Anniversary with a difference
In a year of grand anniversaries - Wimbledon’s 150th, 50 years of Open tennis, and 10 years after the classic 2008 Nadal-Federer final - comes a quirky variation on a theme: it was half a century ago that a ladies' singles contender found herself hitch-hiking to her semi-final.
Australian Judy (Tegart) Dalton was due to play American Nancy Richey at 2pm and, as was the custom, her morning practice session was held at the Queen’s Club in nearby Baron’s Court.
Dalton ordered a car to take her to the All England Club. It failed to arrive. So, a little later, did the second. “By this time I’m getting a bit nervous, it’s a semi-final of Wimbledon and I knew we were first match on,’’ she recalls.
Eventually Dalton and her brother Greg jumped into the third car, but got only as far as Southfields station before being stalled by a flat tyre. With the clock ticking, mild panic threatening and visions of herself running down Church Road, the No.7 seed told her brother to start walking and approached a stranger sitting in the Rover convertible in front.
Dalton takes up the story:
“I said ‘are you going to Wimbledon?, and he said yes, so I said ‘do you think I could have a lift?’, and without him even saying yes or no, I just piled in with my bag and my rackets, sat in the front, and off we went.
“We got to the car park at Wimbledon golf course and I said ‘no, no, no, you can’t turn in there, you’ve got to go straight to the front gate’. And he said ‘I can’t do that.’ I said 'I assure you, yes, you can. I’m playing, and you’ve got to get me there’. This poor guy, I think he was wondering what was going on.
“At the front gate I told the policeman, ‘look, you’ve got to let this man drive me in because I’m first match on Centre Court, and I called three cars and the third one’s at Southfields with a flat tyre’. So, anyway, they opened the gates, which they only ever do for royalty, and I jumped out and said ‘thank you very much’ and went, because it was probably about half-past 12 by then.
“When I got up to the Dressing Rooms Nancy Richey was sitting there, all dressed and ready to go, and here’s me, swooping in. The attendant said ‘are you all right?' And I said ‘no, not really’, is there any chance you could get me some sandwiches or something to eat?’
“I guess the good thing was that I really didn’t have time to get nervous. I played two perfect matches in my life, and that day when I beat Nancy 6-2, 6-3, was one of them. I couldn’t have really played any better.
“Then before the final against Billie Jean (King) I got this telegram saying ‘good luck for today, best wishes from the man in the Rover car’. He never signed it or anything, and I have no idea who he is.’’
Dalton, a WTA pioneer and member of the so-called “Original Nine” who defied the tennis establishment in 1970 and accepted symbolic $1 contracts to start a professional women’s tour, went on to lose a close final 9-7, 7-5 to King. She retired in 1977 after five years in the top 10, and with a career Grand Slam in doubles.
Now an 80-year-old grandmother, still an active player, and president of the Australian Fed Cup Tennis Foundation, Dalton still enjoys telling her Wimbledon story, even if many of those listening insist she must be joking.
All true, in fact, and she still has the telegram to prove it. Yet the mystery remains about the identity of her semi-final chauffeur, as does Dalton’s keenness to hear from him or a family member familiar with that crazy long-ago tale of the stranded semi-finalist and the man in the Rover who helped to save the day.
