Word: backhanded
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Horn. After five grueling sets, Big Jake wobbled to the marquee none too pleased about his narrow victory: "My racket felt like a baseball bat." Two days later he squared off against ex-Champion Don Budge. Again Big Jake was carried to five sets. Budge's famous backhand was never better, but at 33, his stamina was not so good. Despite all the tea and sugar he consumed, Budge collapsed in the fifth set, won only one point...
...slammed back Kramer's seemingly unretrievable smashes. Though he once declined all invitations to the net, he now rushed it incessantly. He had found that Kramer's weakest spot was his backhand. When Riggs won the match in straight sets (6-3, 6-3), there was little doubt in 6,529 minds about which was the better player. But next night everything was different. Riggs did not have the same zip; Big Jake won the first set at love and the second one 7-5. As the crowd milled out, there was considerable mumbling & grumbling. What was going...
...plays tennis the way Joe Louis stalks an opponent in the ring. He is always boring in, always making the other fellow feel he is doomed unless he does something tremendous. Both his backhand and forehand carry deceptive depth and pace. All who play against him have the same complaint: "He makes you feel like you are backing up and backing up until you can't back up any farther." And at that point, Jake has most likely worked his way forward to the net for the clincher. Says he: "After a forcing shot, the odds of clinching...
...service." He is so sure of it that he plans to break through his opponent's serve only once each set. The exception: when the opponent has a weak serve which can be broken without any extra effort. His one & only stroke weakness used to be a backhand that was too flat, but he worked on it patiently, finally got it steadied down until it was as effective as his forehand...
...Four. Perry Jones (TIME, Aug. 12, 1946), mother hen of California's tennis chicks, was the first of four men who helped mold Jake Kramer into a champion. Fussbudget Perry Jones-who says "I don't care how you hit your backhand . . . how do your pants look?"-liked the kid's looks; he was neat and polite. At Jones's suggestion the Kramer family moved in closer to Los Angeles where many of the good tennis players lived...