All In by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

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I was extremely grateful that we had our players’ association organized when Wimbledon began four days later, because I was chasing my fifth career Wimbledon singles championship, a milestone that hadn’t been reached since Helen Wills Moody in 1932, and my mind felt so much lighter. I’d walk through the gates at the All England Club every day thinking, We have an association! It’s done! We all knew that it was so important for our future.

Because of the men’s boycott, the top men playing were the Czech star Jan Kodes and Romania’s Ilie Nastase, both of whom were following orders from their Communist-run tennis associations. Sweden’s Bjorn Borg, then only seventeen, made his All England Club debut that week and quickly achieved rock star status, especially among the hordes of young girls who shrieked at him the way others did for the Beatles. Borg soon needed security just to walk across the grounds.

Otherwise, the women were the unchallenged stars of the show. People wanted to see us. The total attendance of 300,172 was the second highest in the championships’ history to that date. We had all our best players in the draw and our top four seeds—Margaret, Chrissie, Evonne, and me—advanced to the semifinals. Better yet, both of those matches were terrific. Chrissie knocked out Margaret in three sets that were decided 6–1, meaning Margaret pried away a total of just two games in the two sets she lost. Chrissie called it the best match of her life—all eighteen years of it so far.

I played Evonne the same day, and it was one of the most exciting matches of my life. Evonne fought off seven match points before I won in three sets. I couldn’t believe some of the trouble spots she escaped. In the end, I just had a better day, but Evonne reminded the world of her grace and the caliber of player she was.

When Chrissie and I played our rain-delayed final two days later, I shut her out in the first set in only seventeen minutes. She had still never beaten me on grass, but there were some tense moments before I closed out the second set, 7–5, to take my fifth title. As happy as I was, I had to stay focused because my tournament wasn’t done. Rosie and I then won the doubles title by defeating Frankie and Betty in three sets, and Owen Davidson and I beat Raul Ramirez and Janet Newberry for the mixed-doubles title, giving me my second triple crown at the All England Club.

I was too exhausted to attend the Wimbledon Ball that night. And anyway, my mind was already racing ahead to Bobby Riggs.

A few days later, I found myself sitting side by side with Bobby at a press conference at the Town Tennis Club in Manhattan. Jerry Perenchio, who had had enormous success staging the 1971 Fight of the Century between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden, told the press the Ali-Frazier bout “was ‘The Fight’ ” and “this is ‘The Match.

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