Word: jakes
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Jake has complete confidence in his "big 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...
Opponents' weaknesses don't interest him. For one thing, "good players seldom have a real weakness," says Big Jake, who concentrates on putting his own best foot forward: "I always play my own strength, which is to the far right corner." This is the kind of positiveness that has made him a champion...
...tempered, 150-lb. Ted Schroeder, who is Jake's best friend and No. 2 man on the U.S. Davis Cup team, has it too 8#151;but not the way Jake has. They are both the same age (Schroeder is eleven days older), both products of California's humming tennis factory. Kramer's eight-month-old son is named for .Ted, and Schroeder calls his baby boy Little John...
Schroeder likes to pull on a pipe; Kramer doesn't smoke. Big Jake's one vice is betting: he will bet anybody on anything. He once won $20 from friends who bet he couldn't down a jigger of beer a minute for 80 minutes. He likes people, poker, bow ties, Joe DiMaggio, and shop talk like "that day at Rye when big Frank Shields grabbed Bitsy Grant by the belt and held him out a second-story window...
...tennis court Jake becomes all business. He never mutters after a bad shot, never throws his racket on the grass in disgust. "Don't talk to yourself," Jake advises. "If you do, you are fighting a losing battle...