Tennis: One for the Yanks

It had been eight years since a Yank vaulted the net at Wimbledon, and Texas’ Chuck McKinley, 22, could be pardoned if his form looked a little rusty. But he cleared it with inches to spare. Then, with a wild whoop of joy, he hippety-hopped up to the royal box, where Princess Marina, the Duchess of Kent, handed him the silver trophy that goes to the winner of the All-England tennis championships — the world’s most important tennis tournament.

Impudent Elf. The week was a fine one all round for the U.S., whose amateur tennis fortunes have sunk abysmally low in recent years. Unseeded Billie Jean Moffit, 19, an impudent elf from California, trounced Australia’s No. 2-seeded Lesley Turner, Brazil’s No. 7-seeded Maria Bueno, and Brit ain’s No. 3-seeded Ann Haydon Jones, and found herself playing Australia’s top-seeded Margaret Smith in the women’s finals. Not bad for a girl who could hardly see her own racket without her glasses on. No matter what happened next, little Miss Moffit was the darling of Wimbledon last week.

But Chuck McKinley was its brightest star. Compact (5 ft. 8 in., 160 Ibs.) and muscular, McKinley plays tennis with an astounding lack of grace. He leaps, he lunges, he scrambles, he slides, he falls, he dives, he skins his elbows and knees, and he flails at the ball as if he were clubbing a rat. His nerves are as taut as the strings of his racket. “Oh, Charley, you missed that one,” he hollers after a bad shot, and he drew a four-month suspension from the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association when he angrily heaved his racket into the stands during a 1960 Davis Cup match in Australia. In 1961 McKinley fought his way into the Wimbledon finals, only to lose to Australia’s Rod Laver.

Tired Watching. This year, seeded No. 4, McKinley did not even lose a set. He got unexpected help from Germany’s Wilhelm Bungert, who upset Australia’s No. 1 -seeded Roy Emerson in a mara thon quarterfinal. McKinley routed Bungert, 6-2, 6-4, 8-6. Said the German: “I was tired. Tired from those five-set matches earlier. And tired from watching McKinley run.” In the finals, Chuck came up against lanky Fred Stolle, a Sydney bank clerk who had beaten him four out of six times in previous matches. Trying to blow McKinley off the court with his powerful cannonball serve, the Aussie got the shock of his life. “He knocked it down my throat,” groaned Stolle. “In the end, I didn’t know where to serve or what he was going to do.”

The end came quickly. It took McKinley only 1 hr. 17 min. to win 9-7, 6-1, 6-4. He then postponed his decision on a $50,000 pro offer until he completes his studies at San Antonio’s Trinity University next January.