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| The impact of John Albert "Jake" Kramer on tennis has been fourfold: as great player, exceptional promoter, thoughtful innovator and astute television commentator. | |||
| Kramer, born August 1, 1921, in Las Vegas, NV, grew up in the Los Angeles area. He achieved international notice in 1939 as a teenager when he was selected to play doubles, alongside Joe Hunt, for the U.S. in the Davis Cup finale against Australia. At 18, Kramer was the youngest to play in the Cup title round, although John Alexander of Australia lowered the record to 17 by playing in 1968. | |||
| Kramer and Hunt were the golden boys out of Southern California, their careers intertwined. Joe beat Jake, at Forest Hills in 1939, where they were both losing semifinalists the following year. (Kramer, 19, had a startling win over fourth-seeded Frank Parker in the quarters, and pushed the champ, Don McNeill, to four sets in the semi). Both were to go to sea during World War II, Jake in the Coast Guard, Joe in the Navy, and to receive leaves to play again in the U.S. Championships of 1943, where they collided in the final. Hunt won, barely, sprawling on the court with cramps as Kramer's last shot flew long (6-3, 6-8, 10-8, 6-0). Kramer, who'd had a bout with food poisoning, laughed later, "If I could've kept that ball in play I might have been a champ on a default." Hunt was killed 17 months afterwards in a military plane crash. | |||
| Because of the war Jake had to wait three years to return to Forest Hills, to come into prominence as a splendid champion, no breaks from opponents needed, so dominant that he was voted fifth on a list of all-time greats selected by a panel of expert tennis journalists in 1969. The powerful right-hander was the leading practitioner of the "big game," rushing to the net constantly behind his serve, and frequently attacking on return of serve. His serve took opponents off the court, setting them up for the volley, as did his crushing forehand. | |||
| A blistered racket hand probably decided his grueling fourth-round defeat (2-6, 17-15, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3) by cunning lefty Jaroslav Drobny, and prevented Jake from winning the first post-war Wimbledon. But he came back awesomely in 1947, the first to win in shorts, making short work of everybody. Whipping doubles partner Tom Brown in 48 minutes, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, he lost merely 37 games in seven matches, the most lopsided run to the championship. | |||
| Brown had been his 1946 U.S. final-round victim, 9-7, 6-3, 6-0, another one-sided excursion for Jake, a crew-cut blond whose goal was to reclaim the Davis Cup that he and Hunt failed to clinch in 1939. In December he and good buddy Ted Schroeder--the U.S. doubles champs of 1940--were members of a highly talented team that captain Walter Pate took to Australia for the challenge round. Every man--those two plus Brown, Frank Parker, Gardnar Mulloy, Bill Talbert--thought he should play. Pate picked Ted and Jake to do it all, controversial until the pals paralyzed the favored Aussies on opening day. Schroeder won in five over John Bromwich and Kramer nailed Dinny Pails, 8-6, 6-2, 9-7. Together they grabbed the Cup by flattening the team that had beaten Hunt and Kramer in '39: Bromwich and Adrian Quist, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. | |||
| The following summer, Jake and Ted repelled the Australian challenge for the Cup at Forest Hills, and then Kramer closed out his amateur career memorably by overhauling Parker in the U.S. final. Kramer lost the first two sets, and was in danger of losing out on a lucrative professional contract as well as his championship. Counter-punching, Kramer won, 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3,and set off in pursuit of Bobby Riggs, the reigning pro champ, Kramer, who had lost only two matches in 1946, dropped but one (to Talbert) in 1947, winning eight of nine tournaments on 48-1, closing his amateur life with a 41-match rush. | |||
| Kramer knocked Riggs off the summit by winning their odyssey of one-nighters throughout the U.S., which was the test of professional supremacy of that day. Their opener was a phenomenon: New York was buried by a blizzard that brought the city to a stop, yet 15,114 customers made it on foot to the old Madison Square Garden on December 27, 1947, to watch Riggs win. Bobby couldn't keep it up. Kramer won the tour, 69-20, and stayed in action while Riggs took over as the promoter and signed Pancho Gonzalez to challenge Kramer. Nobody was up to Kramer then. He bruised the rookie Gonzalez 96-27 on the longest of the tours. Kramer made $85,000 against Riggs as his percentage, and $72,000 against Gonzalez. | |||
| In 1952 Kramer assumed the position of Promoter himself, the boss of pro tennis, a role he would hold for over a decade, well past his playing days Kramer's last tour as a principal was against the first man he recruited, Frank Sedgman, the Aussie who was tops among amateurs. Kramer won 54-41. An arthritic back led to Kramer's retirement as a player, but he kept the tour going, resurrecting one of his victims, Gonzalez, who became the strongman. | |||
| One of the shrewdest operators in tennis, Kramer was looked to for advice when the open era began in 1968. He devised the Grand Prix for the men's game, a series of tournaments leading to a Masters Championship for the top eight finishers and a bonus pool to be shared by more than a score of the leading players. The Grand Prix, incorporating the most attractive tournaments around the world, functioned from 1970 until 1990, when the ATP Tour took over the structure. In 1972 he was instrumental in forming the Association of Tennis Pros, the male players' union, and was its first executive director. His role as leader of the ATP's principled boycott of Wimbledon in 1973 made him unpopular in Britain for a time. Nevertheless, it was a landmark act, assuring the players of the right to control their own destiny after being in thrall to national associations until then. Later he served on the Men's International professional Tennis Council, the worldwide governing board. | |||
| Kramer, winner of 13 U.S. singles and doubles titles, was named to the Hall of Fame in 1968. His son Bob Kramer, continues the family's tennis interests as director of the Los Angeles ATP tourney. | |||
Revision as of 13:10, 28 October 2005
John Albert Kramer (b. August 1, 1921, in Las Vegas, Nevada) was a champion U.S. tennis player.
Kramer was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1968.
His championships include:
- Wimbledon (singles, 1947; doubles, 1946, 1947),
- the U.S. Open (singles, 1946, 1947; doubles, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1947; mixed doubles, 1941), and
- the Davis Cup (1939, 1946, 1947).
See also
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