WIMBLEDON - July 7, 1974
I’m here in the Wimbledon section of London, virtually, about 7 miles southwest of Big Ben where yesterday was the conclusion of Wimbledon, the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament.
Two days ago the finals of the women’s singles featured the hottest young female tennis player in the world, 19 year old Chris Evert.
And yesterday, the hottest young male tennis player, Jimmy Connors, competed in the men’s finals.
By the way, Chris and Jimmy are also engaged to be married.
It all set up perfectly for the possibility of the crowning of a new Queen and King of tennis.
THE WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT
Chris Evert, who in the past several weeks has won both the French Open and the Italian Open, was seeded #2 entering the tournament.
The #1 seed was 5-time Wimbledon champion, Billie Jean King, who won last year’s title, when she defeated then 18 year old Chris Evert in two sets 6 - 0, 7 - 5.
But King was ousted in straight sets this year in the quarterfinals by #8 seed Olga Morozova of the Soviet Union.
In the quarterfinals, Evert defeated unseeded Helga Masthoff in straight sets, leaving Chris as the top seed remaining in the tournament.
In the semi-finals, Evert handled #6 seed Kerry Melville in straight sets in just 47 minutes.
Her finals opponent had quite a bit longer match. #5 Virginia Wade, a fan favorite from England, took on #8 Olga Morozova in what turned out to be a thriller.
Fred Tupper of the New York Times called it, “as good a women’s match as you could hope to see.”
Wade raced in front, winning the first set 6 - 1 and was up 2 - 1 in the 2nd set, with 2 points to make it 3 - 1, when things went awry. The Russian changed her strategy. Tupper wrote, “Morozova had been hoisting lobs high, now she began hitting them deeper with topspin.”
Morozova came back and won the 2nd set 7 - 5.
In the last set, Morozova held serve and then broke Wade’s service taking a 2 - 0 and went on to win the set 6 - 4 to take the match and reach her first Wimbledon final.
THE WOMEN’S FINAL
In the final, the opening game took 10 minutes to play and there were 7 deuces, before Evert won, breaking Morozova’s serve.
Evert then took the 2nd and 3rd games to go up 3 - 0.
In game 4, Morozova was up Love - 40, but Evert came back and took that game too.
Then Evert broke Morozova’s serve again, and held her own serve to win the set 6 - 0.
Morozova won 2 of the first 3 games in the 2nd set. But Evert came storming back to take a 4 - 2 lead before Morozova tied it at 4 games all.
Chris held her serve to go ahead 5 - 4.
Now she needed to break Morozova’s serve to win the match.
But the Russian took a 40 - Love lead.
The London Daily Telegraph wrote, “The wide lead vanished. And Miss Evert stood at match point.”
At that moment, Morozova double faulted, and Chris Evert was the champion at age 19.
Evert had won the match in just under one hour by a score of 6 - 0, 6 - 4.
In the Fort Lauderdale News Chris declared it, “The happiest moment of my life.”
She also described how she had not dreamed she could win Wimbledon this soon. “I was thinking a few years ahead when Billie Jean and Margaret Court might retire. I never expected to win Wimbledon this year.”
The London Daily Telegraph described what Evert did to win the title. “Her lawn tennis values are classic ones, ground stroke control, and a sense of the geometry of the court.”
The London Daily Mirror wrote about Chris, “At 19, Little Miss Icicle can justifiably call herself the best player in the world today.”
THE MEN’S TOURNAMENT
The Men’s final was a classic match up. The brash young Connors, seeded #3 against the sentimental favorite, #9 seed Ken Rosewall, a man who was old enough to be Connors’ father.
39 year old Ken Rosewall, a native of Australia, has been among the best tennis players in the world for over 20 years. He has won 8 grand slam titles including the U.S. Open in 1956 and 1970. He would assuredly have won more Grand Slam titles, but he competed in the professional ranks for over a decade before the open tournaments (like Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) allowed professionals to enter beginning in 1968.
Rosewall had first competed at Wimbledon 21 years earlier, in 1953, when he won the doubles competition. That year he came to Wimbledon as the #1 seed in the men’s singles, at age 18, but lost in the quarterfinals.
Over the next 20 years he never won at Wimbledon (including 11 years he was not eligible as a pro) - making it the only grand slam title he has yet to win.
Now in 1974, Rosewall is semi-retired. But he is still crafty enough to remain competitive. In the quarterfinals, he knocked off #1 seed John Newcombe, a fellow Aussie, in 4 sets. Newcombe was a 3-time Wimbledon singles champion.
Then in the semi-finals Rosewall made possibly the greatest comeback in history. Playing #4 seed Stan Smith, the 1972 champion, Rosewall fell behind 2 sets to none and faced double match point in set 3. And yet he came back to win the set 9 - 8. Then he took the 4th and 5th sets to capture a spot in the final. The match lasted 3 hours and 8 minutes.
The victory was celebrated madly in London since Australia is a commonwealth nation. The Evening Standard had a banner headline on page 1 which read, “Sensational Ken Does It!”
Barry Newcombe wrote in the Evening Standard that Rosewall, “Unlocked the time machine once more to reach his 4th men’s singles final at Wimbledon.”
Rosewall said, “Things looked very shaky for me in the 3rd set. I felt almost gone. But I never gave up trying. I started to hit winners and Stan started to make mistakes.”
Connors had a somewhat easier path to the final. He had beaten Jan Kodes in 5 sets in the quarterfinals and unseeded Dick Stockton in 4 sets in the semi-finals. In both matches Connors had lost the first set, but finished strong.
THE MEN’S FINAL
Unlike the women’s final, there is video tape available of men’s 1974 final. I experienced the final today as you can by watching this video on YouTube:
1974 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final - Jimmy Connors vs. Ken Rosewall
Here’s the highlights with the time stamp on the video noted:
4:00 - Rosewall holds serve to win the first game of the match.
7:30 - Connors wins game 2 without Rosewall scoring a point. At the end of the game you can see Connors fiance, Chris Evert, sitting courtside.
20:50 - Connors wins the set 6 - 1 in just 20 minutes.
37:40 - Connors comes back from 15 - 40 to hold serve to go up 3 - 0 in set 2. Connors has now won 9 straight games.
41:40 - Rosewall can’t hold serve again. Connors has now won 10 straight games.
44:00 - Rosewall is ahead 15 - 40. He’s a point away from breaking Connor’s serve. But he drops to his knees in exhaustion.
46:30 - After coming back to reach deuce in game 4, Connors double faults to lose the game. It’s Rosewall’s first game that he’s won since the opening game of the match. Connors leads the 2nd set 4 - 1.
49:20 - Rosewall goes down Love - 30 in game 6. Up to this point the crowd has been remarkably civil. They cheer for Connors’ winners nearly equally as much as Rosewall’s, even though Rosewall is clearly the man that everyone in London would prefer to see victorious. At this moment on the tape, while there is a break in the action, a fan yells at the top of his lungs, “Go on Ken, give it a go, what the hell!” This draws a huge applause from the crowd as they try to will Rosewall back into the match.
51:20 - Connors comes to the net for a winner and goes up 5 games to 1 in the 2nd set.
54:00 - Connors wins the 2nd set 6 - 1. It’s taken Connors about the same amount of time as Chris Evert to win the first 2 sets. But there is still work to do as the men play a best of 5 sets while the women play best of 3.
1:00:00 - Rosewall goes up 30 - Love serving in the 1st game of set 3, but Connors comes back to win the game.
1:04:00 - Rosewall breaks Connors serve to tie the set at 1 all.
1:07:00 - Rosewall holds serve for the first time since the opening game of the match and takes a 2 - 1 lead in set 3. Fans in the crowd must be hoping to see a repeat of the semi-final. The announcers note that Connors has been making some mistakes in this set where he played flawless in the first 2 sets.
1:10:00 - Rosewall has game point at 30 - 40 in game 4, but hits into the net and it’s deuce.
1:11:00 - Advantage Rosewall in game 4, but he loses the point again.
1:12:00 - Advantage Rosewall. It’s the 3rd game point, but again he loses the point.
1:14:40 - Connors smashes the ball at the net and wins the game to tie the set at 2 all.
1:17:40 - Connors breaks service and takes back control of the match at 3 - 2 in the 3rd set.
1:20:15 - Connors wins the next game without losing a point on his serve and goes up 4 - 2.
1:22:15 - Rosewall wins all the points on his serve to make it 4 - 3 Connors in set 3.
1:26:00 - Rosewall has a break point to tie the set at 4 games all, but he can’t return Connors’ serve and the score goes to deuce.
1:27:30 - Connors wins the game and goes ahead 5 - 3 in set 3.
1:29:40 - Rosewall holds serve to make it 5 - 4. Now he must break serve or the match is over.
1:33:30 - Conners serves for the match and wins the point. Jimmy raises his arms in victory, then he runs and leaps over the net to shake hands with Rosewall. He quickly moves on to shakes hands with the umpire.
Jimmy Conners at age 21 is a Wimbledon champion.
He needed just 93 minutes to do it by a score of 6 - 1, 6 - 1, 6 - 4.
Fred Tupper in the New York Times wrote, “Connors was superb. He has never played better and said so… The little Australian won the first game and then an avalanche hit him… The Duke of Kent came down to the center court to award a gold cup to young Jimmy. There was also a check for $24,000.”
Also in the New York Times was an article about the championship ball that took place last night. “The most famous sweethearts in sports and the new Wimbledon champions, Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors, opened the traditional championship ball at the Grosvenor House Hotel tonight by dancing to the tune, ‘The Girl That I Marry.’”
They are clearly the new Queen and King of tennis.
And Ken Rosewall is likely going to be remembered as the greatest player never to win Wimbledon.
POSTSCRIPT
A week later Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert appeared together on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline, “Sweetheart of a Wimbledon.”
You can see the cover at this link:
Sports Illustrated Cover - July 15, 1974
But the couple never did get married. They called off their engagement prior to Wimbledon in 1975.
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1974 Wimbledon - A New Queen & King?