British sportswriters fumed in disbelieving rage. “The show put on by our team.” wrote one in the London Daily Mirror, “was lamentable, inexplicable, and utterly unexpected.” Said the Daily Telegraph: “Had their [the Americans’] exploits been recorded in a school adventure story, it would have been held to be improbable.” Demanding to know how the highly favored British women’s tennis team could have suffered such a humiliating defeat (6-1 ) at the hands of the U.S. girls, the Daily Sketch called for an official investigation. Indeed, about the only Britons who gracefully accepted the loss of the Wightman Cup at Chicago last week were the losers. Said British Team Captain Beatrice Walter: “All in all, the Americans played better than I expected.”
The American girls played better than anyone expected. Missing from the U.S. roster was No.1-ranked Darlene Hard, who was recovering from hepatitis. Pressed into service was veteran Margaret Osborne du Pont. 43. who had not played a Wightman Cup match in three years. The other U.S. girls—none over 18—looked raw and unpromising alongside such seasoned British stars as Wimbledon Champion Angela Mortimer, Runner-up Christine Truman, and French Champion Ann Haydon. What made the upset all the more upsetting was the 18-year-old who engineered it: a rangy (5 ft. 6 ½in., 125 Ibs.) brunette from St. Louis named Justina Bricka.
With only six years of competitive tennis behind her, Justina outplayed 29-year-old Wimbledon Champion Mortimer 10-8, 4-6. 6-3. in the match that clinched U.S. victory. Only child of non-tennis-playing parents, soft-hitting Justina ranked only eleventh among U.S. women, and was noted primarily for her unspectacular retrieving game. But last week, her accurate placements kicking up puffs of chalk along the baseline. Lefthander Bricka ran Angela Mortimer so hard that the British player suffered leg cramps and had to withdraw from the final doubles match. To sew up the crucial third set—which retrieved the Wightman Cup that the U.S. lost in 1960—unheralded Justina Bricka needed just 25 minutes.
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