Dick Savitt - WikiHQ

Richard Savitt (March 4, 1927 – January 6, 2023) was an American tennis player.

In 1951, at the age of 24, he won both the Australian and Wimbledon men's singles championships. Savitt was mostly ranked world No. 2 the same year behind fellow amateur Frank Sedgman, but he was declared world No. 1 by The New York Times following his Wimbledon victory. He taught himself tennis at the age of 14 and never took a tennis lesson in his life.

His first love was basketball, and when his family moved to Texas, he was an All-State forward and a co-captain of the basketball team at El Paso High School in 1944. Nationally he was the 8th-ranked junior tennis player, and the 17th-ranked amateur overall.

In 1945, Savitt entered the Navy, stationed at the Naval Air Station in Memphis, Tennessee. However, two injuries, one to his knee, curtailed his basketball career. He was 57–2 in singles for his college career, and he graduated in June 1950. That was despite the fact that Savitt did not compete in 1953–55. He became the first American since Don Budge, 13 years earlier, to win both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in one season. In the Jewish parts of North London, Savitt said "Nobody knew tennis there, but after I won people started picking up rackets". This, in turn, kept many Jewish tennis players from obtaining the training they needed to compete at the highest levels. He made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open in January 1952. In February 1952, he beat Bill Talbert to win the U.S. National Indoor championship. He won the Canadian singles and doubles championships in 1952, defeating Kurt Nielsen in the singles final in three straight sets.

Davis Cup snub and retirement

Savitt had played and won his three early 1951 matches in an exhibition against the Australian Davis Cup team, winning 9 of 10 sets as the American team beat Australia in the event. Allison Danzig, the senior American tennis writer, called him America's best hope for victory. Without Savitt playing singles, and with Schroeder losing two of his three matches, the United States lost the 1951 Davis Cup to Australia. Members of the Association's Eastern, New England, Southern, Florida, and Texas delegations, whose chief spokesman was Gardnar Mulloy, were in favor of Savitt being named the No. 1 tennis player in the U.S. As it was reported by Time magazine, "the loudest talker was Frank Shields, non-playing captain of the losing U.S. Davis Cup team. Shields had ignored Savitt in the Davis Cup matches, had put his confidence in aging (30) Ted Schroeder ... who turned out to be the goat of the series. Shields was intent on keeping Savitt ranked ... at No. 3. Cried Shields: 'Never once in the past three months has Savitt looked like a champion. Don McNeill, the 1940 U.S. champion, answered Shields' outburst by pointing out that players are ranked on their tennis ability, that personal prejudice should have nothing to do with ranking, and that Shields' remarks were "uncalled for". Australian Davis Cup team Harry Hopman called his arguments as to why Savitt should not be ranked No. 1 "weak".[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=m-8pAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ryMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3346,2423655&dq=frank-shields+davis-cup+savitt&hl=en ] Still, a never-before-required proxy vote was needed to decide the No. 1 spot.

In February 1952, Savitt announced that he would play only one more tournament, the National Indoor Championships, and then retire from tournament tennis—at age 25. Savitt did not believe that anti-Semitism was the cause of his problems with Shields.

Part-time comeback

Savitt returned to the competitive tennis scene part-time in 1954. In April 1954 he won the clay court River Oaks Championshipsin Houston, Texas defeating Sven Davidson, Gardnar Mulloy, Vic Seixas, and Ham Richardson in the final, the latter three members of the U.S. Davis Cup team.

In August 1957 he won the Eastern Grass Court Championships at South Orange, New Jersey defeating U.S. Davis Cup players Ham Richardson and Vic Seixas in the final two rounds in best-of-five set matches.

In 1958, Savitt moved back to New York for business reasons and launched a part-time comeback in tennis. That year, he won his second National Indoors title, defeating Grant Golden, Kurt Nielsen, and Budge Patty in the final three rounds. In 1961, he captured his third—while remaining a weekend player, defeating Pierre Darmon, Chris Crawford, and U.S. No. 1 Whitney Reed in the final. He was also very active in the Maccabi movement. In his 2007 book The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium of Sports History and The 150 Greatest Jewish Sports Stars, author Peter S. Horvitz ranked Savitt the 9th-greatest Jewish athlete of all time.

Halls of fame

Savitt was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1976. He was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1986. Savitt was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.

After tennis

Following his competitive tennis career, Savitt entered the oil business in Louisiana. Savitt died on January 6, 2023, at the age of 95.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (two titles)

{| class='sortable wikitable'

!Result

!Year

!style="width:180px"|Championship

!Surface

!style="width:135px"|Opponent

!style="width:120px" class="unsortable"|Score

| style="background:#98fb98;"|Win || 1951 || style="background:#ffc;"|Australian Championships || Grass || Ken McGregor || 6–3, 2–6, 6–3, 6–1

| style="background:#98fb98;"|Win || 1951 || style="background:#cfc;"|Wimbledon Championships || Grass || Ken McGregor || 6–4, 6–4, 6–4

Doubles (two runner-ups)

{|class="sortable wikitable"

!Result

!Year

!style="width:180px"|Championship

!Surface

!style="width:135px"|Partner

!style="width:135px"|Opponents

!style="width:120px" class="unsortable"|Score

| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss || 1951 ||style="background:#ebc2af;"|French Championships || Clay|| Gardnar Mulloy || Ken McGregor Frank Sedgman || 2–6, 6–2, 7–9, 5–7

| style="background:#ffa07a;"|Loss || 1952 || style="background:#ebc2af;"|French Championships || Clay || Gardnar Mulloy || Ken McGregor Frank Sedgman || 3–6, 4–6, 4–6

Source: ITF

Grand Slam performance timeline

{| class="wikitable"

! Tournament !! 1944 !! 1945 !! 1946 !! 1947 !! 1948 !! 1949 !! 1950 !! 1951 !! 1952 !! 1953-1955 !! 1956 !! 1957 !! 1958 !! 1959

|style="background:#EFEFEF;"|Australian

| align="center" |A

| align="center" style="background:#00ff00;"|W

| align="center" style="background:yellow;"|SF

| align="center" |A

|style="background:#EFEFEF;"|French

| align="center" |A

| align="center" style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF

| align="center" |A

|style="background:#EFEFEF;"|Wimbledon

| align="center" |A

| align="center" style="background:#00ff00;"|W

| align="center" style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF

| align="center" |A

|style="background:#EFEFEF;"|U.S.

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

| align="center" |A

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|3R

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|2R

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|3R

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|1R

| align="center" style="background:yellow;"|SF

| align="center" style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF

| align="center" |A

| align="center" style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|4R

| align="center" style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF

| align="center" style="background:#afeeee;"|3R

Source: ITF