a 3-2 thriller over Germany–a 4-6, 7-5, 8-6, 6-4 squeeze past Henner Henkel and Gottfried von Cramm.
Mako was in the U.S. Top Ten in 1937 and 1938, No. 3 the second year, and No. 9 in the world ranking of 1938. That year he was the last obstacle between Budge and the original Grand Slam in the U.S. final at Forest Hills. Unseeded, Mako dashed to his only major singles final on victories over sixth-seed Frank Kovacs and the third and first foreign seeds, Franjo Puncec and John Bromwich. He resisted Budge well, holding off the inevitable for four sets, 6-3, 6-8, 6-2, 6-1. Mako had one of the four sets Budge lost during the Slam.
Gene had a brief fling at pro tennis while serving in the Navy during World War II, winning the U.S. pro doubles in 1943 with Bruce Barnes. Upon discharge, he made another sort of sporting name on the West Coast as a semipro basketball player. Born in Budapest January 24, 1916, he moved with his family to Buenos Aires, then to Los Angeles when he was seven. There he remained, winning the intercollegiate singles and doubles for Southern California in 1934. Today he’s a gregarious art dealer. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1973.
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