Grand Slam Memories: Budge, Laver Ponder Possibilities

It was nearly a half century ago that a gangling redhead from California in long white flannels swept the four major international tennis championships to complete the sport’s first Grand Slam.

And it was almost another quarter century before Don Budge’s feat was duplicated by a scrawny, undersized Australian named Rod Laver, who not only won the four biggies in 1962 as an amateur but repeated in 1969 as a professional.

Since then, no one among the men has crashed the exclusive Grand Slam Society.

On the women’s side, only Maureen Connolly in 1953 and Margaret Court in 1970 have won the four major events in the same calendar year.

As the U.S. Open wound down this week at the antiseptic, madcap National Tennis Center in suburban Flushing Meadow, court observers pondered the question:

Can anyone, under prevailing conditions, ever again score a Grand Slam? Budge and Laver focused their answers on the men.

“I can’t say, ‘Never,’ ” said Budge, who traveled from his home in Pennsylvania to watch the U.S. Open. “Some day, someone may come along but I don’t see any member of the present crop doing it.”

“It’s possible but unlikely,” added Laver, who holds forth at the Silver Sands Racquet Club in Newport Beach, Calif.

“Conditions have changed so much since Don and I won it,” he said. “When we played, three of the major events -- the Australian, U.S. and Wimbledon championships -- were all played on grass with only one, the French, on slow clay.

“Now the Grand Slam is played on four different surfaces -- the French on clay, Wimbledon on grass, the U.S. Open on composition hard court and the Australian on a rubbery, flexible new surface which has just been adopted for the l988 tournament.

“Besides, while there may not be that many great players, there are more good players than ever before. We had an easier road to the late rounds.”

Budge agrees.

“When I was at the top of my game in 1937 and 1938, I felt the only man I had to beat was Gottfried Von Cramm of Germany,” he said.

In those two years, Budge didn’t lose a single competitive match until near the end of 1938 when he played a lackadaisical match against Australia’s Harry Hopman.

Both Budge and Laver dominated their fields as only Bill Tilden did in the past and no one has since.

Budge said the term “Grand Slam” had not come into usage until he had swept the boards clean in 1938.

“I think Allison Danzig (late of the New York Times) used it after I had scored the Slam,” he said.

Actually, the term became part of the sports jargon after Bob Jones won the British Open and Amateur and the U. S. Open and Amateur golf championships in 1930.

Even then “Grand Slam” was borrowed from another activity -- contract bridge.

In all cases, it means, “take all the tricks.”

The elusiveness of tennis’ Grand Slam is evidenced by the fact that the honor escaped such great players as Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, France’s Four Musketeers (Lacoste, Cochet, Borotra and Brugnon), Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzalez, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe.

Laver, visiting the Open, said he thought Ivan Lendl, the Czech who holds No. 1 world ranking among the men, had the best chance of achieving the Grand Slam but probably will find Wimbledon a stumbling block.

“Lendl has a professional approach to the game,” Laver said. “There is no foolishness about him. He is tenacious, keeps fit and has good power and movement. But it seems at Wimbledon he will always be worrying about how the ball is going to bounce.

“Boris Becker has a lot of athletic ability but is too wild. He has a habit of losing matches in the early rounds. But he is young and still learning. Pat Cash is at home at Wimbledon but has difficulty on hard courts. Stefan Edberg has the best volley and is good on grass but his forehand is shaky and he is less comfortable on hard courts and clay.

“I was impressed with Mecir (Miloslav Mecir, the Czech who was runner-up to Lendl in the 1986 Open) but he looked terrible at Wimbledon. Of course, Jimmy Connors is always a threat because he has so much fight and John McEnroe has wonderful talent which he has allowed to deteriorate because of his tantrums. I think both have lost their chances.”

Budge also once felt there was a great future in young Mecir, called the “Big Cat,” but had his assessment changed by recent matches. What Budge had interpreted as tremendous poise might have been no more than lack of fire and spirit.

“I was impressed by his matches earlier in the year against Lendl but lately he has been a disappointment,” Budge said. ‘He plays as if he wishes he were somewhere else, maybe going fishing.

“Lendl has the best chance for the Grand Slam but I doubt if he can ever get over his paranoia over Wimbledon. He’s had 10 years at trying to win there. Now he’s getting to a stage where he wants to hurry and get off the court to play golf.”

Budge said Becker bashes the ball too much and needs more patience -- “it may come as he matures” -- and Edberg, while possessing a sound, all-around game, doesn’t seem to have the spark needed to dominate. Jimmy Connors is a gutsy player but he lacks an imposing service and never corrected that flawed forehand approach to the net. As we all know, McEnroe is his own worst enemy.”

Both Laver and Budge scoffed at the present day practice of the top stars of traveling with private coaches and an entourage, personnel to dictate their training regimen, muscle development and diet.

“It’s funny,” said Laver. “When I came up with all those Australians in the 1960s, Harry Hopman helped us in Davis Cup matches but otherwise we fended for ourselves. We did all the wrong things -- took salt tablets, ate steak and eggs and washed it down with beer.”

Budge said he didn’t think today’s players were helped by coaches sitting in the stands giving signals.

“When I played Von Cramm at Wimbledon in our famous Davis Cup Inter-Zone match in 1937,” Budge recalled, referring to what tennis historians call the greatest match ever played, “the time Gottfried got a telephone call from Adolf Hitler. I fell behind 1-4 in the fifth set and everybody thought I’d had it. I determined I’d change tactics, attack the net after every shot. It worked. No coach could have made that decision, I had to do it myself.”