1938: Tennis

The year in tennis was featured by the victories of J. Donald Budge of Oakland, California, the first amateur champion to hold the four major tennis titles of the world simultaneously. Both Jack Crawford of Australia and Frederick Perry of England held three of these titles at one time but never captured the fourth.

In the finals of the Davis Cup matches, held Sept. 3-6, at Germantown, Pa., Budge defeated both John Bromwich of the Australian team, 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, and Adrian K. Quist of the Australian team, 8-6, 6-1, 6-2. Victory was assured to the United States team when Robert L. Riggs, Jr., of the United States defeated Adrian K. Quist in a surprising match with a score of 4-6, 6-0, 8-6, 6-1. In the doubles, Budge and Gene Mako were defeated by the Australian team of Bromwich and Quist, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4, and 6-2; while in the singles between Bromwich and Riggs, the Australian player triumphed 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. The United States thus won the Davis Cup Championships for the twelfth time, three matches to two. In the United States-Australian women's matches played on the same dates, at East Hampton, Long Island, the Australian women won on the number of sets captured, 15 sets to the American women's 14 sets, after the matches won were tied at 6 to 6.

In the fifty-eighth All-England Tennis Championships, held July 1-4 at Wimbledon, England, Donald Budge captured the men's singles title, overwhelming Henry W. Austin of England, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. In the doubles, Budge and Gene Mako defeated Henner Henkel and Georg von Metaxa of Germany, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 8-6, and in the mixed doubles, Budge and Miss Alice Marble of San Francisco defeated Henner Henkel and Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Fabyan, 6-1, 6-4. The high point of the Wimbledon games, however, was the match between the former rivals Mrs. Helen Wills Moody and Miss Helen Jacobs. Mrs. Moody defeated Miss Jacobs, 6-4, 6-0, to win at Wimbledon for the eighth time. In the finals of the women's doubles, Miss Alice Marble and Mrs. Sarah Palfrey Fabyan defeated Mme. René Mathieu of France and Miss Adeline York of England, 6-2, 6-3.

In the finals of the fifty-seventh United States National Tennis Championships, held Sept. 24 at Forest Hills, Donald Budge captured his fourth major title, the United States National Championship, defeating Gene Mako, 6-3, 6-8, 6-2, and 6-1. Budge then held the Australian title (won Jan. 28, when he defeated John Bromwich, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1), the French hardcourt title (won June 11, when he defeated Roderick Menzel of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4), the British and the United States titles, an unprecedented feat in the history of the sport.

In indoor tennis, the National championships, held March 3-5 in New York, were won by Donald McNeill of Oklahoma City, when he defeated Frank Bowden of New York, 9-7, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. The women's title was captured by Miss Virginia Hollinger, who defeated Miss Katherine Winthrop of Boston, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. Frank Bowden and John Pittman won the men's doubles, beating Gregory Mangin and Wayne Sabin by a score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 9-11, 6-3.

In intercollegiate outdoor circles, the national intercollegiate singles title was won by Frank Guernsey of Rice Institute, by defeating Morey Lewis of Kenyon College, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0, in the finals held at Haverford, Pa., on July 9. Joseph Hunt and John Wetherell of Southern California captured the national doubles title, overwhelming Morey Lewis and Donald McNeill by a score of 6-2, 6-2, and 6-4.