TENNIS QUESTS OF LAVER, MRS COURT Wimbledon Is Third Leg Of Grand Slam Bids

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32020, 21 June 1969, Page 15

TENNIS QUESTS OF LAVER, MRS COURT Wimbledon Is Third Leg Of Grand Slam Bids

(By Our Tennis Reporter)

The advent of open tournaments has made the quest for the tennis grand slam—Australian, French, Wimbledon and United States singles championships—again a reality, and the prospect in 1969 is more exciting than ever.

Two great Australians, R. A. Laver and Mrs M. Court, both have the first two legs safely behind them and they are seeded top for Wimbledon next week. Now 30, Laver, in 1962, became the second player ever to achieve the grand slam (D. Budge was the other in 1937).

Mrs Court won three of the titles in 1962 and 1965, but missed Wimbledon the first time and the French in 1965. When Budge set his record, the world’s best players were ail playing in the same tournaments, but by the time Laver emulated it many were professionals. Another Australian, R. Emerson, strove mightly to win the four big ones in the years he was ruling the amateur roost, but failed.

Now, in 1969, the four tournaments of the grand slam are back to Budge’s day—or more so; not only are ail the leading players pitted against one another again but the organisation of tennis, especially financially, and the ease of travel, mean that an outstanding name is seldom missing.

If Laver and Mrs Court can conquer these fields under the utmost pressure and with the teasing carrots of considerable financial reward dangling in front of the others, they will have had their finest year. That they can do it is not

to be doubted. The International Lawn Tennis Federation authorised 31 open tournaments for 1969 and the sec-

ond open Wimbledon, which will begin on Monday, will be

the twenty-first. Nearly all these tourna- ! ments, beginning with the Tasmanian and Western Australian at the beginning of : January, have had fields of leading professionals and registered payers, but Laver, on a tight schedule of professional play with the World Championship Tennis group, has played in fewer than many in the rival group of the National Tennis League. Of the eight open tournaments in which he has played, apart from the present London grass championships, in which he has reached the semi-finals, Laver has won four Australian, Philadelphian, South African and French— and these have probably been the tournaments with the fields of the highest class. Kind To Laver He was runner-up to A. D. Roche in the New South Wales and New Zealand, he was eliminated by G. Richey at Madison Square Garden, and he lost to C. Drysdale in the West of England at Bristol a week ago. The famous Wimbledon courts have been kind to Laver. Since losing to A. Olmedo in the 1959 final and N. A. Fraser in 1960, he has won four finals there, all in three sets, only one being an advantage set The powerful, left-handed service, the bullet-like winners from baseline and net, the lightening reflexes, the disconcertingy deceptive wrist flicks into the narrowest of openings, and the twist of the mouth or embarrassed-looking half-smile which hide fine sportsmanship will be seen again there in the next fortnight probably in the final.

Laver has had some losses —and perhaps he is losing a : few more matches than he - did two years ago. But he i still dominates the major i occasion as he showed when : he won in Paris this month. ■ His final opponent last year’s i champion, K. R. Rosewall,

• said that he felt he was play- ■ ing more than one man: “To- • day he would have made any- • one look slow.”

Mrs Court will be striving for her third Wimbledon

win; and Miss M. E. Bueno and Mrs B. J. King have both won three times in the last 10 years. However, the tall, graceful, athletic Australian has usually been considered the finest of the three but too often the victim of nerves and tension. Not so long ago she talked of retiring but she has returned to plague her rivals just when they might have considered they were rid of her. Her remarkable record in open tournaments this year is that she has won each she has played in—Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Australian in January, and then, coming back in May, the British hardcourt, French and West of England. Laver and Mrs Court must certainly be favourites but they face some distinguished opponents. Last year, when the open game was just beginning, the amateurs were an embarrassment to the profes-

sionals, who were expected to take all. Now the new system has settled down and almost everyone who matters is either a professional or a registered player and so all are vying for the stakes of £33,370, an increase of £7220 over last year. It is significant that the first four seeded men—Laver, A. D. Roche, T. S. Okker and Rosewall—were the French

and Philadelphia semi-final-ists, and three of them have been the semi-finalists in a number of other tournaments.

Roche, especially, is becoming a thorn in Laver’s side since Laver beat him so easily at Wimbledon last year. Roche was the master’s master in Auckland and has been again twice since.

Still A Threat The lithe Dutchman, Okker, the newest of the professionals, has won/two open tournaments, and the evergreen Rosewall, the left-hander who has thrilled world tennis enthusiasts for longer than all but R. Gonzales in this distinguished field, has shown that he is still a threat by winning the West of England. Others, both seeded and unseeded, will make the tasks of these four in reaching their places very difficult. J. D. Newcombe, A. Gimeno and A. R. Ashe, in particular, are capable of winning: and players such as the Jugoslav, Z. Franulovic, and the Egyptian, I. El Shafei, who are not even seeded in 16, have been having notable successes recently, even if on clay courts.

Among the women, Mrs Court is playing supremely consistently but Mrs B. J. King, winner for the last three years in succession, has suffered at the hands of a number of other Australians, including Miss K. Melville, Mrs L. Bowrey and Miss K. Krantze. Whatever the final result, the' public knows and so do the players that there will be some among the 16 seeded men and the eight seeded woinen who will not take their places as assessed. They may include even those seeded to win. This is one of the fascinations of Wimbledon.