Dick Savitt Dies: Richard Savitt was an American tennis player born on March 4, 1927, and died on January 6, 2023. At 24, he won the men’s singles titles at both Wimbledon and Australia. In the same year, Savitt was mainly ranked No. 2 in the world, behind a fellow amateur named Frank Sedgman.
However, The New York Times said he was No. 1 after he won Wimbledon. He left work the following year. Savitt is one of only four American men who have won the Australian and British Championships in the same year. The other three are Don Budge, Jimmy Connors, and Pete Sampras (1994 and 1997).
At the Maccabiah Games in Israel in 1961, he won gold medals in both singles and men’s doubles. Savitt is in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame, the USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame, the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Jewish Wimbledon Champion Dick Savitt Dies At 95!
Richard “Dick” Savitt, the only Jewish person to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles in 1951, died in New York on Friday at 95. He was a big supporter of Israeli tennis and the only Jew to do so. Many people think that Savitt was the best Jewish male tennis player ever.
He was a frequent visitor to Israel and gave his time and advice to many of the country’s best players as they tried to follow in his footsteps. Savitt was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, on March 4, 1927. As a ball boy in South Orange, he fell in love with tennis.
In her book The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All Time, Sandra Hewitt writes, “Savitt loves all sports, but tennis wasn’t even on his radar at first. He was more interested in basketball and baseball. Once Savitt moved to South Orange, he added tennis to his sports routine.
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Someone noticed the kid on the court at the public park. Berkeley [Tennis Club in Orange, New Jersey] was an excellent place for young players and stars who had played in college. Later, Savitt improved at tennis in El Paso, Texas, where he and his family moved when he was 13.
Dick Savitt, first Jewish player to win Wimbledon, @TIME cover star, dies at 95.
“What he has got is a simple, overpowering attack; a smashing serve and deep, hard-hit ground strokes that keep his opponent scrambling in the backcourt, on the defensive.”https://t.co/AHJMjoVms2 pic.twitter.com/lzMiBS4fx8
— Sam Jacobs (@sampjacobs) January 6, 2023
It’s almost unheard of for a self-taught player to reach the highest levels of tennis today, but Savitt did it. He was a natural ball player who also did well at baseball and basketball. He was as good as or better than many of the best players in the early post-War years.
After Savitt graduated from high school in 1945, he joined the US Navy. He only served for a short time because the war ended soon after. Then, he went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to study. If you find this interesting, please forward it to your friends. Visit Lighthousejournal.org for the most up-to-date and recent celebrity news.
Emma is a Master of Science candidate at the California Institute of Technology. Since approximately four years ago, she has been a freelance writer, producing content for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and the internet