Ellsworth Vines

Vines attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu Fraternity and 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.

When he was at the height of his powers in the 1930s, serving prodigiously and striking the ball with awesome power off the ground, Vines was nearly invincible on his best days.
An overwhelming force on grass courts, he won two U.S. Championships in singles and once ruled at Wimbledon in the early 1930s.
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
When he was turning professional at 22, he went on to topple Bill Tilden, 47 matches to 26, in a 1934 head-to-head tour, and then eclipsed Don Budge, 49 matches to 35, four years later.
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.

Vines was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1962.