Laver, Mrs King First Open Wimbledon Champions

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31725, 8 July 1968, Page 20

Laver, Mrs King First Open Wimbledon Champions

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) LONDON. In a championship of daily ups-and-downs, two professionals, both top seeds, and both winning the major titles for the third time, have emerged as Wimbledon’s king and queen of tennis. The red-headed Australian, R. A. Laver, and the little bespectacled Mrs B. J. King, of the United States, are the champions of the first open Wimbledon.

Laver claimed his honoured place on Friday when he beat his countryman and fellow professional, A. D. Roche, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Mrs King joined him on the throne after a final lasting 70 minutes on Saturday, when she beat the Australian amateur, Miss J. A. Tegart, 9-7, 7-5.

Both previously won the singles titles as amateurs;

Laver in 1961 and 1962, Mrs King in 1966 and 1967. Laver improved as his final progressed, his powerful onslaught stemming from his big serve and volley attack. He had all the shots, including a fine return of service and a passing shot which often ripped holes in Roche’s defence.

At the start, Roche confidently won his first three service games to love, whereas Laver came within a point of conceding his delivery in the fifth game.

But the mental stress was on Roche, and Laver, with his flair for striking at the key moment, pressed home his attack in the eighth game to break through 5-3, Roche double-faulting when 30-40.

It was much the same pattern in the second set, Roche yielding service in the seventh game to 15, but in the third set, Laver crashed through in the opening game, ano from then Roche could offer little more than token resistance.

Laver said afterwards: “It was the greatest thrill of my tennis career to win this first Wimbledon open.” Mrs King played regally to take the women’s title, but was challenged all the way

by her plucky seventh-seeded opponent. Miss Tegart. Both girls are exponents of the big serve-and volley game but the key difference between them on Saturday was in accuracy of service. Roche and J. D. Newcombe regained the men’s doubles title by wearing down F. S. Stolle and K. R. Rosewall, of the rival professional group, in the all-Australian final.

Roche and Newcombe, who first took the title in 1965 when amateurs, won a fluctuating match, lasting 2hr 50 min, 3-6, 8-6, 5-7, 14-12, 6-3. Stolle and Rosewall had the edge at the start, Stolle’s service strength dovetailing splendidly with Rosewall’s fast moving and thinking at the net. But Roche and Newcombe forced a deciding set when Stolle twice double-faulted in the twenty-sixth game of the fourth set to surrender his

service for the first time. And when the younger pair broke through Stolle’s service again for 3-1 in the final set, it was virtually the end. The first appearance in a Wimbledon final of Russian players was not successful After beating Stolle and Mrs A. Jones (Britain) in a semifinal on Friday, A. Metreveli and Miss O. Morozova were beaten by K. R. Fletcher and Mrs M. Court in the final.