Australians Expected To Win Singles Titles At Wimbledon

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29856, 23 June 1962, Page 9

Australians Expected To Win Singles Titles At Wimbledon

Wimbledon ■ 1 has not always favoured the favourites, the Australians, R. Laver and Miss M. Smith, must be very strongly fancied to take this year's titles when the tournament beams on Monday. An Australian winning the men's e.ngles has been the rule rather than the exception in rerent years but an Australian has not yet won the women's title. Laver, at 23. has already been a dominant figure at Wimbledon for three years After reaching only the third round in 1958 he was beaten in the final by A Almedo in 1959. He was only the fourth unseeded player to reach the final in the history of the tournament. Laver was again bra ten in rhe 1960 final, this time by his compatriot. N. A Fraser, also a previous finalist.

Seeded second to Fraser last year. leaver was rewarded for persistence when he beat C. McKinley, of the United States, in the final, and he is now expected to become the second player to win twice since World War II L. A. Hoad has this distinction.

This year Laver is already well on the way to a clean sweep of the world’s major tournaments. He won the Australian title in January and more recently rhe Italian and French titles with Wimbledon and America left to make a quintet. In Laver’s three main wins, and in others as well, R. Emerson has been the victim, but is not always content with the role of a runner-up. as he showed wj.h two wins over Laver in April. So Emerson is the main threat. After that there are 10 or a dozen players whose wins,

or losses, up to semi-finals could hardly be called surprises. The 1960 winner, Fraser, has not the form he used to have —he was out in the fourth round last year as top seed —but he could find it again. R. Krishnan (India), noted for steadiness, has been a semi-finalist for each of the last two years; McKinley had a win over Laver in February: M. Santana (Spain) is a former French champion; N. Pietrangeli (Italy) has dropped from third seed to seventh but has brilliant days: and R. Hewitt (Australia) is noted as a giant-killer. Those are the seeded players. but outside them are others capable of at least joining the last eight or of eliminating a more highlyregarded entrant—M. Sangster (Britain), a semi-finalist last year when unseeded, the top-ranked American W. Reed, another American, J. Douglas, the Mexican A. Palafox, who beat Laver last week at Bristol, another Australian, F. Stolle, and various Europeans. Like Laver, Miss Smith has had by far the best form of any in her field in recent months. In fact, before she lost to a young American, Miss C. Caldwell, at Manchester recently, she had not had a loss for nine months. In that time she had also won the same three major tournaments as Laver—Australian. Italian, French—and she beat this year’s Wimbledon second seed, the American.

Miss D. R. Hard, in four State finals in Australia. Miss Hard is another who is trying to get past a second position. She was runner-up to Miss A. Gibson in 1957 and again to Miss M. Bueno in 1959. That brought her a second seed in 1960 when she could only reach the quarter-finals and she did not play last year. The outstanding Brazilian. Miss Bueno, winner in 1959 and 1960, who only resumed play again in March after almost a year's absence because of jaundice, should make a determined attempt to recover the title. She was beaten by Miss Smith in the Italian final and at Bristol last week. An interesting feature of the women's seedings is the scant regard for the British players who did so welt last season. Miss A Haydon is fifth. Miss A. Mortimer, winner fast year, sixth, and Miss C. Truman, test year’s run-ner-up. has not even made the list. The return of Misses Bueno and Hard was bound to place them lower in the list, but Miss Truman's omission will be a shock to British enthusiasts. Only in 1959 was Miss Truman seeded first and Miss Mortimer second.

However, the performance of Miss Mortimer, especially, will be awaited with interest for while the other leading contenders have been competing in the hard court tournements she has been playing for some time in minor Bri.ish tournaments on grass—the Wimbledon surface. The question is whether surface or hard competition means more as preparation for Wimbledon. Other women to consider are Miss R. Schuunman (South Africa), seeded fourth; Miss L. Tunner (Australia), seventh, runner-up in the French title; Mrs R. Susman, formerly Miss K. Hantze (United States), eighth, a quarterfinalist for two years; Mrs S. Reynolds - Price (South Africa, strangely unseeded although a semi-finalist in 1959, finalist in 1960 ■ and semi-finalist again last year; Miss Y. Ramirez (Mexico), Miss E. Bud-ing (Germany), with a recent win over Miss Bueno; and Miss J. Lehane (Australia).