The Philadelphia Daily News called Margaret Court “the siege-gun of women’s tennis.” It was a useful way to visualize the the Australian’s attack, but most siege victims lasted far longer than Court’s opponents ever did.
On April 8, 1973, Court secured the title at Philadelphia’s Max-Pax Coffee Tennis Classic, the first professional women’s tennis tournament ever held in Philly. The feel-good story of the week was Kerry Harris, a 23-year-old Aussie who came through qualifying to reach the final. No woman had ever done that on the Virginia Slims tour, and Margaret ensured that she went no further.
The final lasted all of 38 minutes. Harris won the fourth game, and that was it. The tournament experimented with no-ad scoring, which might have shaved a couple of minutes off of the championship match, but let’s be honest: Kerry didn’t make it to deuce very often.
Yes, it was brutal. “At your average execution,” wrote Tom Cushman of the Daily News, “they at least blindfold the victim.” At the same time, it was typical. Court won her first-round match in 41 minutes; her second-rounder against Val Ziegenfuss took just 32. After that match, Ziegenfuss spotted Margaret’s husband Barry and teased that he wasn’t doing his job. Court had too much energy.
The Philly champ was unusual in that her family traveled with her; even more so that the entourage included her infant son, Danny. She had stepped away from the tour after discovering she was pregnant in the summer of 1971. She returned a year later and won a title as a mother on her first try, beating Evonne Goolagong in Cincinnati. She finished 1972 with an Australian Open crown and a 29-match winning streak.
The Court family in March 1973
The rest of the 1973 Virginia Slims circuit didn’t stand a chance. The Max-Pax was Margaret’s tenth event on the tour. She won eight of them. The dismantling of Harris was her 78th victory in 80 matches. She was as strong as ever–Rosie Casals dubbed her “The Arm,” for the oversized limb that did so much damage–and she somehow came back from childbirth lighter and faster than before. Out of ideas, her opponents were reduced to joking about kidnapping Danny to distract her.
The danger of Court’s dominance was that it could verge on the boring. Billie Jean King was injured, so Margaret had little competition among the Slims group. Women pros were split into two factions; Goolagong and Chris Evert headlined the rival USLTA circuit, and functionaries threatened to keep the “semi-outlaw” Slims players out of the grand slams, too. Political maneuvering made for better stories than Margaret’s perfunctory victories.
Another subplot loomed over the Australian’s season, too. She had accepted a challenge from Bobby Riggs to play an exhibition match in Ramona, California, on Mother’s Day, now barely a month away. Neil Amdur of the New York Times reminded his readers of that date on the Philadelphia champ’s calendar. Court was more than just a slugger, Amdur wrote. She “also is a thinker, which some people seem to be forgetting as they forecast doom for her in the much-publicized May 13 match.”
Margaret’s mental strength has always been a subject of debate, and many contemporary pundits were not as kind as Amdur. Would Riggs, the puff-balling veteran, expose her tendency to choke? At the very least, the Mother’s Day clash promised something that the Slims tournaments rarely delivered: a Court match without the certainty of a lopsided victory.
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Elsewhere this week:
- Stan Smith won his third consecutive tournament as his half of the World Championship Tennis troupe moved to Europe. In Munich, he straight-setted Cliff Richey in the final. The victory moved him ahead of Rod Laver in the WCT point standings.
- The other WCT event of the week, in Houston, gave 38-year-old Ken Rosewall his first title of the year. He avenged his Vancouver loss to Jan Kodeš in the semi-finals, then defeated Fred Stolle for the championship.
- The European clay circuit also got underway in Barcelona. Ilie Năstase collected the trophy with a final-round win over Adriano Panatta, who knocked out 16-year-old Björn Borg in the third round.
- Chris Evert cruised to another title on the USLTA circuit, picking up a $5,000 check in Sarasota by brushing aside Evonne Goolagong. She lost just five games. Martina Navratilova made her first appearance in a stateside title match, partnering countrywoman Marie Neumannová to a runner-up finish in the doubles.
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This post is part of my series about the 1973 season, Battles, Boycotts, and Breakouts. Keep up with the project by checking the TennisAbstract.com front page, which shows an up-to-date Table of Contents after I post each installment.
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