Jack Kramer

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Jack Kramer

Kramer in the late 1940s
Full name	John Albert Kramer
Country (sports)	United States
Born	(1921-08-01)August 1, 1921 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Died	September 12, 2009(2009-09-12) (aged 88) Bel Air, California, U.S.
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
Career record	707–305 (69.8%) [1]
Career titles	35 [1]
Highest ranking	no. 1 (1946, Pierre Gillou, Harry Hopman)[2][3]
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, 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.