How it unfolded
With the tie level at 2-2, the winner of the final singles would advance to challenge Britain's four-year Davis Cup reign. Gottfried von Cramm, who had resisted becoming a Nazi propaganda figure, took the first two sets 8-6, 7-5. Don Budge recovered the third and fourth 6-4, 6-2, then fell behind 1-4 in the fifth. From there he held serve and clawed back one game at a time; after 6-6 both men saved repeated match points. Budge broke von Cramm's serve on his fifth match point in the final game for 8-6. Bill Tilden, American captain and von Cramm's old rival, watched from the stands. The United States beat Britain in the Challenge Round for its first Cup since 1926; Budge completed the first Grand Slam in 1938. Von Cramm was arrested by the Nazi authorities in 1938 and barred from Wimbledon in 1939.
Why it still matters
Both players long ranked it among history's greatest matches — an early case of sport and politics colliding on court. The win ended an 11-year American drought and launched Budge's 1938 Grand Slam; von Cramm's later imprisonment showed a champion's fate could be decided off the court.