Fundamentals of Tennis 1944 Don Budge

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DONALD BUDGE ILLUSTRATES BACKHAND, FOREHAND & SERVICE STROKES & PROPER FOOTWORK FOR PLAYING TENNIS.

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives or Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Budge

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

John Donald ("Don" or "Donnie") Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) 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 (consecutively, male record) 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

...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" (the four majors in one's career). 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... 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 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...

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...

This permanently hindered his playing abilities...

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...

Budge reached two more U.S. Pro finals, losing in 1949 at Forest Hills to Riggs and in 1953 in Cleveland to Pancho Gonzales...