ohn Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American  player of the 1940s and 1950s. A  player for a number of years, and one of the most important people in the establishment of modern men's "Open"-era tennis, he was the leading promoter of professional tennis tours in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a relentless advocate for the establishment of  between amateur and professional players. An (ITF) proposal to introduce Open tennis lost by five votes in 1960, but became a reality in 1968. In 1970, he created the . In 1972, he helped found the  (ATP) with  and , and was the first . He was unpaid at his request. In that role, he was the leader of an ATP boycott of Wimbledon in 1973, for the banning of from the tournament.Tall and slim, he was the first world-class player to play "the Big Game", a consistent  game, in which he came to the net behind all of his serves, including the second serve. He was particularly known for his powerful serve and forehand, as well as his ability to play "percentage tennis", which he learned from Cliff Roche, a retired railroad engineer, at the  (LATC). This strategy maximized his efforts on certain points and in certain games during the course of a match to increase his chances of winning. The key was to hold serve at all costs, which was one of many things that made Kramer one of the greatest players of all time.