Don Budge - Military Service

Military Service

He then joined the United States Army Air Force to serve in World War II. At the beginning of 1943 in an obstacle course he tore a muscle in his shoulder. In his book 'A Tennis Memoir' page 144 he said:

"The tear didn't heal, and the scar tissue that was formed complicated the injury and made it even serious. Nevertheless...I was able to carry on with my military duties...as long as two years afterwards, in the spring of '45, I was given a full month's medical leave so that I could go to Berkeley and have an osteopath, Dr. J. LeRoy Near, work with me."

This permanently hindered his playing abilities. During his wartime duty he played some exhibitions for the troops in particular during the summer 1945 with the war winding down, Budge played in a U.S Army (Budge-Frank Parker) – U.S. Navy (Riggs – Wayne Sabin) competition under the Davis Cup format : the main confrontations were the Budge-Riggs meetings knowing that both Americans were the best players in the world in 1942 just before being enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces and again when they came back to the professional circuit in 1945. In the first match, on the island of Guam, Budge trounced Riggs 6–2 6–2. On the island of Peleliu Budge won again 6–4 7–5. Riggs won the next two matches against Budge 6–1 6–1 (island of Ulithi) and 6–3, 4–6, 6–1 (island of Saipan). Budge confided in Parker his disbelief at losing two matches in a row to Riggs. In the fifth and final match on the island of Tinian, scheduled for the first week of August 1945, Riggs defeated Budge 6–8 6–1 8–6. This was the first time Budge had been beaten by Riggs in a series (Riggs also won 3 matches out of 5 against the amateur Parker, both holder and future titlist of the U.S. amateur Nationals at Forest Hills) thereby giving Riggs an important psychological edge in their forthcoming peacetime tours.