Portal:Tennis/Selected biography/30

Don Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American tennis champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional.

Budge is most famous as the first player, male or female, and only American male to win in a single year the four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam of tennis and second male player to win all four Grand Slams tournaments in his career after Fred Perry. He is to date the youngest to achieve that feat. Budge won six consecutive Grand Slam events starting with the 1937 Wimbledon Championships. He turned professional after winning the Grand Slam at the 1938 U.S. National Championships and thereafter played mostly head-to-head matches. Budge won four Pro Slams, achieved on three different surfaces. Budge was considered to have the best backhand in the history of tennis, at least until the emergence of Ken Rosewall in the 1950s and 1960s.

Budge was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport, Rhode Island in 1964.