Early Life
Savitt is Jewish, and was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He taught himself tennis at the age of 14, but never took a tennis lesson in his life. The self-taught Savitt played tennis well enough, however, to make the finals of the New Jersey Boys Championship and, for two years afterward, the National Boys Tennis Tournament before moving up to the junior ranks.
His first love was basketball, though, and when his family moved to Texas, he was an All-State forward and a co-captain of his El Paso, Texas high school basketball team in 1944. In 1945 Savitt entered the Navy, and played on a service basketball team.
Despite considering tennis his "second" sport after basketball, he won the Texas University Interscholastic League boys singles championship in 1944–45. Nationally he was the 8th-ranked junior tennis player, and the 17th-ranked amateur overall.
Read more about this topic: Dick Savitt
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