Jack Kramer
Jack Kramer in the late 1940s
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| Full name | John Albert Kramer |
|---|---|
| Country (sports) |
 United States
|
| Born |
August 1, 1921 Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Died | September 12, 2009 (aged 88) Bel Air, California |
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Turned pro | November 1947 (first senior amateur event 1937) |
| Retired | 1954 |
| Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
| College | Rollins College |
| Int. Tennis HoF | 1968 (member page) |
| Singles | |
| Highest ranking | No. 1 (1946, Pierre Gillou) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Wimbledon | W (1947) |
| US Open | W (1946, 1947) |
| Professional majors | |
| US Pro | W (1948) |
| Wembley Pro | W (1949) |
| French Pro | F (1950) |
| Doubles | |
| Grand Slam Doubles results | |
| Wimbledon | W (1946, 1947) |
| US Open | W (1940, 1941, 1943, 1947) |
| Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
| US Open | W (1941) |
| Team competitions | |
| Davis Cup | W (1946, 1947) |
John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s. A World No. 1 player for a number of years, and one of the most important people in the establishment of modern men's "Open"-era tennis, he was the leading promoter of professional tennis tours in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a relentless advocate for the establishment of Open Tennis between amateur and professional players. An International Tennis Federation (ITF) proposal to introduce Open tennis lost by five votes in 1960, but became a reality in 1968. In 1970, he created the Men's Grand Prix points system. In 1972, he helped found the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) with Donald Dell and Cliff Drysdale, and was the first Executive Director. He was unpaid at his request. In that role, he was the leader of an ATP boycott of Wimbledon in 1973, for the banning of Nikola Pilić from the tournament.
Tall and slim, he was the first world-class player to play "the Big Game", a consistent serve-and-volley game, in which he came to the net behind all of his serves, including the second serve. He was particularly known for his powerful serve and forehand, as well as his ability to play "percentage tennis", which he learned from Cliff Roche, a retired railroad engineer, at the Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC). This strategy maximized his efforts on certain points and in certain games during the course of a match to increase his chances of winning. The key was to hold serve at all costs, which was one of many things that made Kramer one of the greatest players of all time.
Kramer was the son of a blue-collar railroad worker for the Union Pacific railroad. As a boy he was a fine all-round athlete, particularly in basketball and tennis. When he was 13, the family moved to San Bernardino, California, and after seeing Ellsworth Vines, then the world's best player, play a match, Kramer decided to concentrate on tennis.
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