Dick Savitt US tennis star with a thunderous serve who won Wimbledon in one of the shortest finals on record
DICK SAVITT, who has died aged 95, was a feisty, self-taught tennis star who won the 1951 Australian and Wimbledon championships, becoming the first Jewish man to win one of the four majors.
Although anti-semitism was rife, particularly in the upper echelons of preppy American society, he always insisted that this was not the reason for his mystifying omission from the 1951 US Davis Cup final team to face the Australian defending champions. However, many believed that this snub, and not just financial considerations, contributed to his decision to quit the international circuit months later at the peak of his powers.
Richard Savitt, universally known as Dick, was born at Bayonne, New Jersey, on March 4 1927. His father Morris, a meat broker, encouraged the athletic youngster’s early passion for sport, and he excelled at basketball and baseball. He also tried tennis while ball-boying at the Berkeley Club in Orange, New Jersey, and was immediately hooked.
With little money for lessons, he taught himself to play using an instruction manual and copying the style of leading players like Jack Kramer and Bobby Riggs, who competed in tournaments there.
Dick’s mother Kate, née Hoberman, developed an intractable skin condition and the doctor prescribed warmth to alleviate it, so the family moved to El Paso, Texas, where the long hours of sunshine proved the perfect environment for Dick to pursue his sporting goals.
Despite the lack of formal training he was soon among the best tennis players in the state, winning the Texas Junior Championship and reaching No 4 in the national 18-and-under rankings. His muscular 6 ft 3 in frame and intensely competitive attitude made him a daunting opponent, with a booming backhand and flat, powerful serve, though he still hoped to make a career in basketball.
After serving in the US Navy in 1945-46 and excelling in Services basketball tournaments, he won a place to study Economics at Cornell University on a basketball scholarship. But a severe knee injury ended his dreams of playing the sport at the top level so he concentrated on his tennis, winning four straight Eastern Conference Championships.
In 1950, he upset the rankings to reach the final of the US Nationals, and although he was outclassed by the defending champion Art Larsen, the tennis establishment spotted his potential. He graduated from Cornell, reached No 6 in the US senior ranks and began preparing for his first year on the international circuit, mentored by the canny veteran Adrian Quist, who recalled: “He was ceaselessly eager to learn and he profited from every fragment of advice.”
Despite developing a reputation for temperamental outbursts over questionable line calls, Savitt arrived in Melbourne for the Australian Championships in January 1951, radiating well-founded confidence. Unfazed by the presence of several tennis “greats”, he proceeded to out-hit a string of top Australians.
After a comfortable win over John Bromwich, he outlasted the home favourite and defending champion Frank Sedgman in the semi-final. The final, against the Australian serve-and-volleyer Ken Mcgregor, who had clinched the previous Davis Cup victory, was far more straightforward, and Savitt raced through the last two sets for the loss of just four games. He had won his debut major in commanding style, becoming the first non-australian to take the title since his compatriot Don Budge 13 years earlier.
He was an overnight sensation, and all eyes were on him at the French Open that summer, but he lost to the champion Jaroslav Drobny in the semi-final despite taking the first two sets. Leading 4-2 in the decider, he exploded with rage over a minor error and was shattered when the imperturbable Drobny squeaked through by a whisker.
“My grandmother could probably have won that match,” he reflected bitterly afterwards. “It was the toughest loss I ever had at that level.” By Wimbledon Savitt had learnt his lesson and kept his composure as he swept Art Larsen aside in straight sets. In the semi-final he faced his old nemesis Herbie Flam, who had won their 12 previous encounters. Trailing by a set and 1-5, Savitt looked down and out until Flam made the mistake of laughing at the ease of his presumed victory.
This infuriated Savitt, who started going for broke, producing a string of untouchable backhands, and eventually came through in five sets, ecstatic at this unlikely fightback. In his second major final he again faced Ken Mcgregor, well aware of the need to keep him off the net and starve him of lobs to prevent him deploying his mercilessly precise smash.
Savitt’s strategy worked like a charm: he took the initiative with thunderous serving and thumped a string of heavily angled passing shots past the hapless Australian, winning 6-4 6-4 6-4 in 61 minutes, one of the shortest finals on record.
Months later, when the US faced Australia in the Davis Cup Challenge Round, most assumed that Savitt would be an automatic pick. The US captain Frank Shields had other ideas and unexpectedly drafted his friend Ted Schroeder into the team, even though Schroeder, the 1949 Wimbledon champion, was by then a businessman playing tennis part-time.
There was widespread amazement when Schroeder and Vic Seixas were selected to play the singles, with Seixas and Tony Trabert as the doubles pairing. The Australians duly retained the trophy 3-2 and Savitt, outraged, never spoke to Shields again. Although a journalist suggested anti-semitism as an explanation, Savitt preferred to attribute the slight to favouritism, as Seixas was also Jewish. Shields, who had attended a Jewish school categorically denied any racial bias.
Savitt began to consider his long-term future and earning a living. In that amateur era prize money was virtually non-existent, and only those with private incomes or with living and travelling expenses subsidised by their national associations (or the illicit under-the-table payments system for the best players) could continue to travel to international tournaments.
Having received as his reward for winning Wimbledon a silver-gilt trophy and a £10 voucher for Lillywhites, the Piccadilly sports shop, Savitt knew he had to start making money. Although he could have joined the fledgling professional tour that was barnstorming around America, the uncertain, peripatetic existence did not appeal, and he quit tennis to work in the oil industry in Texas and Louisiana.
Four years later he moved into investment banking with Salomon Brothers and began playing again in New York, later working for Lehman Brothers and Schroders. It is a tribute to his natural talent that although only playing part-time he remained in the US Top 10 for several years and won three singles titles in the US National Indoor Championships plus the singles and doubles crowns at the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel, the “Jewish Olympics”.
Savitt’s sharp mind and dry wit concealed great kindness and he became a benefactor of Cornell University, encouraging and mentoring their tennis teams for decades. He was moved when Cornell’s tennis centre was named after him, and he also helped to set up tennis facilities in Israel to provide opportunities for children.
His brief first marriage, to Louise Liberman, a Vogue stylist, ended in divorce but produced a son, Bobby, who also became an accomplished player. Savitt confessed that when after several attempts, he and Bobby won the 1981 National Fathers and Sons title at Forest Hills, it was an even prouder moment than his Wimbledon victory.
He continued playing hard-fought doubles games well into his 80s and always loved watching the US Open and Wimbledon, analysing the strengths of the new generation of stars.
Dick Savitt’s second wife, Annelle Warwick Hayes, died in 2013, and he is survived by his son.