1973 Wimbledon Championships | |
---|---|
Date | 25 June – 8 July |
Edition | 87th |
Category | Grand Slam |
Draw | 128S / 64D / 128X |
Prize money | £52,400 |
Surface | Grass |
Location | Church Road SW19, Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom |
Venue | All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club |
Champions | |
Men's singles | |
Jan Kodeš | |
Women's singles | |
Billie Jean King | |
Men's doubles | |
Jimmy Connors / Ilie Năstase | |
Women's doubles | |
Rosie Casals / Billie Jean King | |
Mixed doubles | |
Owen Davidson / Billie Jean King | |
Boys' singles | |
Billy Martin | |
Girls' singles | |
Ann Kiyomura |
The 1973 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. [1] [2] The tournament was scheduled to be held from Monday 25 June until Saturday 7 July 1973 but rain on the final Friday meant that the women's singles final was postponed until Saturday and the mixed doubles final was rescheduled to Sunday 8 July. [3] It was the 87th staging of the Wimbledon Championships, and the third Grand Slam tennis event of 1973. Jan Kodeš and Billie Jean King won the singles titles. King became the first player in the open era to claim the triple crown, the second time in her career she won all three titles open to women players. Her three victories necessitated playing six matches on the final weekend of the tournament: The singles final, the doubles semi-final and final and the mixed doubles quarter-final, semi-final and final, which was played on the extended Sunday schedule.
In May 1973 Nikola Pilić, Yugoslavia's number one tennis player, was suspended by his national lawn tennis association, the Yugoslav Tennis Association, which claimed he had refused to play in a Davis Cup tie for his country against New Zealand earlier that month. [4] The initial suspension of nine months, supported by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF), later was reduced by the ILTF to one month, which meant that Pilić would not be permitted to play at Wimbledon. [5] The recently formed men's players union, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), stated that none should compete if Pilić were not allowed to compete. As a result, 81 of the top players, including reigning champion Stan Smith, boycotted Wimbledon in 1973 to protest the suspension of Nikola Pilić. Twelve of the 16 men's seeds had withdrawn. [6] This resulted in a large number of qualifiers and lucky losers. [7]
Three ATP players, Ilie Năstase, Roger Taylor and Ray Keldie, defied the boycott and were fined by the ATP's disciplinary committee. Năstase unsuccessfully appealed the fine as he insisted that as a serving captain, he was under orders from the Romanian army and government to compete. Some contemporary press speculation and later biographies have suggested Năstase contrived to lose his fourth round match as he supported the ATP boycott, but to have lost any earlier to a considerably less able player would have been too obvious. [8] [9] Năstase never has commented on this speculation. Despite the boycott, the attendance of 300,172 was the second highest in the championships' history to that date. [5]
The total prize money for 1973 championships was £52,400. The winner of the men's title earned £5,000 while the women's singles champion earned £3,000. [3] [10]
Event | W | F | SF | QF | Round of 16 | Round of 32 | Round of 64 | Round of 128 |
Men's singles | £5,000 | £3,000 | £1,000 | £550 | £300 | £200 | £125 | £100 |
Women's singles | £3,000 | £2,000 | £700 | £400 | £250 | £150 | £100 | £75 |
Men's doubles * | £1,000 | £600 | £400 | £200 | £0 | £0 | £0 | — |
Women's doubles * | £600 | £400 | £200 | £100 | £0 | £0 | £0 | — |
Mixed doubles * | £500 | £350 | £175 | £100 | £0 | £0 | £0 | £0 |
* per team
Jan Kodeš defeated Alex Metreveli, 6–1, 9–8(7–5), 6–3 [11]
Billie Jean King defeated Chris Evert, 6–0, 7–5 [12]
Jimmy Connors / Ilie Năstase defeated John Cooper / Neale Fraser, 3–6, 6–3, 6–4, 8–9(3–7), 6–1 [13]
Rosemary Casals / Billie Jean King defeated Françoise Dürr / Betty Stöve, 6–1, 4–6, 7–5 [14]
Owen Davidson / Billie Jean King defeated Raúl Ramírez / Janet Newberry, 6–3, 6–2 [15]
Billy Martin defeated Colin Dowdeswell, 6–2, 6–4 [16]
Ann Kiyomura defeated Martina Navrátilová, 6–4, 7–5 [17]
Men's singles
The original seeding list before the boycott was: | Women's singles
|
Ilie Theodoriu Năstase is a Romanian former world No. 1 tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in singles from 23 August 1973 to 2 June 1974, and was the first man to hold the top position on the computerized ATP rankings. Năstase is one of the 10 players in history who have won over 100 total ATP titles, with 64 in singles and 45 in doubles.
Jan Kodeš is a Czech former professional tennis player. A three-time major singles champion, Kodeš was one of the premier players in the early 1970s.
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