Tennis Hits the Books
There is a lot to break down in Marshall Jon Fisher’s A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. On the surface, the book is about a tennis match between Don Budge and Gottfried Von Cramm played during the 1937 Davis Cup. It is also a unique account of the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in the run up to World War 2.
A Terrible Splendor also details the the duplicitous way the national lawn tennis associations defined and handled amateurism in tennis during that era. Throw in early issues with what would now be benignly phrased “diversity and inclusion” and you have a broad sweeping book that tackles some serious historic and social issues.
The match in A Terrible Splendor is from a time when international sports and politics were inextricably linked. In the natural ebb and flow of history, those domains have had a higher degree of separation in the recent past. Currently, the world is on an upward trend where politics and sports are once again converging. A lot has happened between the time when Colin Kaepernick was ostracized for kneeling during the national anthem and Naomi Osaka strolling onto center court at the US Open wearing a mask emblazoned with “Breona Taylor.”
It is an inescapable fact that Von Cramm was literally playing for his life against Budge at the Davis Cup. He was a thorn in the side of the Nazi party for various reasons. However, as long as he kept winning he was too valuable as a symbol of Aryan superiority for punitive action.
Von Cramm was ultimately imprisoned by the Gestapo shortly after the match was played. He spend a year in prison, narrowly avoiding the concentration camps. His standing as a tennis star created the international interest and visibility that resulted in a lighter sentence for his transgressions against laws enacted by the Nazi party. Tennis may have literally saved his life.
A Terrible Splendor is a comparison and contrast between Von Cramm and two iconic American players. Von Cramm’s opponent in the match was Don Budge, and the book traces the parallel lives of those two players. Ironically, the greatest American player up until that time, Bill Tilden, was the third player involved with the match because he was coaching the German Davis Cup team. Tilden was also a close personal friend of Von Cramm.
In detailing the lives of these three great players, A Terrible Splendor brings societal and political issues of their time into stark detail. There was so much more to their lives than simply their accomplishments on a tennis court. At the same time, the book is a gripping account of history during the run up and start of World War 2. It was a terrible chapter in world history and one that is critically important to remember.
A Terrible Splendor is a book that anyone interested in tennis history should immerse themselves in.
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