From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Herbert ("Jack") Crawford (22 March 1908 -
10 September 1991) was an Australian tennis player of the 1930s. He
was the World No.
1 player for 1933.
Born in Urangeline, near Albury, New South
Wales, Crawford won a number of major championship titles,
although he is best known, perhaps, for something he did not do -
complete the tennis Grand Slam five years before Don Budge accomplished the
feat for the first time.
In 1933 Crawford won the Australian, French, and British championships, needing to win the
American championship to complete the slam.
An asthmatic who suffered in
the muggy summer heat of Long Island, he was leading the
Englishman Fred Perry
in the finals of the championship by two sets to one when his
strength began to fade. He ended up losing the match, and tennis
immortality, by the final score of 3–6, 13-11, 6–4, 0–6, 1–6.
In his 1979 autobiography Jack
Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself,
included Crawford in his list of the 21 greatest players of all
time.[1]
He was also known for taking a shot of whiskey between sets if
the game was tense.
Crawford was inducted into the International Tennis Hall
of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in
1979.
Grand
Slam Tournament wins
- Australian
Championships:
- singles champion - 1931-33, 1935
- doubles champion - 1929-30, 32, 1935
- mixed doubles champion - 1931-33
Notes
- ^
Writing in 1979, Kramer considered the best 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. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried
von Cramm, Ted
Schroeder, Jack
Crawford, Pancho
Segura, Frank
Sedgman, Tony
Trabert, John
Newcombe, Arthur
Ashe, Stan Smith,
Björn Borg, and
Jimmy Connors.
He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste
accurately but felt they were among the very best.
See also
External
links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search