About Dick Savitt
Richard Savitt (March 4, 1927 – January 6, 2023) was an American tennis player. In 1951, at the age of 24, he won both the Australian and Wimbledon men's singles championships. Savitt was mostly ranked world No. 2 the same year behind fellow amateur Frank Sedgman, but he was declared world No. 1 by The New York Times following his Wimbledon victory. He retired the following year to concentrate on a career in business. Savitt is one of four American men who have won both the Australian and British Championships in one year, following Don Budge (1938) and preceding Jimmy Connors (1974) and Pete Sampras (1994 and 1997). He won gold medals in both singles and men's doubles at the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel. Savitt is enshrined 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. Despite considering tennis his "second" sport after basketball, he won the Texas University Interscholastic League boys singles championship in 1944–1945.
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