Don Budge (born June 13, 1915,Oakland, Calif., U.S.—died Jan. 26, 2000,Scranton, Pa.) was an Americantennis player who was the first to win the Grand Slam—i.e., the four major singles championships,Australia,France, Great Britain, and the United States—in one year (1938).

Budge was active insports as a boy but was not particularly interested in tennis. In the first tournament he entered, however, Budge won theCalifornia state boys’ singles (1930). Representing theUnited States four times (1935–38) in international team competition for theDavis Cup, he won 25 of 29 matches, and in 1937 he led the U.S. team to its first victory since 1926. At Wimbledon in 1937 and again in 1938 he won not only the singles but also the men’s doubles (withGene Mako) and the mixed doubles (withAlice Marble). In the U.S. tournament atForest Hills,New York, he won four titles: two singles (1937–38) and two men’s doubles (1936 and 1938, with Mako). For his feats in 1937 he became the first tennis player to be awarded the James E. Sullivan Memorial Trophy as the outstanding U.S. amateur athlete of the year.

Budge likely would have won more Grand Slams had he not turned professional in late 1938; at the time the tournaments were only open to amateurs. He became a dominant player on the professional circuit, though a shoulder injury suffered during military training in the early 1940s hampered his game. A strong andtenacious competitor, Budge was famous for his backhand, which he used as an offensive rather than a defensive stroke. He wroteBudge on Tennis (1939) and in 1964 was elected to the National Lawn Tennis Association Hall of Fame.

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