Download A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played AudioBook Free
Before Federer versus Nadal, before Borg versus McEnroe, the best tennis match ever before enjoyed pitted the dominating Don Budge against the seductively good-looking Baron Gottfried von Cramm. This deciding 1937 Davis Glass match, enjoyed on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, was a battle of titans: the world's number-one tennis games player against the quantity two; America against Germany; democracy against fascism. For five superhuman units, the duo's fantastic shotmaking placed the Centre Courtroom masses - and the earth - spellbound. However the match's significance long well beyond the immaculate turf courts of Wimbledon. Against the setting of the Great Melancholy and the brink of World Conflict II, one man enjoyed for the satisfaction of his country while the other enjoyed for his life. Budge, the humble hard-working North american who soon end up being the first man to win all four Grand Slam titles in the same season, vied to keep carefully the Davis Cup out of the hands of the Nazi plan. On the other side of the net, the greatly popular and chic von Cramm fought Budge point for point realizing that a loss might precipitate his descent into the living hell being produced behind barbed line back home. Born into an aristocratic family, von Cramm was respected for his destructive good looks as well as his unequalled sportsmanship. But he harbored a dark secret, one that put him under increasing Gestapo surveillance. And his situation was made even more perilous by his refusal to join the Nazi Get together or protect Hitler. Desperately relying on his athletic successes and the global limelight to keep him out of the Gestapo's handbags, his strategy was to keep going and keep being successful. A Davis Glass win would make him the toast of Germany. A loss might be catastrophic. Watching the mesmerizingly intense match from the stands was von Cramm's mentor and all-time tennis games superstar Charge Tilden - a consummate showman whose two times life would run in ironic counterpoint compared to that of his German pupil. Arranged at a time when athletics and politics were inextricably associated, A Terrible Splendor provides listeners a courtside seating on that fateful day, moving gracefully between the tennis games match for the age groups and the dramatic incidents leading Germany, Britain, and America into global war. A publication like no other in its weaving of cultural significance and athletic spectacle, this soul-stirring bank account is in the end a tribute to the effectiveness of the human spirit.
