Sport: South of the Border

For the last two decades the center court at Wimbledon has seemed like the private preserve of two nations: the U.S. and Australia. But last week, in the 1959 championships, the two big powers took back seats to and got one very rude shock from a pair of Latin nations, where tennis is still a relatively new and undeveloped sport. In the men’s division, Alex Olmedo, who plays Davis Cup tennis for the U.S. but comes from Peru, which lists but 3,000 tennis players, was the class of the field. And in the women’s division, a slender, poker-faced school marm named Maria Bueno brought Brazil its first big international championship.

Chief in Command. Olmedo’s victory was no surprise. When the going is easy, the lithe, 23-year-old Peruvian with the classic Inca features can blow a match with the best of them. But his charging, slashing game stiffens under pressure, and at Wimbledon the going was tough enough to challenge his mastery. Ranged against him were Australia’s nimble Rod Laver, 20, and dark-haired Roy Emerson, 22, and America’s moody, towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Barry MacKay. 23, Olmedo’s Davis Cup teammate against Australia last winter. MacKay did not get beyond the semifinals, wilting before Laver’s dogged retrieving, and that left Wimbledon to Olmedo and the two Aussies.

With polished grace, “The Chief” dispatched them both. He merely warmed up on Emerson. 6-4, 6-0, 6-4, in the semifinals. In the finals Olmedo cracked Laver’s service in the very first game, artfully alternated his power game with contrapuntal lobs, and walked off. 6-4. 6-3, 6-4. with the world’s most famous tennis title.

Queen in Control. The real shocker was in the women’s championship, where the U.S. has ruled the roost since 1938. As the finals began, this year looked no different from all the rest. For the U.S., blonde, hefty (5 ft. 5^ in., 140 Ibs.) Darlene Hard, 23, an ex-waitress from California who fuels her hard-hitting attack with a voracious appetite (“I just can’t pass up anything on the menu”), was a recognized player of championship caliber. By contrast, her opponent. Brazil’s Maria Bueno, 19, daughter of a Sao Paulo veterinarian, had never quite lived up to her potential. A player of fiery temperament, Maria had not been able to beat Darlene in their six previous matches.

What was more, she had won only a single major title (the Italian in 1958).

But on Wimbledon’s sweltering center court, Maria kept her nerves under control. Not a flicker of emotion crossed her face as she slammed home crushing serves and front-court volleys to win 6-4, 6-3. Then Brazil’s pretty brunette tennis queen sank her head into her hands and had a good cry.