Rod Laver certainly picked his moment to step up to the
Wimbledon winner's rostrum for the first time, since the
1961 Championships marked the 75th staging of the world's
greatest tennis tournament, an occasion when the All England
Club welcomed 38 former champions, men and women, to the
celebrations.
Laver, the muscular, red-haired left-hander from the Queensland
community of Rockhampton (hence the nickname Rocket) had
already laid down an impressive marker by appearing in the
men's final the previous two years, losing to Alex Olmedo,
the Peruvian-American, in 1959 and to fellow-Australian
Neale Fraser the following year.
Now was the time for him to make an unanswerable case for
third time lucky and to go on to become arguably the best
player of all time by winning four Wimbledons, with a gap
of five years as a professional in between second and third,
and sweeping all four Grand Slams in 1962 and again in 1969.
There was, in addition, enormous sentiment attached to
the women's singles, where the final was contested in this
anniversary year by two British competitors for the first
time since 1914, with the tall and enormously popular Christine
Truman taking on Angela Mortimer, who had already won two
Grand Slam tournaments through quiet skill and determination.
Laver, then 22, was seeded second behind the defending
champion Fraser, but this elevated status served only to
inspire his early opponents. In the second round the French
Davis Cup player Pierre Darmon ensnared, and almost toppled,
him before Laver gratefully grasped a five-set win. Next
up was the skilful German touch player, Wilhelm Bungert,
who fought back from a two-set deficit to level the tightest
of contests before Laver came through.
Thereafter Laver's progress was smooth. His rival for the
title was Chuck McKinley, the all-action American who would
bustle to the Wimbledon title in 1963. But this would not
prove to be his hour as Laver, at the peak of his form,
dismantled the eighth seed for the loss of only eight games,
6-3, 6-1, 6-4.
McKinley's path had been smoothed because Fraser, his projected
quarter-final adversary, fell in the fourth round to Britain's
Bobby Wilson. Having then put out Wilson in four sets, McKinley
needed only three to defeat another Briton, Mike Sangster,
in the semi-finals.
However, there was better news for the home nation in the
women's event. For the first time since Dorothea Lambert
Chambers defeated Ethel Larcombe in the last Championships
before the First World War, the Centre Court fans and growing
number of television watchers saw their local heroines marching
through to the final to ensure Wimbledon would have a British
women's champion, something which had not happened since
Dorothy Round in 1937.
Perhaps Mortimer and Truman were fortunate that the two-time
defending champion and all-time great, Maria Bueno of Brazil,
was unable to bid for a hat-trick of Championships because
of illness, but they both made the most of the opportunity.
Truman, a hefty hitter, raced through three rounds in straight
sets, dropping only 17 games, before coming up against one
of the greats of the game, Australia's Margaret Smith (later
Mrs Court), the second seed aged 18 and playing her first
Wimbledon, who would go on to win the title three times
in the next ten years. But not this time. Christine clung
on to squeak through 3-6, 6-3, 9-7, surviving two match
points.
Mortimer's best victory was to eliminate the top-seeded
Sandra Reynolds of South Africa 11-9, 6-3 in the semi-finals,
coming from behind in both sets. This never-say-die quality,
allied to the groundstrokes which had seen her win the French
title in 1955 and the Australian three years later, tipped
the balance towards the 29-year-old Mortimer, playing her
11th Wimbledon.
Though the favourite, Truman was handicapped by a thigh
injury following a fall in the second set, and was eventually
beaten 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
In the women's doubles there was a sign of greatness to
come. On her debut, a young bespectacled American named
Billie Jean Moffitt won the doubles title with Karen Hantze.
Billie Jean would go on, as Mrs King, to add 19 more Wimbledon
titles, singles and doubles, in an historic career.
Written by Ronald Atkin
