Jack Crawford

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John Herbert ("Jack") Crawford (March 22, 1908, Albury, New South Wales, Australia–September 10, 1991, Sydney, Australia) was a great Australian tennis player of the 1930s who nearly won immortality by coming within one set of completing the first Grand Slam in 1933, five years before Don Budge ultimately accomplished it. He won the first three legs in Australia, France, and Wimbledon, but lost in five sets to Fred Perry in the finals of the American championship.

Jack Kramer, the longtime promoter and great tennis player himself, wrote in his 1979 autobiography that Crawford was one of the 21 greatest players of all time.[1]

Notes

  1. 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.