The player he beat was Gene Mako, and surprisingly, the two became lifelong friends. They played doubles together for the rest of Budge's amateur career, and in 1936, beat Allison and Van Ryn, who had been 1935 U.S. Champions, 14 times before beating them in the Forest Hills final; in 1937 they won the doubles at Wimbledon, and they won both the U.S. and Wimbledon doubles in 1938.
A Player with a Lot to Learn
During his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley, Budge withdrew from college to play the Emerson Grass Court Circuit as a member of an auxiliary Davis Cup team. He made it to the fourth round at Forest Hills and was ranked among the top ten U.S. players. At the Pacific Coast Championships at Berkeley, he lost to famed player Fred Perry in the finals. Although he could have played through the winter months in South America and on the Riviera, Budge decided to stay home and work on his grip, which Perry had called a "Wild Western" grip, according to Baltzell. He was an admirer of Perry and was thrilled when Perry took time out to coach him.
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