Джон Крамер: Американдық теннис шеберінің өмірі мен жетістіктері

American tennis player (1921–2009)
the tennis player

John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, and a pioneer promoter who helped drive the sport towards professionalism at the elite level. Kramer also ushered in the serve and volley era in tennis, a playing style with which he won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U. S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He also led the U. S. Davis Cup tennis team to victory in the 1946 and 1947 Davis Cup finals. Kramer won the U. S. Pro Championship at Forest Hills in 1948 and the Wembley Pro Championships in 1949. He won world professional championship 2 man tours in 1948 (against Bobby Riggs), 1949/50 (against Pancho Gonzales), 1950/51 (against Pancho Segura), and 1953 (against Frank Sedgman). Kramer was ranked world no. 1 amateur player for 1946 by Pierre Gillou, Harry Hopman and Ned Potter. He was ranked world no. 1 amateur player for 1947 by John Olliff, Pierre Gillou and Ned Potter. In 1948 he was ranked the U. S. no. 1 professional in the USPLTA contemporary rankings for U. S. pro tennis play. Some recent tennis writers have considered Kramer to be the world no. 1 player from 1946 to 1953, spanning his last amateur years and early pro years. He was the leading promoter of professional tennis tours in the 1950s and 1960s, signing many of the most accomplished tennis players of the era to professional contracts. Kramer played an important role in the establishment of modern men's Open era tennis.

Kramer began his tennis career by taking lessons from renowned teaching professional, Dick Skeen. Within a year, he was playing junior tournaments. He played on the Montebello High School tennis team with George Richards. Because of his obvious ability and his family's lack of money, he came under the guidance of Perry T. Jones. at the Los Angeles Tennis Club (LATC). Jones was the President of the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA). Kramer traveled many hours each day from his home in Montebello, California, to play tennis at the LATC and the Beverly Hills Tennis Club. He was able to play against such great players as Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs, and Bill Tilden. Kramer was the National Boys' Champion in 1936, and the winner of the 1938 National Juniors Interscholastics. He competed occasionally in men's tournaments on grass courts in the East. He won matches against nationally ranked men such as Elwood Cooke. Kramer also played with high school teammate George Richards, who later was nationally ranked. Kramer competed at the U. S. National Championships seven times from 1938 through 1947. He lost his first match in 1938 in straight sets, winning only two games. At the 1939 U. S. Championships he was beaten in the second round by 11th seeded and fellow Californian Joe Hunt. In 1940 Kramer defeated fourth seeded Frank Parker in a five set quarterfinal but lost to second seeded and eventual champion Don McNeill in the semifinal. At the 1941 Championships, he was seeded for the first time, at no. 11, and reached the quarterfinal where third seeded Frank Kovacs proved too strong. In 1942, Kramer won the men's singles in the Ojai Tennis Tournament. Kramer received a leave from his duties in the United States Coast Guard to compete at the 1943 Championships. Seeded second, he reached the final, despite being weakened by food poisoning, but lost it to Joe Hunt in four sets. During World War II, he continued to win prizes in the United States as the war had effectively put an end to international tennis, but did not compete in the U. S. Championships in 1944 and 1945. The first Grand Slam tournament Kramer entered after the war was the 1946 Wimbledon Championships where he was seeded second but was upset in by Jaroslav Drobný in a five set fourth round match. At the 1946 U. S. Championships, he was seeded third but managed to win his first Major singles title after a straight set victory in the final against Tom Brown, losing just a single set in the tournament. He was ranked world no. 1 amateur in 1946 by Pierre Gillou, Harry Hopman and Ned Potter. At the 1947 Wimbledon Championships, Kramer was seeded first and justified it by winning the title after another straight sets win against Brown in a final that lasted only 48 minutes. and went on to win in five sets to retain his title. Kramer was ranked world no. 1 amateur in 1947 by John Olliff, Pierre Gillou and Ned Potter. Kramer made his debut for the US Davis Cup team in 1939 in the final of the World Group against Australia. He and Joe Hunt lost the doubles match against John Bromwich and Adrian Quist.

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 automotive 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 up Kramer's mature game. Kramer was regarded by some tennis historians as one of the greatest players ever. In 1975, Don Budge ranked his top five players of all time and rated Kramer number two behind Vines. He also said Kramer had the best forehand. In 1978, Ellsworth Vines ranked his all time top 10 in Tennis Myth and Method and rated Kramer number two, behind Budge. In the Tennis Channel series "100 Greatest of All Time" in 2012, Kramer was ranked the 21st greatest male tennis player of all time, just ahead of longtime rival Pancho Gonzales at 22nd, and close behind his former pro recruit Lew Hoad at 19th. In the early years of the 21st century, Sidney Wood compiled his list of the Greatest Players of All Time (later published posthumously in a memoir "The Wimbledon final that never was and other tennis tales from a bygone era"). Wood first entered Wimbledon in 1927 and won the title in 1931. "From that time on, through to the late 1970s (doubles only towards the end), I was privileged to compete against virtually every top player in the world" said Wood. Wood ranked Kramer number two, behind Budge. In 2014, Frank Sedgman ranked Kramer number one in his greatest male tennis players of all time list in his autobiography 'Game, Sedge and Match'.

Kramer was involved in the 1948 agreement between the touring professionals and the USPLTA, which represented the teaching professionals and tennis professionals not under contract for the pro tours. The agreement established cooperation between the contract professionals and the USPLTA over the holding of the U. S. Pro at Forest Hills, and the touring pros agreed to become members of the USPLTA and to refrain from establishing a separate contract player's organization. The issue emerged again in 1951 when a group of touring pros established the Professional Tennis Players Association, which supported the Cleveland event as the U. S. Pro. The PTPA included the important pros who were no longer involved in the major professional tours, namely Kovacs, Segura, and Gonzales, and there was discussion of the PTPA creating an alternative pro tour. The PTPA apparently did not continue beyond 1952. Kramer remained on good terms with the USPLTA into the 1960s. Kramer incorporated his company World Tennis Inc. Tours in 1952 to manage the major professional world tours. He signed Frank Sedgman and Ken McGregor to contracts for the 1953 world tour, which cemented Kramer's position as the foremost promoter in the professional game. He subsequently signed a succession of amateur players to professional contracts: Tony Trabert and Rex Hartwig in 1955, Ken Rosewall in 1956, Lew Hoad in 1957, Ashley Cooper, Mal Anderson and Mervyn Rose in 1958, Alex Olmedo in 1959, Mike Davies, Andrés Gimeno, Robert Haillet, Kurt Nielsen, Barry MacKay and Butch Buchholz in 1960 and Luis Ayala in 1961. Some of these amateurs were pitted against Pancho Gonzales in marathon head to head match series for the title of World Professional Champion, which were played primarily in the U. S Gonzales won a four man tour over Segura and Sedgman in 1954, a world series marathon against Trabert in 1956, another long tour against Rosewall in 1957, and against Hoad in 1958. In 1959 and 1960 Kramer arranged four man tours for the World Championship title. Gonzales frequently complained about the financial arrangements which guaranteed much more money to the new pro recruits than to himself. However, Hoad stated "I never had a problem with Jack Kramer". It was said that Kramer never had a signed contract with Pancho Segura, but operated entirely on a handshake basis with the Ecuadorian star. During the heyday of the Kramer pro tours in the late 1950s, with 11 Hall of Fame tennis players under contract, Kramer's troupe of players were reported to be among the best paid athletes in the world of professional sports, comparable to the best paid baseball players. Laver later stated "He was a huge figure in tennis. We all needed money and he helped a lot of players get some." Kramer apparently gave testimony at Connolly's trial for damages. Neale Fraser rejected a $50,000 two year contract from Kramer in 1960. Both Rod Laver and Roy Emerson rejected contract offers from Kramer in 1961, and Kramer was not able to field a world tour in 1962, retiring as promoter and manager that year, being succeeded by Tony Trabert. Kramer continued to assist in the pro tour occasionally thereafter, and helped to arrange an $80,000 offer to Emerson in 1964, which Emerson rejected. Kramer 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 was the first executive director of the ATP. He was unpaid at his request. In this role, he was a key figure in an ATP boycott of Wimbledon in 1973, for the banning of Nikola Pilić from the tournament.

In his 1979 autobiography The Game: My 40 Years in Tennis, Kramer calls Helen Wills Moody the best women's tennis player that he ever saw. "She was the champion of the world, when I was 15 and played her. – she won Seven Forest Hills and Eight Wimbledons I beat her, but Helen played a very good game." First serve: Ellsworth Vines had the finest serve, but Pancho Gonzales was "more consistent with his in the tightest spots. Tilden, too, must be ranked, for speed and deception". Second serve: John Newcombe by far. Forehand: Pancho Segura was best, then Fred Perry, followed by Bill Tilden and Ellsworth Vines. Backhand: Donald Budge was the best, with Frank Kovacs, Ken Rosewall and Jimmy Connors in the next rank. Return of serve: Don Budge was the best, followed by Connors. Forehand volley: Wilmer Allison, followed by Budge Patty, then Newcombe. Backhand volley: Close among Frank Sedgman, Don Budge and Ken Rosewall, with Sedgman having the edge. Overhead: Ted Schroeder was the best, ahead of Vines, Rosewall and Newcombe. Lob: Bobby Riggs was the best, "but Segura, Bitsy Grant and Rosewall were almost as effective". Half volley: Pancho Gonzales and Ken Rosewall. Kramer's serve and forehand were equal to the best players in the game, but he would not talk about his own strokes. Kramer attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and he played on the tennis team in the 1941 and 1942 seasons. Pauline Betz was there at the same time.

Kramer started working for the BBC as a commentator on the Wimbledon Championships in 1960, a role in which he was very popular because of his intimate off court knowledge of most of the players. Kramer returned to the BBC to commentate on the 1976 Wimbledon championships and the 1996 Australian Open men's singles final. Kramer was the first host of BBC TV's Wimbledon evening highlights programme from 1964 to 1970. He also commentated for NBC from 1954 to 1962, ABC from 1965 to 1973 and CBS from 1968 to 1973.

A fan of Thoroughbred racing, Kramer owned and raced a number of Thoroughbred horses.

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. In 1944, he married Gloria, and they had five sons: Bob, David, John, Michael and Ron. They lived in Bel Air, California. He invested in the Professional Tennis Tour, the Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Palos Verdes, California., two Golf courses at the Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills, California, and racehorses. Starting in 1948, the Jack Kramer Autograph tennis racket from Wilson Sporting Goods became the most popular selling racket of all time for over 35 years (Wilson Sporting Goods 1984). From 1979 until 1981 the Los Angeles Tennis Open, a tournament he was involved with since the 1950s, was known as the "Jack Kramer Open". He was portrayed by actor Bill Pullman in the 2017 movie Battle of the Sexes.

ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1943 U. S. Championships Grass Joe Hunt 3–6, 8–6, 8–10, 0–6Win 1946 U. S. Championships (1) Grass Tom Brown 9–7, 6–3, 6–0Win 1947 Wimbledon Grass Tom Brown 6–1, 6–3, 6–2Win 1947 U. S. Championships (2) Grass Frank Parker 4–6, 2–6, 6–1, 6–0, 6–3

ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1940 U. S. Championships Grass Ted Schroeder Gardnar Mulloy Henry Prusoff 6–4, 8–6, 9–7Win 1941 U. S. Championships Grass Ted Schroeder Wayne Sabin Gardnar Mulloy 9–7, 6–4, 6–2Win 1943 U. S. Championships Grass Frank Parker Bill Talbert David Freeman 6–2, 6–4, 6–4Win 1946 Wimbledon Grass Tom Brown Geoff Brown Dinny Pails 6–4, 6–4, 6–2Win 1947 Wimbledon Grass Bob Falkenburg Tony Mottram Bill Sidwell 8–6, 6–3, 6–3Win 1947 U. S. Championships Grass Ted Schroeder Bill Talbert Bill Sidwell 6–4, 7–5, 6–3