American tennis player (1927?2023)
Dick Savitt
|
Full name
| Richard Savitt
|
---|
Country (sports)
|
United States
|
---|
Born
| (
1927-03-04
)
March 4, 1927
Bayonne, New Jersey
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| January 6, 2023
(2023-01-06)
(aged 95)
Manhattan
, New York, U.S.
|
---|
Height
| 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
|
---|
Turned pro
| 1944 (amateur tour)
|
---|
Retired
| 1952 (played part-time afterwards)
|
---|
Plays
| Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
|
---|
College
| Cornell University
(57?2 record in singles)
|
---|
Int. Tennis HoF
| 1976
(
member page
)
|
---|
|
Career record
| 320-105
|
---|
Career titles
| 37
|
---|
Highest ranking
| No.
1
(July 1951,
The New York Times
)
[1]
|
---|
|
Australian Open
| W
(
1951
)
|
---|
French Open
| QF (
1951
,
1952
)
|
---|
Wimbledon
| W
(
1951
)
|
---|
US Open
| SF (
1950
,
1951
)
|
---|
|
|
French Open
| F (1951, 1952)
|
---|
|
Richard Savitt
(March 4, 1927 ? January 6, 2023) was an American tennis player.
[2]
[3]
[4]
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.
[4]
[1]
He retired the following year to concentrate on a career in business. Savitt is one of four American men who have won both the Australian and British Championships in one year, following
Don Budge
(1938) and preceding
Jimmy Connors
(1974) and
Pete Sampras
(1994 and 1997). He won
gold medals
in both singles and men's doubles at the
1961 Maccabiah Games
in Israel.
Savitt is enshrined in the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
, the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame
, the
USTA
Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame, the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
, and the
National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Savitt was born in Bayonne, New Jersey to a Jewish family.
[2]
[5]
[6]
He taught himself tennis at the age of 14 and never took a tennis lesson in his life.
[2]
[3]
[4]
The self-taught Savitt made the finals of the New Jersey Boys Championship, and for two years, the
National Boys Tennis Tournament
before moving to the junior ranks.
[2]
He and his family moved to El Paso, Texas, in 1944, as his mother had a bad skin condition and needed the warmer weather.
[7]
[8]
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.
[2]
[3]
Despite considering tennis his "second" sport after basketball, he won the Texas
University Interscholastic League
boys singles championship in 1944?1945.
[9]
Nationally he was the 8th-ranked junior tennis player, and the 17th-ranked amateur overall.
[2]
[10]
In 1945, Savitt entered the Navy, stationed at the
Naval Air Station in Memphis, Tennessee
.
[8]
[2]
College
[
edit
]
Beginning in 1946, Savitt attended Cornell University, where he majored in economics, was a member of the
Pi Lambda Phi
fraternity, and he was elected a member of the
Sphinx Head Society
.
[11]
[12]
[13]
However, two injuries, one to his knee, curtailed his basketball career.
[2]
[3]
Savitt resumed playing tennis.
[2]
He became Cornell's tennis team captain and its #1 singles and doubles player.
[3]
[14]
[15]
In 1947, he was ranked # 26 in the U.S., and two years later he was ranked # 17.
[3]
In 1949 and 1950, as a junior and a senior, he won the Eastern Intercollegiate Tournament, and he won the doubles title with Leonard Steiner from 1948 to 1950.
[13]
[15]
He was 57?2 in singles for his college career, and he graduated in June 1950.
[15]
Post-college tennis career
[
edit
]
Savitt ranked in the world's top 10 four times between 1951 and 1957 (# 2 in 1951); and in the U.S. top 10 six times between 1950 and 1959.
[16]
That was despite the fact that Savitt did not compete in 1953?55.
[16]
Among Savitt's major victories were the 1951 Wimbledon singles championship and the 1951 Australian Open. He also won the 1952, 1958, and 1961 USLTA National Indoor Championships, becoming the first player to win that crown three times, and won the Italian doubles. He won the
Canadian
singles and doubles championships in 1952.
1950?1953
[
edit
]
In 1950, he won the
Eastern Clay Court Championships
defeating
Don McNeill
in the final in four sets and the
New York State Championships
defeating McNeill in a five-set final.
[3]
Still without any coaching, in 1950 Savitt reached the
U. S. Tennis Championship
semifinals at
Forest Hills
, losing to
Art Larsen
.
[2]
[3]
In 1951, at the age of 24, Savitt won the
Wimbledon
Singles Championship. Along the way he beat Larsen, the No. 1 U.S. player, in straight sets, and
Herbert Flam
, the No. 2 U.S. player.
[13]
He won the
Australian Open
Singles title, winning in straight sets in the 61-minute final against
Ken McGregor
.
[13]
[17]
He became the first American since
Don Budge
, 13 years earlier, to win both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in one season.
[15]
Savitt became the first Jewish male player to win either tournament.
[2]
[3]
[6]
[18]
In the Jewish parts of North London, Savitt said "Nobody knew tennis there, but after I won people started picking up rackets".
[6]
In addition, he became the first Jewish athlete to appear on the
cover of
Time
magazine
.
[5]
[19]
The significance of a Jewish tennis player succeeding was rooted in the fact that tennis was still at the time primarily a country club sport, and many country clubs often did not allow Jews in as members and did not allow them to use their courts.
[3]
[20]
This, in turn, kept many Jewish tennis players from obtaining the training they needed to compete at the highest levels.
[3]
Savitt was ranked second in the world in 1951.
[4]
He was ranked the No. 1 player on the United States
Davis Cup
Team.
[4]
[19]
He made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open in January 1952.
[21]
In February 1952, he beat
Bill Talbert
to win the U.S. National Indoor championship.
[22]
He won the
Canadian
singles and doubles championships in 1952, defeating
Kurt Nielsen
in the singles final in three straight sets.
[15]
In September 1952, he beat Art Larsen to win the Pacific Coast men's singles tennis championship.
[5]
[23]
Davis Cup snub and retirement
[
edit
]
In those days, to be Jewish in the top ranks of tennis was to encounter a certain amount of prejudice. ... when Dick Savitt won Wimbledon, his right to a place on the Davis Cup team was challenged in some circles because he was Jewish.
[24]
?
Arthur Ashe
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.
[
citation needed
]
Allison Danzig
, the senior American tennis writer, called him America's best hope for victory.
[2]
He had defeated
Frank Sedgman
, Australia's best player, in the 1951 Australian Open.
[2]
[3]
Ted Schroeder
, who had lost all three of his Davis Cup matches while losing 9 out of 10 sets in the process the year before and who was in semi-retirement, was chosen by non-playing captain
Frank Shields
.
[2]
Five of the top 10 players in the U.S. publicly accused Shields of "obvious prejudice" in his choosing the team.
[25]
Without Savitt playing singles, and with Schroeder losing two of his three matches, the United States lost the 1951 Davis Cup to Australia.
[2]
The controversy spilled over into the next year when the 1951 nationally ranked players were bitterly debated at the January 1952
U.S. Lawn Tennis Association
annual meeting.
[26]
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.
[27]
However, Shields attacked Savitt in a "biting", "unprecedented" speech, which observers said swung the vote against Savitt.
[27]
[28]
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".
[26]
That met with "resounding applause" from the delegates.
[29]
Australian Davis Cup team
Harry Hopman
called his arguments as to why Savitt should not be ranked No. 1 "weak".
[2]
Still, a never-before-required proxy vote was needed to decide the No. 1 spot.
[27]
[28]
Savitt was ranked the No. 2 player in the U.S. by the
U.S. Lawn Tennis Association
, behind
Vic Seixas
and directly ahead of
Tony Trabert
.
[27]
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.
[3]
He later explained that there was insufficient money in the amateur game to support his needs, requiring him to pursue his business career.
[30]
Savitt did not believe that anti-Semitism was the cause of his problems with Shields.
[31]
Savitt had beaten Shields badly in the quarterfinals of the New Jersey State Championships in 1948. Also, Shields had been excluded from the 1933 U.S. Davis Cup team despite being ranked U.S. No. 1 for that year by the USLTA.
[32]
[33]
Part-time comeback
[
edit
]
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.
[2]
In 1981, he and his son, Robert, won the U.S. Father-Son doubles title.
[15]
Maccabiah Games; Israel
[
edit
]
In 1961, he won gold medals in both singles (defeating American
Mike Franks
in the final), and doubles (with Franks, defeating South Africans
Rod Mandelstam
and Julie Mayers), at the
1961 Maccabiah Games
in Israel, the third-largest sporting event in the world.
[34]
[2]
[35]
He was also very active in the
Maccabi
movement.
[2]
Savitt in addition helped develop the
Israel Tennis Centers
, beginning in 1973.
[2]
[15]
In 1998, he was the
ITA
overseas tennis director.
[36]
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.
[37]
Halls of fame
[
edit
]
Savitt was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
in 1976.
[3]
Savitt was inducted into the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
in 1979.
[3]
[38]
He was inducted into the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame
in 1986.
[39]
Savitt was inducted into the
National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
in 1998,
[40]
and into the
USTA
Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.
[41]
After tennis
[
edit
]
Following his competitive tennis career, Savitt entered the oil business in Louisiana.
[2]
He then worked for
Lehman Brothers
, and in 1985, he joined
Schroders
.
[42]
Savitt died on January 6, 2023, at the age of 95.
[43]
Grand Slam finals
[
edit
]
Singles (two titles)
[
edit
]
Doubles (two runner-ups)
[
edit
]
Grand Slam performance timeline
[
edit
]
Key
W
|
F
|
SF
|
QF
|
#R
|
RR
|
Q#
|
DNQ
|
A
|
NH
|
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W?L) win?loss record.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Savitt beats McGregor in straight sets to capture Wimbledon tennis title"
.
The New York Times
. July 7, 1951. p. 9 Sports.
Archived
from the original on July 22, 2018
. Retrieved
July 22,
2018
.
Dick Savitt of Orange, N. J. ... established himself as the world's No. 1 amateur player today when he won the Wimbledon men's singles title by defeating Ken McGregor of Australia
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
Michael Feldberg (2002).
Blessings of Freedom: Chapters in American Jewish history
. KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
ISBN
0-88125-756-7
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
July 19,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
David J. Goldman (2006).
Jewish Sports Stars: Athletic Heroes Past and Present
. Kar-Ben Publishing.
ISBN
1-58013-183-2
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
July 19,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Joseph Siegman (2000).
Jewish sports legends: the International Jewish Hall of Fame
. Brassey's.
ISBN
1-57488-284-8
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
July 19,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
Bob Wechsler (2008).
Day by day in Jewish sports history
. KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
ISBN
978-1-60280-013-7
.
Archived
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. Retrieved
July 19,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
Bruce Schoenfeld (2004).
The match: Althea Gibson and Angela Buxton: how two outsiders?one Black, the other Jewish?forged a friendship and made sports
. HarperCollins.
ISBN
0-06-052652-1
.
Archived
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. Retrieved
July 19,
2016
.
- ^
"Dick Savitt T"
.
www.njsportsheroes.com
.
- ^
a
b
"Dick Savitt, The 1951 Wimbledon Champion, Is the Greatest Jewish Tennis Player of All Time - Tennis Grandstand"
. July 1, 2022.
- ^
"UIL Boys Tennis State Champions"
. Uil100.org. Archived from
the original
on March 21, 2012.
- ^
"Ray Sanchez: Wimbledon champ named El Paso High's 2014 'Ex'
"
.
El Paso Inc
.
- ^
Pi Lambda Phi 2010 Membership Directory
- ^
Morris Bishop (1962).
A history of Cornell
. Cornell University Press. p.
603
.
ISBN
0-8014-0036-8
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Winners at Wimbledon"
.
Time
. July 16, 1951. Archived from
the original
on November 23, 2010.
- ^
Glenn W. Ferguson (2004).
Sports in America: fascination and blemishes
. Sunstone Press.
ISBN
0-86534-419-1
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
July 19,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"1999 Inductees"
. USTA Eastern Hall Of Fame. July 7, 1951. Archived from
the original
on February 3, 2011
. Retrieved
March 22,
2011
.
- ^
a
b
"Richard "Dick" Savitt"
. Jewishsports.net. Archived from
the original
on January 11, 2006
. Retrieved
March 22,
2011
.
- ^
"Skyrocketing Net Star Clinches Place in Sun"
.
LIFE
. July 16, 1951.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
Jonny Geller (2006).
Yes, but is it good for the Jews?: a beginner's guide
. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
ISBN
1-59691-205-7
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
American Jewish Historical Society (1999).
American Jewish desk reference
. Random House.
ISBN
0-375-40243-8
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
Peter Levine (1993).
Ellis Island to Ebbets Field: Sport and the American Jewish Experience
. Oxford University Press US. p.
314
.
ISBN
0-19-508555-8
.
Savitt.
- ^
"Australian Net Star Aids U.S. Team Captain"
.
The Calgary Herald
. January 28, 1952.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
"Savitt Slashes Net Win Over Indoor Champ"
.
Toledo Blade
. February 24, 1952.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
[Displaying Abstract] (March 2, 2011).
"Savitt Victor Over Larsen, 10-8, 6-3, 6-4 - Shirley Fry Captures Pacific Coast Final"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on July 22, 2018
. Retrieved
July 22,
2018
.
- ^
Arthur Ashe, Arnold Rampersad (1994).
Days of Grace
. Random House.
ISBN
0-345-38681-7
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
"Netters Challenge Shields' Davis Cup Picks"
.
The Sun
. January 14, 1952.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
a
b
"x"
.
Sunday Herald
. January 13, 1952.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Seixas voted nation's No. 1 amateur tennis player in 1951"
.
Reading Eagle
. January 20, 1952. p. 26.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
– via Google News Archive.
- ^
a
b
"Seixas placed ahead of Savitt"
.
Eugene Register-Guard
. January 19, 1952. p. 13.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
– via Google News Archive.
- ^
"Sport: Most Unseemly"
.
Time
. January 28, 1952. Archived from
the original
on November 25, 2010.
- ^
Commentary: Schwartzman Unrestricted.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/rick-marin/schwartzman-unrestricted/
- ^
Commentary: Schwartzman Unrestricted.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/rick-marin/schwartzman-unrestricted/
- ^
USTA Rankings.
https://www.usta.com/en/home/about-usta/usta-history/national/mens-womens-year-end-top-10.html#tab=men's
- ^
"Recovery: Man of the Year, 1933"
.
Time
. January 1, 1934. Archived from
the original
on November 12, 2010
. Retrieved
March 27,
2011
.
- ^
"U.S. SQUAD VICTOR IN 16 MORE FINALS; Gubner and Savitt Triumph as Maccabiah Games End"
.
timesmachine.nytimes.com
.
- ^
Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, Moshe Schwartz (2005).
One thousand one facts everyone should know about Israel
. Rowman & Littlefield.
ISBN
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.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
Leon, Jack (December 12, 1988).
"Israeli Juniors Hit the Trail"
.
Jerusalem Post
.
Archived
from the original on November 6, 2012
. Retrieved
July 6,
2017
.
- ^
Peter S. Horvitz (2007).
The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium of Sports History and The 150 Greatest Jewish Sports Stars
. SP Books.
ISBN
9781561719075
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
"Friedman Recalls Football's Past"
.
Reading Eagle
. February 11, 1979.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
[1]
Archived
December 2, 2006, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Jewish Sports Hall of Fame"
. Archived from
the original
on February 10, 2007
. Retrieved
March 25,
2007
.
- ^
"USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame 1999"
. USTA. Archived from
the original
on February 3, 2011
. Retrieved
March 22,
2011
.
- ^
Barry Tarshis (January 8, 1973).
"Can Ex-Athletes Make it on Wall Street"
.
New York
.
Archived
from the original on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
November 26,
2020
.
- ^
"Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Dick Savitt dies aged 95"
. ABC News. January 7, 2023
. Retrieved
January 7,
2023
.
External links
[
edit
]
Articles and topics related to Dick Savitt
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Men
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