Frank Parker

Frank "Frankie" Andrew Parker, born Franciszek Andrzej Pailowski, (January 31, 1916, Milwaukee, Wisconsin – July 24, 1997, San Diego, California) was an outstanding American amateur tennis player for nearly two decades, being rated among the top 10 players for 17 consecutive years, from 1933 through 1949, a record for male players that stood until being surpassed by Jimmie Connors in 1988. Two times the number-one ranked American player, he won the national singles championships twice while serving in the Army Air Force during World War II. One of only four Americans to twice win the French championships on their slow clay surface, he was also a fine Davis Cup player, winning 12 of 14 matches.

A youthful prodigy, he was also perhaps the first champion to come, not from the country club set, like Bill Tilden, or even the middle class, like Ellsworth Vines, but from "the low, low class. My mother took in washing. I worked as a ball boy for the Town club in Milwaukee and would make a dollar a week at five cents a set." Parker quickly came under the guidance of Mercer Beasley, a visually impaired mentor who, unable to play himself, gained acclaim as "the greatest tennis coach in history." Beasley and wife practically adopted the youthful Parker, taking him with them from teaching job to teaching job; under Beasley's tutelage Parker was the national boys champion, the national juniors champion, and then, at age 17, the eighth-rank player in the country. Six months younger than the great Don Budge, he ranked higher than Budge until the latter turned 20.

According to Jack Kramer, another great near-contemporary of Parker's, and many other observers, the youthful Parker, an emotionless, robot-like tennis-stroking machine, had a superior and powerful natural forehand that he hit with slight topspin.