Wimbledon Winners

MY GREIXAS! WHAT TANTRUMS. The polite but disapproving headline of London's Daily Sketch all but marked the end of U.S. hopes to hang on to the Wimbledon title that Tony Trabert used last year as his ticket to the pro ranks.

Out on the trim, worn turf of the center court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Philadelphia's handsome, aging (32) Vic Seixas (rhymes with gracious) blew a handsome lead. For most of five sets the crowd got some thrilling tennis. Then Seixas' styleless but often effective game came to pieces in the face of a couple of questionable calls. Glaring at the linesmen got him nowhere. "Get on with it!" called an irritated fan, but Seixas was through. Deft and deadly, Australia's young (21) Ken Rosewall ran out the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-8, 6-3, 7-5. While Vic ungreixously stopped his ears to drown out the cheers for the victor, Rosewall walked off to wait for his Sydney neighbor and tennis mate to overpower Rhodes Scholar Ham Richardson of Westfield, N.J., 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, and assure Wimbledon's first all-Australian final ever.

Jitters on the Center Court. For all his pique, eighth-seeded Vic Seixas did better than many higher-seeded stars. Sweden's third-seeded Sven Davidson was knocked off by an Australian unknown named Ashley Cooper, 19. Fifth-seeded ex-Champion (1954) Jaroslav Drobny, 34, was whipped by India's Ramanathan Krishnan, 19, an agile giant with a weak serve and badly sprained ankle. Fourth-seeded Budge Patty, 32, fell to an up-and-coming Briton named Bobby Wilson, 20.

Even the women upset the pre-tournament odds. Riding high after winning 14 consecutive championships, New York's leggy Althea Gibson (TIME, June 4) succumbed to center-court jitters and was beaten in the quarter-finals by top-ranking U.S. Amateur Singles Star Shirley Fry. Althea took the defeat not as the end but merely as an interruption of her long, often lonely, journey out of Harlem to the top of the women's tennis heap. "I'll be back here next year," she promised grimly. Earlier, pert little Beverly Baker Fleitz of California, the choice of many for the women's title, seemed bothered by a mild cold. A visit to the doctor brought a somewhat different diagnosis--Mrs. Fleitz was pregnant. She dropped out of the tournament immediately. With Althea and Beverly gone, Shirley Fry had it all to herself. She disposed of top-seeded Louise Brough, then romped through the final against Britain's Angela Buxton, 6-3, 6-1.

Out of the Backyard. The men finalists managed to provide more suspense. Big blond Lew Hoad, 21, who houses cat-quick grace in the frame of a fullback, was out to prove that this is his year. Already holder of the Australian and French championships, Lew wanted the Wimbledon title badly. It and a victory in the U.S.

Nationals at Forest Hills later this summer could earn him the second tennis grand slam in history (the other: Don Budge in 1938) and a fat pro contract.

Young Lew wasted little time, tried from the opening rally to rub his superior power like rough sandpaper against Ken Rosewall's subtler game. The two whacked out some of the best tennis of the tournament. Then Lew Hoad, after a brief, second-set lapse, put Rosewall away, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. Australian visitors were hap py to underplay their pride. " I flew over 5,000 miles to see this match," laughed one fan from Down Under, "and what do I watch? The same players I see in my backyard all year long." Through all the excitement, eleven poker-faced Russians took in the matches and tried some volleying of their own. Their tennis was dreadful, but they were not embarrassed. They had come to learn, not to show off. The Russians were dickering with Australia's Harry Hopman and Britain's Fred Perry to come to Moscow and teach the art of peaceful competition on the tennis court. "We are a long way from Head's game," admitted one of the tourists. "But just wait."

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