Jack Crawford (tennis)
 |
|
| Full name | John Herbert Crawford |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |
 Australia
|
| Born |
22 March 1908 Urangeline, Australia |
| Died | 10 September 1991 (aged 83) Sydney, Australia |
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) |
| Turned pro | 1926 (amateur tour) |
| Retired | 1951 |
| Plays | Right-handed (1-handed backhand) |
| Int. Tennis HoF | 1979 (member page) |
| Singles | |
| Highest ranking | No. 1 (1933, A. Wallis Myers) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Australian Open | W (1931, 1932, 1933, 1935) |
| French Open | W (1933) |
| Wimbledon | W (1933) |
| US Open | F (1933) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| Australian Open | W (1929, 1930, 1932, 1935) |
| French Open | W (1935) |
| Wimbledon | W (1935) |
| US Open | F (1939) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| Australian Open | W (1931, 1932, 1933) |
| French Open | W (1933) |
| Wimbledon | W (1935) |
John Herbert ("Jack") Crawford, OBE (22 March 1908 – 10 September 1991) was an Australian tennis player during the 1930s. He was the World No. 1 player for 1933, during which year he won the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon, and was runner-up at the U.S. Open. He also won the Australian Open in 1931, 1932, and 1935. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979.
Crawford was born on 22 March 1908 in Urangeline, near Albury, New South Wales, the second youngest child of Jack Sr. and Lottie Crawford. He had no tennis training as a child and practiced mainly by hitting against the house and school and playing his brother. Crawford played his first competition match at age 12 in a mixed doubles match at the Habersfield club. He won the Australian junior championships four consecutive times from 1926 to 1929 which entitled him to the permanent possession of the trophy.
Although he won a number of major championship titles he is perhaps best known for something he did not do – complete the tennis Grand Slam in 1933, five years before Don Budge accomplished the feat for the first time in 1938.
In 1933, Crawford won the Australian Championships, French Championships, and Wimbledon Championships, leaving him needing to win the US Championships to complete the Grand Slam. An asthmatic who suffered in the muggy summer heat of Forest Hills, Crawford was leading the Englishman Fred Perry in the finals of the US Championships by two sets to one when his strength began to fade. Crawford ended up losing the match, and tennis immortality, by the final score of 3–6, 13–11, 6–4, 0–6, 1–6.
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