By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Don Budge was the first player in tennis history to win the Grand Slam of tennis in 1938 when he swept in one year all four major championships – the Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. titles. However, it was five years earlier in 1933 when the term “Grand Slam” was first used in context of sweeping all four tennis titles in a year and, if not for some very strange circumstances, would have been the first year that the feat was achieved.
Jack Crawford, from New South Wales in Australia, was the dominant player in men’s tennis in 1933. He won the Australian and French Championships as well as Wimbledon and reached the final of the U.S. Championships at Forest Hills where he faced Fred Perry of Great Britain. Crawford led Perry two sets to one – one set from winning the first-ever Grand Slam – but won only one game in the final two sets, losing to Perry 6-3, 11-13, 4-6, 6-0, 6-1as Perry won his first major singles title.
In his official biography “Don Budge: A Tennis Memoir,” Budge discusses the Crawford quest in his chapter “The Grand Slam – My Favorite Invention” and discusses in detail how a bit too much brandy caused Crawford from becoming the first player to win the Grand Slam.
“Jack was asthmatic, and particularly, on the hotter, muggier days – as this one was – the condition could begin to bother him,” wrote Budge of Crawford playing Perry in the final of the U.S. Championship on September 10, 1933 . “To help his breathing in these circumstances, Crawford would often take a bracing shot of brandy before a match, or, if conditions warranted, even in the midst of one. Against Perry and, no doubt, also against a high autumnal pollen count, frankly, Crawford started hitting the brandy too hard. He had two or three ponies, and his coordination began to suffer. Fred, cold sober, lost only one game to Crawford in the last two sets and thus ended his chances for the first Grand Slam.”
Strangely, drinking brandy was in these times seen by some as a cure for physical ailments. Sidney Wood relayed a story in his book “The Wimbledon Final That Never Was…” (available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257847/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_QqQTvb179H9NV) where after losing a five-set match to Rene Lacoste at Roland Garros and being treated with brandy shots before playing the mixed doubles final – drunk – with Helen Wills Moody, as can be read here in this excerpt: http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/4580
Incidentally, Crawford, in nearly completing the first-ever Grand Slam, almost didn’t even play at the U.S. Championships. According to Bud Collins in his book “The Bud Collins History of Tennis,” Crawford, after winning at Wimbledon, had planned to return to Australia after being away from home for five months, suffering from exhaustion after having won 13 straight tournaments while also ailing from insomnia and asthma. However, the U.S. Tennis Association made a deal with the Australian Association to pay them $1,500 to bring Crawford to Forest Hills, in an effort to further advance the event. Crawford’s attempt to sweep all four major titles at the 1933 U.S. Championships prompted the first official reference to the term “Grand Slam” as outlined in this story, “The Grand Slam – Origins and Correct Verbiage: here http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/12027
