Jack Crawford,

Jack Crawford, born Jack Herbert Crawford, was an Australian tennis player who became the world No. 1 in 1933. In 1979, Crawford was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It was also in the same year that Jack Kramer named Crawford as one of the 21 greatest tennis players of all time. A tennis commentator also once referred to him as the most popular Wimbledon winner in history. Crawford was born in March 1908 and he died in September 1991. He is known as ‘Gentlemen Jack’.

Some of Crawford’s wins include the Australian Singles open in 1931 up to 1933. He also won the Australian Open doubles twice an the Mixed game four times. He won Wimbledon singles in 1933 and became a finalist a year later. In the French Open he won 1 singles title, 1 double and 1 mixed. Crawford failed to win a US singles title, he ended up as a finalist in the 1933 games instead.

This Australian champion was a right-handed player. He was also very beautiful to watch on the court and he made the most of 6 foot 1 inch frame. He was named Tennis World No. 1 in 1933 and spent some time in the top ten rankings.

Crawford quite famous for something he did not do. He is said to have won grand slam before Don Budge. He had supposedly achieved this feat in 1933. In that year, he has already won the French, British and Australian titles, but he still needed to win the American title in order to get a Grand Slam. Unfortunately, he lost that title to British player Fred Perry. His loss was ultimately accredited to his history of asthma. He was already set to win that match, but his strength faded as the gamed neared the end.