Wimbledon: Youth Will Be Served

Wimbledon in its centenary year paid loving homage to the old--strawberries and cream in the members' enclosure, curtsies toward the royal box and a nostalgic center court fete for former champions. Then, abruptly a fresh generation of tennis prodigies used Wimbledon's hallowed grounds to assert their claims on tomorrow.

Young and often little-known players caused much of the excitement in what was one of the more electrifying Wimbledons in years. Sweden's nimble and steely-nerved Bjorn Borg, 21, won the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club championship for the second straight time by defeating his disputatious U.S. rival, Jimmy Connors 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in a blistering finals match worthy of a centenary celebration. Both players had been forced to earn their passage to center court by staving off challenges from impressive newcomers, but their confrontation Saturday was a tumultuous struggle between the world's best as Connors, 24, the tournament's top-seeded player, and Borg, ranked second, traded slashing ground strokes to the bitter end. Fittingly, it was youth that was served as Borg, cheered on by the British, whom Connors' manners had annoyed, was simply stronger in the final set.

The women's competition also produced a crowd-pleasing winner--and a new title for an old favorite. Britain's Virginia Wade--"Our Ginny'-- had appeared in 15 Wimbledons, always to crumple under the pressure of carrying her nation's hopes. This time, Wade, now 31, fought her way into the finals against Holland's solid Betty Stove, 32, who at 6 ft. 1 in., 160 lbs. is the strong --and slow--journeywoman of the circuit. In the first set of their face-off the Wade Wimbledon Choke appeared ready to repeat itself as the Englishwoman, playing tentatively, lost 4-6. But it was Stove who then fell apart, double-faulting repeatedly, while Wade settled down and carried the last sets 6-3, 6-1. It was a victory that brought Queen Elizabeth II--making her first visit to Wimbledon in 15 years--down from the royal box to present Wade with her Wimbledon trophy. The delighted crowd in turn bestowed a very British benediction on its "Ginny": a rousing chorus of "For she's a jolly good fellow."

As the days went by, Wimbledon's green grass courts became an elephant's graveyard for international stars such as Rod Laver, 38, who was eliminated by Dick Stockton in three sets in the first round; Ilie Nastase, 30, victim of his own bad behavior and Borg's precisely controlled passing shots; and Billie Jean King, 33, slowed by knee surgery, who fell to Chris Evert, 22, in the quarterfinals. The record-breaking and--by Wimbledon's well-bred standards--surprisingly rowdy crowds adopted as their darling a 14-year-old, pigtailed Californian named Tracy Austin. The youngest player in the history of the tournament, Tracy convincingly won her first match against Holland's Elly Vessies-Appel 6-3, 6-3. Her curtsy to the Duke of Devonshire might have been gangly legged and selfconscious, but her tennis was graceful and self-confident. She also had the fire to win. The New Chris Evert met the Old Chris Evert in a third-round match reminiscent of Chris' 1971 Forest Hills debut, at the age of 16, against King. Tracy won the first game from an admittedly nervous Chris ("Now I know how Billie Jean felt"), but Evert quickly settled down and won handily, 6-1,6-1.

On the men's side, young Americans were playing like veterans. John McEnroe, an 18-year-old from New York City reached the semifinals and made another bit of Wimbledon history: he is the youngest player to survive as far as the final four. When he arrived at the tournament, his status as an unseeded player was so lowly that he was not even allowed to use the main dressing room Victories over New Jersey's Alex Mayer, Egypt's Ismail El Shafei and Australia's Phil Dent, among others, earned him access to the stars' dressing room --and center court.

Death Threat. A lefthander with a sizzling backhand and an impressive overhead. McEnroe was swinging relaxed and free, fully aware that the pressure was on the big names to defeat him In the dubious new tradition of explosive court manners, he threw his share of temper tantrums--and racquets--along the way. Still, compared with Nastase's death threat against a New York Times reporter and Connors' deliberate snub of the parade of past champions, McEnroe's behavior was no more reprehensible than that of a high-spirited schoolboy--which he is. McEnroe's remarkable odyssey came to an end in his semifinal match with Connors. Betrayed by his serve--always the last phase of a youngster's game to come under control --McEnroe succumbed in four sets 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Connors played erratically for most of the tournament, going to five sets with Stan Smith before pulling out a win. He was bothered by an injury sustained in a pre-Wimbledon practice session and played with a metal splint on his right thumb.

But while Connors struggled at least for him--Borg had sailed blithely along. The Swede had won last year while wearing a newly grown and decidedly scraggly beard, and this year he quit shaving in the weeks before Wimbledon in the hope that the hirsute magic would work again. He needed all the help he could get in the semifinals, where he met New York City's Vitas Gerulaitis. Their match produced a classic Wimbledon duel. Gerulaitis, a 22-year-old whose game has matured in Europe this spring pressed Borg on every point, and the exchanges were so crisp and quick they might have been playing Ping Pong. Borg's difficult 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6 win confirmed that Gerulaitis was a threat to anyone on the men's circuit.

Britain's Virginia Wade was as ready and right for Wimbledon as the fabled strawberries and cream. (A London caterer trucked in 1,940 lbs. of berries and 164 pints of Devonshire cream to keep tradition in the teeth of the crowds.) For nearly a decade, Wade has been one of the most stylish players on the women's tour. Her ground strokes are carved, not merely swung through, and her serve is finely paced and accurately placed. But she has always had trouble keeping her moody and intensely competitive nature under control on court, often seeming to be battling herself as hard as her opponents. As a result, she had won few major victories and never before had reached a Wimbledon final.

To get there last week, Wade had to beat Evert, who had won 22 of their 27 matches. From the start the Englishwoman, wreathed with a fluffy new hairdo and a smile instead of a scowl, was smashing some of the best shots of her career. For a while, the tennis was tremendous. One game between the longtime rivals went to deuce nine times as spectators held their breath during long base-line rallies. Wade won the first set, 6-2, and lost the second, 4-6. In the third, Wade came on strong to win, 6-1, but not before Evert had declared that the ball had bounced twice on a key shot that the umpire had awarded her. Chris' typically sportsmanlike gesture is a rarity in big-time tennis, but Wade needed no help in center court this day. Admitted Evert: "Virginia wanted to win more than I did--I could see it in her eyes." Then, with a crowd of forgivable chauvinists screaming their support, Virginia Wade went out to play Betty Stove for the championship and the chance to prove--at last--that she had arrived at the pinnacle of tennis.

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