Press Release
July 14, 2009

LOS ANGELES COUNTY – On a motion by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, the Board of Supervisors will honor legendary tennis champion Jack Kramer at its July 21st meeting.  

The youngest Davis Cup final round player ever, Jack Kramer was ranked in the U.S. Top Ten five times and was ranked No. 1 in the world in 1946 and 1947, when he won a remarkable 23 of 24 tournaments.  He won ten Grand Slams and 13 United States singles and doubles championships.  In 1954, holding the title of world’s professional tennis champion for seven consecutive years, Kramer began his work promoting tennis events -- the Los Angeles Tennis Open was known as the Jack Kramer Open -- the only World Tour event to be named for a player.  

He was selected by the Associated Press as one of the top ten tennis players of the 20th century and was a world-renowned television commentator, and in 1968, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.  The legendary Wilson tennis racket that bore his fabled name was the all-time selling tennis racket with more than 30,000,000 copies sold worldwide, over a span of 50 years.

He currently works with young players with the USTA National Junior Tennis League Program and the Pacific Southwest Youth Tennis Foundation.  Having been featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines, he won the prestigious Sullivan Award, the USTA’s “Spirit of American Tennis” award, and the International Tennis Federation’s Philippe Chatrier award.