John Doeg


John Thomas Godfray Hope Doeg was a male tennis player from the United States.
In August 1929 Doeg won the singles title at the Seabright Invitational defeating Richard Norris Williams in three straight sets. About a year later he fulfilled his promise and won his first and only major singles tournament, the 1930 U.S. National Championships at Forest Hills, defeating Frank Hunter in the quarter finals, Bill Tilden in the semi finals and Frank Shields in the final in four sets. He proceeded to reach a career-high singles world ranking of No. 4 in the same year.
In 1962 he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Doeg was the son of tennis player Violet Sutton and the nephew of Wimbledon and U.S. National singles tennis champion May Sutton. Born in Mexico, he became a U.S. citizen in 1933.

Playing style

Although his name is not well known today Doeg in his heyday was often considered among the premier servers in tennis history:
Don Budge in his book Budge on Tennis would later echo the same sentiment:
Budge, however, was careful to note the shortcomings of the rest of Doeg's game. In his 1969 memoir Budge observes, "John never achieved the greatest stature in the sport because many facets of his game, his ground strokes, for instance, were somewhat lacking," before proclaiming Doeg "one of the most effective servers of all time":

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 title)

ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1930U.S. ChampionshipsGrass Frank Shields10–8, 1–6, 6–4, 16–14

Doubles (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1929U.S. National ChampionshipsGrass George Lott Berkeley Bell
Lewis White
10–8, 16–14, 6–1
Loss1930Wimbledon ChampionshipsGrass George Lott Wilmer Allison
John Van Ryn
3–6, 3–6, 2–6
Win1930U.S. National ChampionshipsGrass George Lott John Van Ryn
Wilmer Allison
8–6, 6–3, 4–6, 13–15, 6–4

Publication

In 1931 he wrote an educational tennis book titled "Elements of Lawn Tennis", together with sportswriter Allison Danzig.