John Donald Budge was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the four tournaments that comprise the Grand Slam of tennis in a single year. Budge was the second man to win the Career Grand Slam after Fred Perry, and is still the youngest to achieve that feat. He won ten majors, of which six were Grand Slam events and four Pro Slams, the latter achieved on three different surfaces. Budge is considered to have the best backhand in the history of tennis, with most observers rating it better than that of later player Ken Rosewall.
Frederick John Perry was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship, in 1936, and the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title, until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open.
Henry Ellsworth Vines Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 in 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1937, able to win Pro Slam titles on three different surfaces. He later became a professional golfer and reached the semifinals of the PGA Championship in 1951.
William Tatem Tilden II, nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American male tennis player. Tilden was the world No. 1 amateur for six years from 1920 to 1925 and was ranked world No. 1 pro by Ray Bowers in 1931 and 1932 and Ellsworth Vines in 1933. He won 14 Major singles titles, including 10 Grand Slam events, one World Hard Court Championships and three professional majors. He was the first American to win Wimbledon, taking the title in 1920. He also won a record seven U.S. Championships titles.
Henri Jean Cochet was a French tennis player. He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Before the advent of the Open era of tennis competitions in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tournaments, including the four majors. There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. However many top tennis players turned professional to play legally for prize money in the years before the open era. They played in separate professional events, mostly on tours involving head-to-head competition, but also in professional tournaments as the biggest events on the pro tour. Professional tournaments, in particular the professional majors, usually only had a men's draw.
Hans "Hanne" Nüsslein was a German tennis player and coach and former World professional number 1 tennis player who won four professional Majors singles titles during his career.
Richard Edgar Skeen was an American professional tennis player and teacher. He was runner-up to Fred Perry in the Men's Singles in the 1941 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, reaching as high as World No. 2 pro that year according to Ray Bowers. Skeen reached the semifinals of other tournaments on four occasions that year. Bill Tilden recommended Dick as an outstanding Tennis Teacher in California in his 1950 book, 'How to Play Better Tennis'.
Frank Kovacs was an American amateur and professional tennis player in the mid-20th century. He won the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships singles title in 1941. He won the World Professional Championships tournament in 1945 in San Francisco. Kovacs was successful on clay and won the Great Lakes Professional Clay Court Championships near Chicago in 1946, defeating Riggs in the final, and five U.S. Professional Clay Court Championships from 1948 to 1953. Kovacs won the International Professional Championships or U.S. Professional Championships at Cleveland in 1951. He also won the U.S. Professional Challenge Tour in 1947 against Bobby Riggs.
Bryan Morel "Bitsy" Grant Jr. was an American amateur tennis champion. At 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm) and 120 pounds (54 kg), Grant was the smallest American man to win a championship on the international tennis circuit. A right-handed retriever, he was able to beat heavy-hitting greats such as Don Budge and Ellsworth Vines even when playing on grass. His nickname was "Itsy Bitsy the Giant Killer".
World number 1 ranked male tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the male tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources. The annual source rankings from which the No. 1 players are drawn are cited for each player's name, with a summary of the most important tennis events of each year also included. If world rankings are not available, recent rankings by tennis writers for historical years are accessed, with the dates of the recent rankings identified. In the period 1948–1953, when contemporary professional world rankings were not created, the U.S. professional rankings are cited.
Bruce Parkhouse Barnes was a high-ranking professional American tennis player of the 1930s.
The Wembley Championships was a men's professional tennis tournament held from 1934–1990 with some periods of inactivity in between and is often considered to be one of the three Major professional tennis tournaments before the Open Era from 1927–1967 until the advent of the open era. Ken Rosewall's and Rod Laver's six singles titles are the record for this event. The tournament only had a men's draw.
Robert Larimore Riggs was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December 26, 1941.
Robert Ramillon was a French professional tennis player of the 1930s and was the winner of French Pro in 1932. He also played in the finals in 1931 and 1936. In 1928 he won the title at the Queen's Club Pro tournament. He was also runner-up at the Southport tournament in 1937. At the wartime Tournoi de France, held at Roland Garros, he was runner-up in 1941 to Bernard Destremau.
John Nogrady was an American male tennis player and coach who was active in the 1940s and 1950s and twice reached the final of the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships.
Mary Hardwick was an English female tennis player who was active during the 1930s and the 1940s.
Roman Najuch was a professional tennis player and teacher based in Germany. He was born in a location of today's Poland belonging to the Russian Empire at that time. His family moved to Germany, caused by revolutions and wars, and settled in Berlin. One of his first teachers was Georg Kerr who left Germany in 1910. Later he got German citizenship. He took part in the first German Pro Championships 1911 - still with Russian citizenship -, reached the final, but the winner was Karel Koželuh. He won the German Championships in 1913 and 1914. He was teaching at the LTTC Rot-Weiss Tennis Club in Berlin. In October 1925 he became German Champion for the seventh time. In 1928 and 1929 he won German Pro Championships. He was defeated in 1931 by his student Hans Nüsslein after getting the title for eleven times. With Hans Nüsslein, who was 17 years younger, he played in the doubles event. Najuch was the coach of Poland’s Davis Cup team and became president of the International Pro Tennis Federation. His life career was presented on German TV in the series Wie ich angefangen habe (1957–1958). Marshall Jon Fisher called him "one of the world's best players at the time" around the year 1925.
For many years before the Open Era of tennis in 1968, the usual format for the handful of touring tennis professionals was a series of two-man one-night stands across the United States and often in other countries as well. The most notable of these tours were the "World Series" or "World Professional Championships", in which the reigning world champion went head-to-head against a challenger, most often the leading amateur of the previous year who had just turned pro. Promoters would attempt to sign the leading amateur to a contract with a minimum guarantee against a percentage of gate receipts, making a similar type of deal with the reigning professional champion and sometimes giving smaller percentages to undercard players. The winners of the tours were described as being the "world champion".
This article presents top ten lists of male singles tennis players, as ranked by various official and non-official ranking authorities throughout the history of the sport. Most lists are for World No. 1, but some are for U.S. No. 1 professional.
Ellsworth Vines 
Hans Nüsslein 
Henri Cochet 
