Jean Borotra

Basque tennis player Jean Borotra was most famous as one of the “Four Musketeers”, together with Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste. These four dominated international tennis in the 1920s and 1930s, winning the Davis Cup 1927-1932, as well as many Grand Slam titles. Borotra won 9 French Open titles (including two singles) and six at Wimbledon. He played only once at the U.S. Open, losing the final to Lacoste and winning the mixed doubles. A member of the French Socialist Party (PSF), he served as commissioner for education and sports in Vichy France, but was captured by the Germans in 1942, remaining imprisoned for the remainder of the Second World War. Borotra, who was known as the “jumping Basque”, continued to play Davis Cup tennis until after the war, and was inducted in the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1976, together with the other three Musketeers.