Jack Kramer Was Not Politically Correct

If you think Novak Djokovic is politically incorrect, take a look at some of the fearless statements Jack Kramer wrote in his book “The Game”…

Rod Laver: “Laver was a drab personality. In fact when he turned pro in 1963 after winning the grand slam, the interest in tennis had fallen so low there was hardly any fanfare.”

Arthur Ashe: “Everybody wanted him to be a great champion but frankly – and it kills me to say this – Arthur has never been that good… Please understand, I’m not saying Ashe is a bad player, just that the kid had better PR than his record… He is probably the classiest fellow I’ve ever known. He has integrity, loyalty, he’s always honorable and always good company. Arthur Ashe doesn’t do anything wrong except maybe speak out too loud… As smart as he is, he was never a shrewd or tough competitor. Because he was a nice kid to start with, and because he was a southern black growing up in a white country club game, he was taught to be extra polite on the court. That gave him the peace and composure to survive but it also robbed him of the real passion to win.”

“He never could have become a really great player because he never seemed to learn the odds. He’d overplay too many points. There are a lot of points – possibly a majority – in any set that you play only for survival. Let the other player take the risks and make the errors. Everybody knows that at every level of play there are far more points lost than won. But not Arthur. He’d go for the winner on the chalk at 30-40. It was fun to watch but it didn’t win consistently. The greatest two sets of tennis I ever saw in my life were the first two that Ashe and Laver played at Wimbledon semis of 1969. Unlike Ashe, Laver had learned how and when to play it safe but he also could rise to the brilliant heights and he believed that the way to achieve the top of your game was to keep hitting out until it all came together. In this match they both started out shooting the works and you never saw anything like it. Every point was brilliant and there were two, three, four placements a game. Arthur blew Rod out the first set, Laver turned it around in the second but in both sets either man could have whipped anybody else who ever lived. It couldn’t keep up indefinitely and it didn’t. Arthur lapsed in the third set and Laver, who was at the height of his powers then, won in four sets… That was the kind of player Ashe was in the sixties. And he was American and he was the one star not owned by Hunt or McCall. They both knew he was the key.”

Pancho Gonzales: “Pancho never seemed to get along with his various wives although this never stopped him from getting married. Segura once said, ‘You know, the nicest thing Gorgo ever says to his wife is, Shut up.'”

Women’s tennis: “When I helped run the Pacific Southwest, which always had a top female field, I watched carefully and saw the truth: namely, that people get up and go get a hot dog or go to the bathroom when the women come on.”

Jack Kramer Biofile interview

Jack Kramer won Wimbledon in 1947, US Open, US Pro, Davis Cup, he was world no. 1 in 1946 and 1947. The Las Vegas-born legend was one of the most important figures in the establishment of modern men’s “Open” era tennis and was the leading promoter of professional tennis tours in the 1950s and 1960s. Kramer passed away in 2009 at age 88. He was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1968 and his book The Game was published in 1979.

Arthur Ashe · Jack Kramer · Rod Laver

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