Between the wars
Germany · born Nettlingen, Lower Saxony, 1909 · died 1976 · right-handed · Wimbledon runner-up three years running
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3
Wimbledon singles finals in a row, 1935 to 1937, a record for a runner-up
1933
Wimbledon mixed title with Hilde Krahwinkel, the first Wimbledon title for Germany
1
World ranking in 1937
82-19
Davis Cup record for Germany, 1932 to 1953
6-0, 6-1
His win over Bobby Riggs in the 1939 Queen's Club final
Baron Gottfried von Cramm was born in 1909 at Schloss Nettlingen, near Hanover, the third of seven sons in an old noble family. He first played for Germany in the Davis Cup in 1932, won the Wimbledon mixed doubles with Hilde Krahwinkel in 1933 and the French Championships in 1934, beating Jack Crawford in five sets. He won Roland Garros again in 1936, beating Fred Perry, and in 1937, when he was ranked world No. 1, he won the French and US doubles with Henner Henkel.
At Wimbledon he lost three singles finals in a row: to Perry in 1935 and 1936 and to Don Budge in 1937. Weeks after the last of them he lost to Budge again on Centre Court in the deciding rubber of the Davis Cup Interzone Final, a match long counted among the greatest ever played. He refused to join the Nazi party. In 1938 he was arrested and jailed on morals charges over a relationship with a man, and was released after several months. In 1939 he won the Queen's Club Championships but was not allowed to play Wimbledon.
He was conscripted in 1940, served on the Eastern Front, where he was decorated and evacuated with frostbite, and was discharged in 1942. After the war he won the German championship again in 1948 and 1949, at 40, played Davis Cup until 1953 and led the revival of the Rot-Weiss club in Berlin, which he chaired from 1958. He was briefly married to the heiress Barbara Hutton. He died in a car accident near Cairo in November 1976 and entered the International Tennis Hall of Fame the following year.
| Wimbledon finals | 1935: lost to Fred Perry 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. 1936: lost to Perry 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 in 40 minutes while struggling with a leg injury, the joint shortest men's final by games. 1937: lost to Don Budge 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon mixed 1933 | Unseeded with Hilde Krahwinkel, beat Norman Farquharson and Mary Heeley 7-5, 8-6 |
| Davis Cup 1937, Centre Court | Interzone Final, deciding rubber: lost to Don Budge 8-6, 7-5, 4-6, 2-6, 6-8, having won the first two sets; the United States won the tie 3-2 |
| Queen's Club 1939 | Beat Bobby Riggs 6-0, 6-1 in the final; Riggs went on to win Wimbledon, from which von Cramm was barred |
| Other Wimbledon results | Doubles semi-finals in 1933 with Eberhard Nourney and 1937 with Henner Henkel; mixed semi-final 1935 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1933 | Mixed doubles | with Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling |
| US Championships | ||
| 1937 | Men's doubles | with Henner Henkel |
| Queen's Club | ||
| 1939 | Men's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"Don, this was absolutely the finest match I have ever played in my life."
The person behind the player.
Childhood
As a boy he lost the top joint of the index finger on his right hand when a horse took more than the sugar lump he was offering it. He began playing tennis at about ten, once the hand had healed.
Source: WikipediaDavis Cup, 1935
At match point for Germany in a doubles rubber against the United States, von Cramm told the umpire the ball had touched his racquet, giving the point to the Americans, who went on to win. To his furious captain he said: "When I chose tennis as a young man, I chose it because it was a gentleman's game."
Source: Tennis MajorsWimbledon, July 1937
As he and Budge were about to walk out for the deciding rubber of the Interzone Final, von Cramm was called to the telephone. He came back and told Budge and Ted Tinling that it had been Hitler, wishing him good luck. Some accounts doubt the call ever took place.
Source: International Tennis Hall of Fame; WikipediaCentre Court, 1937
Von Cramm led by two sets and by 4-1 in the fifth before Budge came back to win 8-6. Budge later called him "the unluckiest good player I've ever known". In September that year von Cramm was on the cover of Time magazine.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameLondon, 1939
Released from prison, he returned to London in 1939 and won the Queen's Club Championships, beating Bobby Riggs 6-0, 6-1 in the final. Wimbledon would not accept his entry because of his conviction, and Riggs won the title there instead.
Source: Tennis Majors; International Tennis Hall of FameBerlin, 1958 to 1976
After the war he helped bring the Rot-Weiss club in Berlin back to life and was its chairman and president from 1958 until his death in a car accident near Cairo in 1976.
Source: International Tennis Hall of FameFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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