It was the last major title that Budge won as an amateur, as he turned professional at the end of the year and was therefore unable to compete in other Grand Slam events.
Players: Don Budge and Gene Mako
Don Budge was born in California in 1915. After playing various sports as a child, he took up tennis, where his size (he’s 6ft 1in) helped him develop a very powerful serve that would take him to the top. In 1933, Budge dropped out of Berkeley to play tennis with the US Davis Cup team. Having grown up on the hard courts of California, it took him some time to adjust to the grass courts of the East Coast, but in time he mastered the surface enough to win Wimbledon in 1937, defeating Gottfried von Kramm in the final (6-3, 6-4, 6-2).
A few weeks later, the two players faced each other again in the famous Davis Cup, in which Hitler himself called Von Cram on the phone and told him that losing was not an option. At the end of one of the greatest matches in tennis history, Budge finally prevailed, 6-8, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 8-6. He would cross paths with Von Cram once more in 1937 in the finals of the US Nationals (winning 6-1, 7-9, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1).
In 1938, Budge continued his winning streak by winning the Australian Open (defeating John Bromwich 6-4, 6-2, 6-1). Roland Garros (defeating Roderick Menzel 6-3, 6-2, 6-4) and Wimbledon (beating Henry Austin 6-1, 6-0, 6-3). He was now the undisputed No. 1 amateur tennis player in the world.
Jean Mako was born in 1916. A decent player in singles, he was more successful in doubles, where he won three Grand Slam titles (1936 US National Team, 1937 and 1938 Wimbledon).
The place
The U.S. National Championship, also known as the U.S. Nationals, was founded in 1881 and has moved to different locations several times in the 20th century. First held in August 1881 on the grass courts of the Newport Casino in Rhode Island, in 1915 the tournament moved to New York, where it was played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, except from 1921 to 1923 (when the event was moved to Philadelphia).
The facts
At the start of the 1938 US National Team, Budge was only the second player in tennis history to come within one title of completing a Grand Slam. In fact, the phrase itself was first applied to tennis by an American journalist in 1933, when Australian player Jack Crawford claimed the first three majors of the year and was one set away from winning the fourth. Crawford managed to lead from two sets to one in the US Nationals final, but was eventually defeated by Fred Perry (6–3, 11–13, 4–6, 6–0, 6–1).
Budge dominated the first three majors, winning the finals in straight sets.
“His ironic fate is to play so well that he makes the tournaments he plays uninteresting,” a New York Times reporter wrote that year. His main rival, Von Kramm, had been arrested by the Nazis for his homosexuality (Budge tried to help him by writing to Hitler asking for his release), and no other amateur seemed to be able to resist his power.
Bagge’s dominance in the amateur world was confirmed in this final against his partner, Gene Mako. Although she lost her focus when she was 6-3, 5-2 down and lost the second set (8-6), she rallied and blew away the final sets, 6-2, 6-1.
Budge just became the first player to win a Grand Slam. Now his next challenge was to prove himself against professional players.
What happened next?
Budge would turn pro later in the year, and in his first match in January 1939, he defeated Ellsworth Vines at Madison Square Garden (6-3, 6-4, 6-2) in front of 16,000 spectators. In the series of fights against Fred Perry, Budge would also win, 28-8.
“I was an amateur champion for two years and then a professional champion for many years,” Budge once said, according to The Washington Post. “There was no one who could beat me. Just think how many more Wimbledons I could have won.”
Only one other man in the history of men’s tennis has won a Grand Slam. In fact, this man, Rod Lever of Australia, would even achieve it twice, once as an amateur in 1962 and once as a professional in 1969, after the start of the Open era.
