Marshall Jon Fisher: A Terrible Splendor May 9, 2009

The 1937 Davis Cup match between the world's top two players, American Don Budge and Germany's Baron Gottfried von Cramm, ran to five sets. More than a tremendous athletic spectacle, the contest tapped pre-war political tensions and, though not known at the time, dramatized von Cramm's increasingly desperate efforts to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo.