Ellsworth Vines - Biography

Biography

Vines attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, where he played on the freshman basketball team. Many believe that Mercer Beasley started him on his tennis career at age 14 in Pasadena. He was mentored by Perry T. Jones through the Los Angeles Tennis Club and the Southern California Tennis Association.

In the amateur ranks Vines won three Grand Slam tournaments, the Wimbledon Championships in 1932 and the U.S. Championships in 1931 and 1932 and he reached the final of Wimbledon in 1933. He played his first professional tennis match on January 10, 1934 and then became undoubtedly the leading pro player until 1938 (and the World No. 1 or No. 2 in the combined amateur-professional rankings). In 1934 and 1935 he won almost all the great pro events and the two big annual tours. Vines won five professional majors, which were the Wembley Pro in 1934, 1935 and 1936, the French Pro in 1935 and the US Pro in 1939. Vines also won the Paris Indoor (not to be confused with the French Pro) in 1934 and Southport Pro in 1935.

After two years as the undisputed pro king in 1934 and 1935, Vines didn't need to enter any pro tournament to claim the World pro champion title: he then retained his crown by just playing and winning three other great annual pro tours from 1936 to 1938 (see Tennis male players statistics). In 1939 Vines lost his world pro crown to Don Budge but narrowly: in their first pro tour against each other, Vines trailed Budge only 17–22. The tour proved that at his best Vines was unbeatable, but also that Budge's consistency would prevail a majority of the time, making the latter the best player of the time. In May 1940 Vines, 28 years 7 months old, played his last tennis competition. His physical problems, his desire to enjoy family life, his loss of the world crown, and above all his increasing passion for golf drove him to retire from tennis.