97 Facts About Jack Kramer

1.

John Albert Kramer was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s.

2.

Jack Kramer led the US Davis Cup tennis team to victory in the 1946 and 1947 Davis Cup finals.

3.

Jack Kramer won the US Pro Championship at Forest Hills in 1948 and the Wembley Pro Championships in 1949.

4.

Jack Kramer was ranked world No 1 amateur player for 1946 by Pierre Gillou, Harry Hopman and Ned Potter.

5.

Jack Kramer was ranked World No 1 amateur player for 1947 by John Olliff, Pierre Gillou and Ned Potter.

6.

Some recent tennis writers have considered Jack Kramer to be the World No 1 player from 1946 to 1953, spanning his last amateur years and early pro years.

7.

Jack Kramer was the leading promoter of professional tennis tours in the 1950s and 1960s, signing many of the great tennis players of the era to professional contracts.

8.

Jack Kramer was one of the most important people in the establishment of modern men's Open-era tennis.

9.

Jack Kramer played on the Montebello High School tennis team with George Richards.

10.

Jack Kramer traveled many hours each day from his home in Montebello, California, to play tennis at the LATC and the Beverly Hills Tennis Club.

11.

Jack Kramer was able to play against such great players as Ellsworth Vines, Bobby Riggs, and Bill Tilden.

12.

Jack Kramer was the National Boys' Champion in 1936, and the winner of the 1938 National Juniors Interscholastics.

13.

Jack Kramer competed occasionally in men's tournaments on grass courts in the East.

14.

Jack Kramer won matches against nationally ranked men such as Elwood Cooke.

15.

Jack Kramer played with high school teammate, George Richards, who later was nationally ranked.

16.

Jack Kramer competed at the US National Championships seven times from 1938 through 1947.

17.

Jack Kramer lost his first match in 1938 in straight sets, winning only two games.

18.

In 1940 Jack Kramer defeated fourth-seeded Frank Parker in a five-sets quarterfinal but lost to second-seeded and eventual champion Don McNeill in the semifinal.

19.

In 1942, Jack Kramer won the men's singles in the Ojai Tennis Tournament.

20.

Jack Kramer received a leave from his duties in the Coast Guard to compete at the 1943 Championships.

21.

The first Grand Slam tournament Jack Kramer entered after the war was the 1946 Wimbledon Championships where he was seeded second but was upset in by Jaroslav Drobny in a five-set fourth round match.

22.

Jack Kramer was ranked World No 1 amateur in 1946 by Pierre Gillou, Harry Hopman and Ned Potter.

23.

At the 1947 Wimbledon Championships Jack 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.

24.

At 1947 US Championships number one seed Jack Kramer faced Frank Parker in the final.

25.

Parker won the first two sets as Jack Kramer struggled to find form.

26.

Jack Kramer was ranked World No 1 amateur in 1947 by John Olliff, Pierre Gillou and Ned Potter.

27.

Jack Kramer made his debut for the US Davis Cup team in 1939 in the final of the World Group against Australia.

28.

Jack Kramer compiled a Davis Cup match record of seven wins and two losses.

29.

Jack Kramer made his pro debut against Bobby Riggs on December 26,1947, at Madison Square Garden.

30.

Jack Kramer beat Riggs in the final of the US Professional Championships at Forest Hills NY in June 1948 in four sets.

31.

Jack Kramer was awarded $1,450 for winning the singles, and $412 for winning the doubles.

32.

Jack Kramer won tours of South America and Australasia in 1948.

33.

Jack Kramer was ranked the No 1 pro in the US for 1948 by the USPLTA.

34.

In early June 1949, Jack Kramer won the Wembley Professional Championships in London, England, edging Segura in a close five-set semifinal, and defeating Riggs in the final.

35.

However, Jack Kramer won the Slazenger Pro at Scarborough, England in July 1949 beating Segura in the semifinal and Budge in the final.

36.

In early 1950, Jack Kramer was described as "world champion in 1949".

37.

Jack Kramer was not ranked by the USPLTA for 1949 due to insufficient play within the United States.

38.

Jack Kramer did not play at Forest Hills or at the Philadelphia Indoor.

39.

Some recent tennis writers have considered Jack Kramer to be World No 1 for the 1949 period.

40.

Jack Kramer lost the final of the US Pro Indoor at Philadelphia to Gonzales.

41.

At the US Pro in June 1950 played at Cleveland on clay, Jack Kramer lost a close five-set semifinal to Segura.

42.

Jack Kramer was ranked US No 2 professional behind Segura for 1950 by the USPLTA.

43.

Some recent tennis writers have considered Jack Kramer to be World No 1 for the 1950 period.

44.

Jack Kramer won the Philadelphia US Pro Indoor round robin event in March 1951, defeating Gonzales in the final.

45.

Jack Kramer did not play in the Cleveland International Pro.

46.

Jack Kramer was not ranked in the USPLTA professional ranking due to insufficient US tournament play.

47.

Jack Kramer was ranked US No 4 professional for 1951 behind Kovacs, Segura, and Gonzales by the PTPA.

48.

Some recent tennis writers have considered Jack Kramer to be World number one for the 1951 period.

49.

Jack Kramer was described as "world champion" or "world's professional champion" throughout 1951.

50.

At the Philadelphia Masters Indoor, Jack Kramer lost both of his matches to Gonzales, who won the tournament.

51.

At the Roland Garros Round Robin Professional event in Paris, Jack Kramer defeated Gonzales but lost to Segura, who won the tournament.

52.

At the 1952 Wembley Professional Championships, Jack Kramer lost a close five-set final to Gonzales, regarded as one of the classic all-time matches.

53.

Jack Kramer was not ranked in the 1952 US professional rankings by the USPLTA or the PTPA, both of which ranked Segura professional No 1 followed by Gonzales at No 2.

54.

Jack Kramer did not play at the US Pro, which was won by Segura.

55.

Some recent tennis writers have considered Jack Kramer to be World No 1 for the 1952 period.

56.

Jack Kramer did not play in any of the larger tournaments in 1953.

57.

Jack Kramer was ranked No 3 professional for 1953 by the Players' Committee of the Cleveland World Pro in June behind Gonzales and Segura.

58.

Jack Kramer was given a World No 1 professional tennis player reference by The Sacramento Bee newspaper for 1953.

59.

Jack Kramer was ranked World No 1 pro by Frank Sedgman in October 1953.

60.

Jack Kramer was ranked behind the World No 1 ranked Sedgman in the 1953 Tennis de France full season rankings, which included the results from Europe, published by Philippe Chatrier.

61.

Some recent tennis writers have considered Jack Kramer to be World No 1 for the 1953 period.

62.

Jack Kramer retired from competitive tennis in 1954 due to arthritic back problems and went on to promote his Pro Tour.

63.

Jack Kramer played matches during an Asia tour in September and October 1954 with Pancho Gonzales, Frank Sedgman and Pancho Segura.

64.

In 1956, Jack Kramer played a few undercard matches against Segura on the main tour.

65.

Jack Kramer played a South American tour in late June and early July 1956 with Gonzales, Sedgman and Trabert.

66.

Jack Kramer made a comeback on a four-man world tour with Hoad, Rosewall, Segura, and Sedgman in the fall of 1957.

67.

Jack Kramer led Hoad for most of the tour, before being slightly edged by the new recruit 16 to 14.

68.

Gonzales and Hoad would headline Jack Kramer's upcoming world championship tour in 1958, in which Jack Kramer would substitute for some of the undercard matches in the New Zealand portion of the tour.

69.

Jack Kramer fared poorly against Rosewall in the 1957 series, and he lost again to Rosewall in the quarterfinals of the 1958 French Professional Championships.

70.

Jack Kramer lost in the first round at the Wembley tournament in 1959 to Rosewall.

71.

Jack Kramer 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.

72.

Jack Kramer was regarded by some tennis historians as one of the greatest players ever.

73.

Jack 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.

74.

Jack Kramer incorporated his own company "World Tennis Inc Tours" in 1952 to manage the major professional world tours.

75.

Jack Kramer 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.

76.

Jack Kramer 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, Andres Gimeno, Robert Haillet, Kurt Nielsen, Barry MacKay and Butch Buchholz in 1960 and Luis Ayala in 1961.

77.

In 1959 and 1960 Jack Kramer arranged four-man tours for the World Championship title.

78.

In 1959, Jack Kramer organized a year-long series of 15 tournaments in Australia, North America, and Europe linked by a points system to create a ranking of all the 12 professionals under contract to his World Tennis Inc Tours, with a significant bonus money award to the number one finisher.

79.

Jack Kramer arranged a tournament points series for 1960, although both Gonzales and Hoad withdrew and there were no announced final results.

80.

In 1964, Jack Kramer advised and helped arrange a five-month series of 17 tournaments in the United States and Europe with a points system to determine the rankings of the touring pros.

81.

Jack Kramer had planned an important women's professional tour for 1955 between Maureen Connolly and defending world professional champion Pauline Betz, but it failed to materialize due to Connolly's career-ending injury.

82.

Jack Kramer terminated his own company World Tennis Inc Tours in early 1960, but remained as promoter and manager of the new International Professional Tennis Players Association, which was owned by the players themselves and assumed responsibility for the pro player contracts.

83.

Jack 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.

84.

Jack Kramer was a relentless advocate for the establishment of Open Tennis between amateur and professional players.

85.

Jack Kramer ranked the best possessors of tennis shots as of 1979:.

86.

Jack Kramer's serve and forehand were equal to the best players in the game, but he would not talk about his own strokes.

87.

Jack Kramer attended Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and he played on the tennis team in the 1941 and 1942 seasons.

88.

Jack 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.

89.

Jack Kramer was paired with Dan Maskell in the commentators booth.

90.

Jack Kramer returned to the BBC to commentate on the 1976 Wimbledon championships and the 1996 Australian Open men's singles final.

91.

Jack Kramer was the first host of BBC TV's Wimbledon evening highlights programme from 1964 to 1970.

92.

Jack Kramer commentated for NBC from 1954 to 1962, ABC from 1965 to 1973 and CBS from 1968 to 1973.

93.

Jack Kramer was the son of a blue-collar railroad worker for the Union Pacific railroad.

94.

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, Jack Kramer decided to concentrate on tennis.

95.

Jack Kramer invested in the Professional Tennis Tour, the Jack Kramer Tennis Club in Palos Verdes, California.

96.

Jack Kramer died from a soft tissue cancer on September 12,2009, at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

97.

Jack Kramer was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1968.