Word: wimbledon
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...amateur in the world. But because of her lapses, generally charged to a lack of confidence in herself, Althea Gibson, the first Negro to crash big-time tennis, has only hovered on the edge of greatness. Last week, day after day, crowds of 20,000 packed the stadium at Wimbledon, England to see if Hoad could still lick the world, and to wonder if Althea was really anything more than a strong-armed also...
...Althea, the road to the center court at Wimbledon and the pinnacle of women's tennis was a long one, and all uphill. She grew up in a Harlem tenement, learned the fundamentals of the game playing with crude wooden paddles on the pavements of New York. In 1950, when she was invited to play in the U.S. nationals at Forest Hills, she was leading Former Champion Louise Brough in the second round when a thunderstorm washed out the match. Next day Althea collapsed before seasoned Tennist Brough. From that match until last week, no one really knew...
Sponge Tosser. While Althea was slamming her way through 6 opponents to the title, Hoad at first performed more like a talented but moody schoolboy than the defending champion. In early matches, played on the far reaches of Wimbledon before standing galleries of only a few hundred, he snarled at himself when a shot went astray, grimaced when his booming serve missed by millimeters. Asked one newspaper: "Can Hoad beat the sulks?" Against Sweden's Sven Davidson in the semifinals, Hoad fretted some, but still won in a breeze...
...where it hurt, Gonzales went to work to overcome his love of calories, late hours and long snoozes. He practiced hard, played his way back up to the salary scale, last year made $40,000 for demoralizing ex-Wimbledon and ex-U.S. Champion Tony Trabert, 74 matches to 27. He pushed his game to such a high peak that when Kramer tried to talk Australian Lew Hoad into turning pro this year, Hoad snapped back: "I don't think I'm ready. Pancho probably would chew...
...Women's Singles championships, Wimbledon Champion Shirley Fry carefully and methodically beat New York's Althea Gibson. Taking it easy, using her service only to get the ball in play, Shirley waited for Althea to make the errors, won the U.S. title...